Vice President of Engineering, Distributed Systems - Onsite, Santa Clara, CA

We at Nile envision an enterprise network that inherently defends against cyber threats, eliminates lateral attack vectors like ransomware, and operates free of complexity. Our goal is to deliver Campus Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) that makes network operations virtually invisible to our customers by pushing the boundaries of autonomy. Imagine a network that continuously monitors, optimizes, and upgrades itself—all without the need for human intervention. Our audacious journey began in 2018 when we brought together a team of industry veterans and visionaries in networking, cybersecurity, cloud software, and AI to disrupt a $100 billion enterprise networking market, starting with the wired and wireless LAN. Today, our Nile Access Service is redefining connectivity as a service for organizations worldwide, from cutting-edge technology companies to leading healthcare and financial institutions, and beyond.

Position Summary

Nile is seeking a Vice President of Engineering, Distributed Systems to lead the design, development, and evolution of scalable distributed systems and secure cloud software powering Nile’s cloud-managed enterprise networking platform. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in distributed systems, cloud security software, enterprise identity integrations, and production cloud services on AWS and/or GCP.

Key Responsibilities

Distributed Systems and Platform Architecture

• Lead the architecture and development of scalable, reliable distributed systems and cloud control-plane services.
• Oversee software for network provisioning, configuration management, policy enforcement, and lifecycle automation.

Cloud Security and Identity Integrations

• Lead the development of cloud security software aligned with Nile’s security and Zero Trust architecture.
• Lead integrations with enterprise Identity Providers (IdPs), including Microsoft Entra ID and Okta, using SAML for single sign-on and SCIM for identity provisioning and synchronization.
• Guide integrations with network authentication and device-management platforms, including RADIUS, 802.1X, and Microsoft Intune.

Cloud Services and Reliability

• Lead the design and development of cloud-native services running on AWS and/or GCP.
• Ensure distributed services are scalable, reliable, observable, and resilient.
• Partner with Cloud Operations on production readiness, service reliability, and secure deployments.

Engineering Leadership

• Lead and develop engineering teams responsible for distributed systems, cloud services, and security software.
• Set technical direction, architecture standards, and software quality expectations.
• Collaborate with Product, Security, Network Engineering, and Cloud Operations to deliver reliable, secure platform capabilities.

Required Qualifications

• 18+ years of software engineering experience, including substantial distributed-systems experience.
• 10+ years of engineering leadership experience.
• Proven experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
• Strong experience developing cloud services on AWS and/or GCP.
• Experience developing cloud security software and integrating enterprise IdPs.
• Solid understanding of authentication, authorization, secure software design, and APIs.
• Strong technical leadership, architectural judgment, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in enterprise networking, cybersecurity, or cloud infrastructure platforms.
• Experience with Zero Trust, SAML, SCIM, RADIUS, and 802.1X.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, distributed databases, telemetry pipelines, and automated remediation.

Measures of Success

• Deliver scalable, reliable distributed systems and cloud control-plane services.
• Strengthen cloud security software and enterprise identity integrations.
• Improve platform reliability and automation.
• Build a strong engineering organization that supports Nile’s growth.