Software Developer IV - OpenStack Specialist

About the Role

Join Rackspace Technology's Private Cloud Product Software Engineering team as a Software Developer IV with advanced expertise in OpenStack. Your focus will be on creating and supporting customized backends and drivers for key OpenStack projects— Ironic, Cinder, Nova, and Neutron— specifically tailored for large-scale bare metal infrastructure within data centers. This role requires working directly within OpenStack codebases, managing the entire development cycle of drivers from conception through to production maintenance, while also contributing enhancements upstream for the wider community's benefit.

This senior position combines individual contribution and technical leadership, allowing you to influence the architectural direction of OpenStack integrations, improve service quality and reliability, and mentor other engineers to deepen their platform knowledge.

Private Cloud Product Software Engineering Overview

• Responsible for designing, building, and operating programmatic bare metal infrastructure platforms, including hardware provisioning, lifecycle management, and data center automation.
• Develop custom OpenStack backends and drivers to extend core services supporting large-scale private cloud operations.
• Provide internal tools that accelerate product delivery across engineering teams.
• Manage interactions between private cloud customers and Rackspace’s products and services.

Work Approach

We collaborate closely with product owners and infrastructure teams to achieve impactful results for our customers. Our services operate in Kubernetes-native environments, and the team takes full ownership—from coding logic and driver development to deployment and ongoing operational stability. Continuous integration and delivery practices are essential, and accountability for what we deliver is key.

At the Software Developer IV level, you are expected to lead technically beyond execution—proposing architectural solutions, aligning teams, reviewing peer work to enhance quality, and maintaining strong, experience-driven opinions.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and sustain custom drivers and backends for OpenStack Ironic, Cinder, Nova, and Neutron aimed at bare metal provisioning and automated lifecycle management.
• Contribute bug fixes and enhancements to upstream OpenStack projects while navigating community review and governance procedures.
• Manage the full driver lifecycle: design, code reviews, testing, deployment, and ensuring operational reliability.
• Work alongside infrastructure, networking, and storage teams to fully understand requirements influencing driver behavior.
• Architect integrations between OpenStack services and internal systems, including data center infrastructure management (DCIM) and IP address management (IPAM) tools such as NetBox and Nautobot.
• Define and maintain engineering standards for driver development including testing methods, error handling, observability, and upgrade safety.
• Investigate and resolve production incidents, leading root cause analysis and implementing durable fixes, contributing fixes upstream as appropriate.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor colleagues on OpenStack internals and bare metal infrastructure techniques.
• Assess new OpenStack features and upstream developments for platform impact and advise on adoption.

Experience and Technical Requirements

• Minimum 10 years in software development with at least 4 years of hands-on production work with OpenStack.
• Comprehensive expertise in at least two of these OpenStack components: Ironic, Cinder, Nova, or Neutron, including their driver architectures and plugin systems.
• Demonstrated ability to write, troubleshoot, and enhance OpenStack drivers or backends used in live environments.
• Advanced Python programming skills, including asynchronous programming, testing frameworks (pytest, tox), and use of OpenStack SDKs.
• 5+ years experience with Linux/Unix environments including system-level debugging and network troubleshooting.
• Experience managing services within Kubernetes or similar container orchestration platforms.
• Strong grasp of bare metal provisioning mechanisms such as PXE, IPMI/Redfish, BMC controls, network booting, and hardware lifecycle phases.
• Familiarity with OpenStack shared infrastructure components such as oslo.config, oslo.messaging, oslo.db, Keystone authentication, and deployment methodologies.
• Hands-on with CI/CD pipelines and automation testing in OpenStack or infrastructure software contexts.
• Solid understanding of data center networking fundamentals: VLANs, bonding, LACP, routing, DHCP, and PXE workflows.
• Proficiency in debugging and monitoring distributed systems through logs, tracing, and metrics-driven incident analysis.

Soft Skills

• Capable of independently managing complex projects from unclear requirements to production-ready solutions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, adept at crafting design documents and presenting technical concepts to stakeholders and teams.
• Collaborative team player in a globally distributed engineering environment.
• Strong ownership mentality, treating services and drivers as production assets, not mere code tasks.

Desirable Additional Skills

• Prior contributions to upstream OpenStack, such as merged patches, active reviews, or participation in project governance roles.
• Experience with the OpenStack development workflow tools including Gerrit, Zuul CI, and community discussion platforms.
• Knowledge of distributed storage solutions like Ceph and their integration with OpenStack (Cinder, Nova).
• Proficiency in Go programming language, helpful for tooling, automation, or Kubernetes Operator development.
• Familiarity with DCIM or IPAM systems like NetBox or Nautobot, including automation against their APIs.
• Exposure to bare metal security processes such as hardware attestation, secure boot, or firmware management.
• Experience with network automation tools or software-defined networking (SDN) relevant to Neutron ML2 driver or agent development.

About Rackspace Technology

Rackspace Technology is a leader in multicloud solutions, combining expertise with top technologies across applications, data, and security to deliver comprehensive end-to-end solutions. Known for advising customers with scalable designs, building and managing these solutions, and optimizing their future value, the company has earned recognition as a top workplace repeatedly. Rackspace fosters a culture of inclusion and innovation, motivated by a shared mission to harness technology and empower customers for the future.