Software Engineer, Networking (Agent Infra)

About the role

ABOUT BASETEN

Baseten powers mission-critical inference for the world's most dynamic AI companies, like Cursor, Notion, OpenEvidence, Abridge, Clay, Gamma, and Writer. By uniting applied AI research, flexible infrastructure, and seamless developer tooling, we enable companies operating at the frontier of AI to bring cutting-edge models into production. We're growing quickly and recently raised our $1.5B Series F, led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction Partners, and Spark Capital. Join us and help build the platform engineers turn to ship AI products.

THE ROLE

Every agent on Baseten Sandboxes runs in its own microVM. Agents call models, reach tools and APIs, expose services, and more and more often talk to each other. Networking built into today's cloud providers was not designed for very large numbers of isolated machines that suspend, resume, and exchange data constantly.

The Agent Infra team builds its own networking stack for sandboxes, designed from the start for that scale. It runs in user space, with VPP (FD.io) as its main data plane technology, and is built from virtualized network functions (VNF/NFV): carrier-grade, low-latency packet processing designed for very large numbers of agents. In September 2026, Baseten acquired Blaxel, whose sandboxes, storage, and networking are the foundation for Baseten Sandboxes.

You'll build multi-tenant virtual private networking that connects each customer's agents and services privately and securely, using modern overlay technologies.

We are building a cloud, not just using one. We want engineers who expose the network as a programmable API and write the code, not operators who push router and switch configuration. The team is small and ownership is big: we ship in weeks and months, not multi-year programs.

This role is separate from Baseten's GPU-to-GPU networking. Here you'll own how sandboxes connect to each other, to Baseten services, to customer networks, and to the internet.

If you've built user-space data planes, virtualized network functions, or multi-tenant cloud networking and want to design one for agents, we'd love to talk.

EXAMPLE INITIATIVES

Blaxel is joining Baseten to build the future of agentic infrastructure

Securing the open frontier with NVIDIA OpenShell and Blaxel sandboxes

Baseten Sandboxes documentation

RESPONSIBILITIES

Design and build the user-space, VPP-based data plane that connects microVM sandboxes to each other, to Baseten services, and to the internet

Build multi-tenant virtual private networking and overlays (for example EVPN, GENEVE, VXLAN) across regions

Expose the network as a programmable API that the rest of the platform calls

Cut latency and raise connection scale for agent-to-agent and agent-to-service traffic

Build routing that sends each request to the nearest region and keeps connections working as sandboxes suspend and resume

Build secure ingress and egress for sandboxes, including firewalling, static egress IPs, and custom domains with managed TLS

Build L7 proxies for request inspection, filtering, secret injection, and auditing

Own per-sandbox addressing, including IPv6, and network isolation between tenants

Build observability for the packet path across guest, host, and network, and debug production issues end to end

Work closely with the compute, storage, GPU infrastructure, and datacenter teams

REQUIREMENTS

Experience with user-space packet processing (DPDK, VPP, or similar) or virtualized network functions (VNF/NFV)

Experience building multi-tenant networking in production (VXLAN, GENEVE, VRF)

Experience building a software-defined network, overlay network, or packet-processing data plane in production

You write production code: strong systems programming in Rust, Go, and/or C/C++. Network architects are welcome if they build, not only configure

Experience building cloud networking as the provider, not only consuming a cloud provider's network

Solid grounding in TCP/IP and routing

Experience building or operating proxies, load balancers, or L4/L7 gateways at scale

Experience debugging latency and throughput problems with packet captures, tracing, and profiling

You move fast and like owning a problem end to end on a small team

NICE TO HAVE

Experience with VPP / FD.io, our main networking technology

Experience with GENEVE or VXLAN overlays and EVPN

Linux kernel networking: eBPF/XDP, netfilter or nftables, network namespaces

Familiarity with virtual machine networking: virtio-net, vhost, TAP devices, or networking for Firecracker or Cloud Hypervisor

Experience running IPv6 at scale

Background in telecom user-plane or 5G core networking, or in low-latency trading networks

Experience with multi-region traffic routing, anycast, or BGP

Experience with TLS termination, DNS, and egress security controls

BENEFITS

Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity

(U.S. only) 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents

Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break (our offices are closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day!)

Paid parental leave

Fertility and family-building stipend through Carrot

(U.S. only) Company-facilitated 401(k)

Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.

Apply now to embark on a rewarding journey in shaping the future of AI! If you are a motivated individual with a passion for machine learning and a desire to be part of a collaborative and forward-thinking team, we would love to hear from you.

At Baseten, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, where applicable).