VP of Engineering, Storage Protocols

Job Summary

VP of Engineering, Storage Protocols

The Opportunity

Storage is having its moment again - AI training and inference workloads are forcing a rethink of how data is stored, moved, and served at scale, and NetApp sits at the center of that shift. As VP of Engineering for Storage Protocols, you'll own the technical strategy and execution for File (NAS), Block (SAN), and Object (S3) across ONTAP and StorageGRID. Your central mandate is guiding these teams to meet the performance, quality, and scale demands that AI workloads are placing on the protocol stack - from high-concurrency training-data access to inference-time latency and reliability at scale - while keeping the enterprise workloads that are our foundation running without compromise.

This is a build-and-lead role for someone who wants deep technical ownership at VP scope: real architectural authority, a seat in executive strategy discussions, and a mandate to shape how NetApp's protocol stack evolves to meet the next generation of workloads.

Role:

Reports to: SVP of Platform Engineering

Location: Remote-friendly - we're flexible on where you're based. Our senior leadership team is primarily based in San Jose, CA, and this role should expect to spend meaningful time there.

Scope: Leads engineering across File, Block, Object, and StorageGRID protocol teams - an organization of roughly 350 engineers.

Job Requirements

What You'll Own

• Technical strategy and execution across ONTAP's File (NFS, SMB, multiprotocol), Block (iSCSI, FC, NVMe/TCP, NVMe/FC), and Object (S3) protocol teams, plus the StorageGRID engineering organization.
• The architectural roadmap for object storage across the portfolio - including how performance-oriented ONTAP S3 and capacity/throughput-oriented StorageGRID object storage differentiate and integrate - partnering closely with Product Management so engineering investment stays coherent rather than duplicative.
• The technical roadmap for multiprotocol data access that balances enterprise workload modernization with emerging AI/ML training, inference, and data-lakehouse use cases.
• Reliability, performance, and scale for the protocol stack, including executive-level ownership of major customer escalations involving protocol behavior at scale.
• Standards participation and protocol compliance (NFS, SMB, iSCSI, FC, NVMe, S3, tables) to keep NetApp interoperable across enterprise and hyperscaler ecosystems.
• Organizational design for where protocol and control-plane capabilities sit within Platform Engineering - grounded in evidence like backlog composition and ownership boundaries.
• Building and retaining a high-performing, multi-layered engineering leadership team across File, Block, Object, and StorageGRID.
• Close partnership with peer engineering leaders across ONTAP Core, Manageability, and Data Replication (MetroCluster, SnapMirror) to keep the broader storage platform architecturally coherent.
• A voice in executive technical strategy, including NetApp's technical narrative on object and metadata architecture for neocloud customers.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 15+ years of engineering leadership in storage, infrastructure, or platform software, including 8+ years leading multiple layers of engineering management.
• Deep technical fluency in enterprise distributed systems - e.g., storage protocols (NAS, block, or object/S3), large-scale networking, or comparable infrastructure domains - with the ability to go deep on at least one and reason credibly across the others.
• A track record of resolving ambiguous, cross-organizational architectural and org-design questions, and of leading large-scale customer escalations to resolution across engineering, support, and field teams.
• Excellent executive communication - you can represent complex technical tradeoffs clearly to senior leadership and partner effectively with Product Management.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience building storage or data infrastructure for AI/ML workloads - training, inference, or data pipelines.
• Experience restructuring or right-sizing engineering teams based on evidence rather than assumption.
• A leadership style grounded in developing others, not positional authority.

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

Compensation:

The target salary range for this position is 323,000 - 418,000 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU's), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

Why You'll Thrive at NetApp

At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment-you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

Our culture

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed-they drive everything we do.

If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one. Apply now.

Submitting an Application

To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team only reviews applications submitted through our company website. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support-rather than replace-human decision-making.