Headline

Hands-on Storage Architect | Senior Principal Engineer | Spec-Driven Development | AI-Assisted Engineering | Distributed Systems | C/C++ and Linux | High Availability and Scalability | Dell PowerStore | NetApp ONTAP

About

I am a hands-on Storage Architect and Senior Principal Engineer with 20+ years of experience designing, developing, debugging, and delivering enterprise storage and distributed systems. I combine architecture ownership with direct technical involvement in detailed design, prototyping, implementation reviews, automation, performance optimization, system-level debugging, and root-cause analysis. I actively integrate AI-assisted engineering and Spec-Driven Development into my workflows. By leveraging autonomous coding agents like Devin and advanced LLMs (Claude Opus, Grok), I accelerate C/C++ feature development, automate complex system-level debugging, and streamline defect triage for large-scale distributed architectures. At Dell Technologies, I architected Software-Defined NAS integration with PowerStore and designed lifecycle workflows for installation, appliance expansion, and removal across physical and virtual deployments. I also built a one-touch Jenkins workflow that automated VSA code download, build, deployment, and full-system configuration. Improvements to NAS installation workflows contributed to a 20% reduction in overall installation time. At NetApp, I designed and implemented clustered ONTAP Vserver management and secure multi-tenancy capabilities. My work included Vserver metadata, UUID and FQDN support, command-line infrastructure, RBAC, ZAPI, SNMP, management APIs, migration, disaster recovery, and non-disruptive operations. I optimized management-plane paths, improving ZAPI performance by 50% and SNMP performance by 20%. Core technical strengths: • Enterprise storage, NAS and SAN • Distributed and clustered systems • C/C++, Linux, UNIX and FreeBSD • Multithreading, concurrency and client-server systems • High availability and non-disruptive operations • Performance profiling and optimization • System-level debugging and root-cause analysis • REST APIs, ZAPI, SNMP and RBAC • Automation, Python, Bash and Jenkins • Architecture, detailed design and code reviews I am interested in hands-on Principal Engineer and Storage Architect opportunities where I can own complex system architecture while remaining directly involved in technical design, implementation, debugging, performance, and production delivery. For relevant opportunities, please connect with me on LinkedIn or contact me at mukesh.saxena@gmail.com

Location

Bengaluru

AI stack

claude code

claude

codex

gemini

windsurf

claudecode

Work experience

Senior Principal Software Engineer at Dell Technologies, Feb 2018 - Present · 8 yrs 9 mos, • Architected Software-Defined NAS integration with Dell PowerStore and remained directly involved in workflow design, technical reviews, automation, debugging, and production delivery for capabilities used by 10,000+ customers. • Designed end-to-end NAS lifecycle workflows for installation, appliance expansion, and appliance removal across physical and virtual PowerStore deployments. • Analyzed installation behavior and improved workflow and engineering paths, contributing to a 20% reduction in overall installation time. • Built a Jenkins-based one-touch VSA workflow that automated code download, build, deployment, and full-system configuration. • Investigated complex lifecycle, high-availability, upgrade, and distributed-system defects using logs, system behavior, failure-path analysis, and root-cause investigation. • Reviewed detailed designs and implementation approaches across Software-Defined NAS integration and core platform components. • Worked with component teams to resolve cross-service defects requiring coordinated changes across distributed-storage components. • Leveraged AI software engineering agents (Devin) and frontier models (Claude Opus, Grok) to accelerate feature implementation, streamline root-cause analysis, and triage complex distributed-system defects. Learning/Utilized Spec-Driven Development methodologies to create precise architectural specifications, enabling AI tools to generate reliable, high-performance systems code. • Created technical guidance and mentored engineers on NAS packaging, installation, appliance expansion, removal, reliability, and debugging.

Principal Software Engineer at Dell Technologies, Jan 2014 - Apr 2018 · 4 yrs 4 mos, • Designed and developed cluster-management and configuration modules for Dell EqualLogic and FluidFS storage platforms. • Developed distributed-storage software using C/C++, Linux, multithreading, client-server communication, and management interfaces. • Translated product requirements into detailed designs, implementation changes, validation plans, and production-ready capabilities. • Investigated complex customer and system defects using logs, code analysis, debugging tools, and controlled reproduction. • Performed root-cause analysis and implemented or guided fixes across component boundaries. • Reviewed code and technical designs and supported engineers in debugging storage-management behavior.

Member of Technical Staff 4 at NetApp, Mar 2007 - Jan 2014 · 6 yrs 11 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, • Designed and implemented ONTAP Vserver management and secure multi-tenancy capabilities for clustered NAS/SAN environments, including features released in clustered ONTAP 8.3. • Co-authored functional specifications and developed Vserver metadata storage, external UUID support, FQDN support, search capabilities, and Vserver-context CLI infrastructure. • Implemented console-less pre-cluster setup through ZAPI server operations and delivered RBAC enumeration, SNMP interfaces, management APIs, and Vserver-scoped execution. • Profiled, analyzed, and optimized management-plane code paths in large-scale ONTAP clusters, improving ZAPI performance by 50% and SNMP performance by 20%. • Built infrastructure supporting Vserver migration, disaster recovery, non-disruptive operations (NDO), and non-disruptive upgrades (NDU). • Authored developer guides, filed five storage-related invention reports, and delivered technical seminars on Vserver infrastructure, management interfaces, performance optimization, and debugging.

Senior Software Development Engineer at HP, Sep 2004 - Mar 2007 · 2 yrs 7 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, • Designed and implemented distributed systems management agent capabilities using C/C++, Win32 APIs, inter-process communication (IPC), and multithreading. • Improved component performance and accuracy while resolving complex customer-impacting product defects. • Received multiple customer impact awards, including recognition for resolving a critical technical issue.

Senior Software Engineer at Hewlett-Packard India, 2004 - 2007 · 3 yrs, • Designed and implemented distributed systems-management agent enhancements using C/C++, Win32 APIs, IPC, multithreading, and low-level debugging tools. • Improved component performance and accuracy resolved complex customer-impacting defects and received multiple customer-impact awards.

Senior Software Developer at SumTotal Systems, LLC, Dec 2003 - Sep 2004 · 10 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, • Redesigned a high-performance client-server architecture and application protocol supporting 500 concurrent users per server. • Implemented asynchronous I/O, multithreading, connection multiplexing, flow control, logging, and remote diagnostics. • Received a Best Employee Achievement Award within three months of joining.

Senior Software Engineer at SumTotal Systems, LLC, 2003 - 2004 · 1 yr, • Redesigned a high-performance client-server architecture and application protocol supporting 500 concurrent users per server. • Implemented asynchronous I/O, connection multiplexing, multithreading, flow control, logging, diagnostics, and stress-test utilities; received a Best Employee Achievement Award.

Education

Diploma in Advanced Computing, Computer Science, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)

Master of Technology, Computer Science, Allahabad Agricultural Institute