[Hiring] Software Developer IV @Rackspace Technology

Role Description

Rackspace Technology has been a foundational contributor to OpenStack since its inception. The Private Cloud Product Software Engineering organization is looking for a Software Developer IV with deep OpenStack expertise to join our Bare Metal Infrastructure team.

In this role, you will:

• Write and maintain custom backends and drivers for core OpenStack projects — Ironic, Cinder, Nova, and Neutron — tuned specifically for bare metal infrastructure deployment at data center scale.
• Work directly in the OpenStack codebases, owning the full lifecycle of driver development from design through production operation.
• Contribute improvements upstream where your work benefits the broader community.

This is a senior individual contributor and technical leadership role. You will:

• Shape the architectural direction of our OpenStack integrations.
• Raise the bar for quality and reliability in the services we run.
• Help other engineers grow their platform expertise.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain custom drivers and backends for OpenStack Ironic, Cinder, Nova, and Neutron, targeting bare metal provisioning and lifecycle automation use cases.
• Contribute improvements and bug fixes to upstream OpenStack projects, working within the OpenStack community review and governance process.
• Own the full lifecycle of your driver and backend work: design, code review, testing, deployment, and ongoing operational health.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, networking, and storage teams to deeply understand the requirements that shape driver behavior.
• Architect integrations between OpenStack services and internal systems, including DCIM/IPAM tooling such as NetBox or Nautobot.
• Establish and uphold engineering standards for driver development: testing strategies, error handling, observability, and upgrade safety.
• Investigate production incidents in OpenStack services; drive root cause analysis and durable fixes, including upstream patches where appropriate.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across the team, particularly around OpenStack internals and bare metal infrastructure patterns.
• Evaluate new OpenStack features and upstream developments; assess impact on our platform and make recommendations for adoption.

Qualifications

• Ten or more years of software development experience, with at least four years of hands-on production work with OpenStack.
• Deep working knowledge of at least two of: Ironic, Cinder, Nova, or Neutron — including their driver interfaces, plugin architectures, and internal request flows.
• Demonstrated experience writing, debugging, or extending OpenStack drivers or backends in a production environment.
• Strong Python skills, including proficiency with async patterns, testing frameworks (pytest, tox), and OpenStack SDK/client libraries.
• Five or more years working in Linux/Unix environments, including systems-level debugging and network troubleshooting.
• Experience operating services in Kubernetes or similar container orchestration environments.

Technical Skills

• Solid understanding of bare metal provisioning concepts: PXE, IPMI/Redfish, BMC management, network boot workflows, and hardware lifecycle states.
• Familiarity with OpenStack's shared infrastructure: oslo.config, oslo.messaging, oslo.db, Keystone auth, and service deployment patterns.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and test automation in the context of OpenStack or infrastructure software development.
• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals relevant to data center environments: VLANs, bonding, LACP, routing, and DHCP/PXE interaction.
• Strong debugging and observability skills in distributed systems — log analysis, tracing, and metric-driven incident investigation.

Soft Skills

• Ability to own and drive complex technical work from ambiguous requirements through to delivered, production-grade outcomes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable writing design documents and presenting technical proposals to engineers and stakeholders.
• Effective collaborator in a globally distributed engineering organization.
• Strong sense of ownership: you treat the services and drivers you build as production responsibilities, not just code deliverables.

Highly Desirable Skills

• Prior upstream OpenStack contribution: merged patches, active code review participation, or engagement with project governance (PTL, core reviewer, or similar).
• Familiarity with the OpenStack development workflow: Gerrit, Zuul CI, OpenStack Discuss, and project-specific contributor guidelines.
• Experience with Ceph or other distributed storage systems and their integration with Cinder or Nova.
• Proficiency in Go (Golang) — applicable to tooling, automation, or Kubernetes Operator work adjacent to this role.
• Experience with DCIM or IPAM platforms such as NetBox or Nautobot, including automation against their APIs.
• Exposure to hardware attestation, secure boot, or firmware management workflows in a bare metal context.
• Experience with network automation tooling or SDN integration relevant to Neutron ML2 drivers or agent development.