Software Developer - Datapath
Solace
Software Engineering
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Enterprise AI is moving from pilots to production, and the constraint is no longer the model — it's the data. Agents are only as good as what they can sense, trust, and act on in the moment, and real-time, event-driven data is becoming the foundation every serious AI system runs on.
Solace is the leading platform for the enterprise AI era. Established enterprises worldwide — including RBC Capital Markets, Bosch, Heineken, PSA Singapore, United Airlines, Schwarz Group, and hundreds more — have built their business around Solace to enable intelligent, real-time experiences, modernize their application and integration landscape, and create seamless digital journeys for their customers, partners, and employees.
So, the next time you drive a car, order furniture online, fly in a plane, check your bank balance on your phone, your positive experience could be a direct result of our technology—and your hard work!
About the Role
We at Solace believe we build the world's best event broker - the backbone of real-time business, trusted to move billions of messages a day across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments with unmatched reliability and performance.
At the heart of the Solace Event Broker lies the datapath - the engine responsible for moving messages at high rate, with low latency and utmost reliability. The Dataplane Adapters team owns the protocol surface: the MQTT, AMQP, REST, RDP, and Kafka adapters that let clients and applications connect, publish, and consume messages. This work spans our custom hardware appliance - built around FPGAs and a Cavium network processor - and our software broker running on Intel server processors. The code is highly multi-threaded and performance-oriented, and our developers regularly go deep into TCP, hardware interfaces, and OS internals to deliver features that meet our strict performance and reliability bar.
We are looking for energetic developers that relish the challenge of building complicated features with C++ in this multi-threaded environment. Candidates should enjoy going deep to learn about messaging protocol internals, TCP and OS networking behaviour, and the details of the Linux kernel.
The Ideal Candidate
- 2+ years’ experience writing multi-threaded performance-oriented code in C++
- Knowledge of network protocols (TCP/IP) and messaging protocols (MQTT, AMQP, REST, Kafka, etc.)
- Keen interest in going deep into protocol internals, TCP behaviour, and hardware interfaces when needed
- Prior use or design of messaging brokers such as Solace, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, Kafka
- Demonstrated proficiency in AI-assisted development workflows
- Able to drive work independently with high level guidance to achieve goals
- A team player who enjoys collaborating with cross-functional teams
- Detail-oriented to ensure designs meet requirements and are built to high quality
Required Skills:
- Experienced in C++
- Experienced in multi-threaded programming
- Experienced in low-level memory management
- Experienced in debugging complex applications with core files and code
Desirable Skills:
- Experience in network programming (POSIX sockets) and HTTP/REST client implementation
- Experience with real-time applications in Linux
- Familiar with MQTT, AMQP, REST, or other messaging protocols
- Familiar with Kafka messaging
- Familiar with hardware network processors (e.g. Cavium Octeon)
Why You’ll Love Working at Solace
At Solace, we’re all about smart people, meaningful work, and good vibes.
- Work with brilliance – Our team is packed with some of the sharpest minds in the industry.
- Balance matters – We believe work should fit into your life, not the other way around.
- Hybrid-first – Flexibility is built into how we work, so everyone feels included and empowered.
- Values-driven – We live and breathe our core values: craftsmanship, trust, courage, freedom, momentum, humility, and human experience.
- Growth mindset – Our training programs are designed to help you level up, fast.
- Customer Obsessed – We’re proud of our world-class customer lineup (we’re not shy about it).
- Keep it fun – We’re social, we keep things simple, and we know how to have a good time.
- Creative culture – We’ve got a great sense of humour and we make cool videos on topics like MITT and this (check them out!).
Role Status: EXISTING
Expected Salary Range: Expected salary range for this role is from $90,000 to $125,000. The final offer within this range will reflect the successful candidate’s skills and experience.
At Solace, we are committed to a fair, inclusive, and transparent recruitment process.
To help identify candidates whose qualifications best align with the role, we use artificial intelligence (AI) tools during the initial stage of resume screening. These tools compare submitted resumes to the job description, focusing on education, experience, and skills.
Importantly, all decisions beyond this initial screening—including interviews and final hiring—are made by our human recruitment team. AI is never used to make final hiring decisions.
Let’s Talk
Not sure you meet every requirement? That’s okay — we’re more interested in your potential and passion. If this role excites you, we’d love to hear from you.
Need accommodations during the hiring process? Just let us know — we’re here to support you.
Thanks to everyone who applies! While we wish we could connect with every candidate, only those selected to move forward will be contacted.
At Solace, we believe that diversity and inclusion drive innovation and growth, both in business and in life. We strive to create an enriching and safe workplace where you can be who you are. If you want to do the best work of your career and feel supported every step of the way, we encourage you to join us!