OPT Software Engineer Jobs
Software Engineer is one of the most OPT-friendly roles in the U.S. job market, with hundreds of employers actively filing H-1B visa sponsorship each year. Your 12-month OPT period (plus a 24-month STEM extension if your degree qualifies) gives you real runway to land a role and build toward long-term status.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) delivers mission-critical applications for leading enterprises worldwide. Our cloud offers hyperscale, multi-tenant services deployed across more than 50 regions globally. OCI continues to expand beyond traditional public-cloud boundaries to support dedicated, hybrid, and multicloud solutions, edge computing, and more.
As a Senior Core Infrastructure Engineer, you will build and operate the foundational distributed systems behind OCI. You will develop scalable, resilient components for high-volume data retrieval, storage, and processing, with a focus on correctness, security, observability, and dependable operation at global scale.
This position is office-based and requires onsite presence in Nashville, Tennessee. Relocation assistance may be available in accordance with Oracle's relocation policies.
- Design, implement, test, and optimize components of large-scale distributed systems and data-plane services.
- Build for horizontal and vertical scale, using distributed state, replication, synchronization, and high-volume data-processing patterns.
- Strengthen service reliability through redundancy, automatic failover, recovery-oriented design, retries, circuit breakers, and timeouts.
- Develop and execute performance, load, and fault-injection tests to validate scalability, correctness, availability, and operational readiness.
- Create dashboards, alarms, telemetry, runbooks, and automation that proactively detect issues and accelerate recovery.
- Diagnose production issues, participate in on-call rotations and incident response, and contribute to root-cause analyses and durable corrective actions.
- Develop infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for safe maintenance, troubleshooting, patching, updates, and rollbacks.
- Apply strong security controls—including encryption, access controls, and vulnerability remediation—in multi-tenant environments.
What You'll Bring
- Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 4+ years of professional software-development experience; advanced degree holders may have fewer years of experience.
- Proficiency in at least one object-oriented or systems programming language, such as Java, C++, C#, or Go.
- Experience building or operating scalable, highly available distributed systems or cloud infrastructure.
- Experience with system-level testing and automation, including performance, load, reliability, or fault-injection testing.
- Understanding of distributed-systems concepts, data structures, algorithms, operating systems, networking, and secure software-development practices.
- Strong debugging, problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with cloud platforms, such as Oracle Cloud, AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
- Experience with data-plane platforms, distributed storage, microservices, state management, replication, or large-scale data processing.
- Experience with observability, incident management, Infrastructure as Code, and production service operations.
- Familiarity with compliance requirements and security controls for cloud infrastructure.
INTRODUCTION
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) delivers mission-critical applications for leading enterprises worldwide. Our cloud offers hyperscale, multi-tenant services deployed across more than 50 regions globally. OCI continues to expand beyond traditional public-cloud boundaries to support dedicated, hybrid, and multicloud solutions, edge computing, and more.
As a Senior Core Infrastructure Engineer, you will build and operate the foundational distributed systems behind OCI. You will develop scalable, resilient components for high-volume data retrieval, storage, and processing, with a focus on correctness, security, observability, and dependable operation at global scale.
This position is office-based and requires onsite presence in Nashville, Tennessee. Relocation assistance may be available in accordance with Oracle's relocation policies.
- Design, implement, test, and optimize components of large-scale distributed systems and data-plane services.
- Build for horizontal and vertical scale, using distributed state, replication, synchronization, and high-volume data-processing patterns.
- Strengthen service reliability through redundancy, automatic failover, recovery-oriented design, retries, circuit breakers, and timeouts.
- Develop and execute performance, load, and fault-injection tests to validate scalability, correctness, availability, and operational readiness.
- Create dashboards, alarms, telemetry, runbooks, and automation that proactively detect issues and accelerate recovery.
- Diagnose production issues, participate in on-call rotations and incident response, and contribute to root-cause analyses and durable corrective actions.
- Develop infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for safe maintenance, troubleshooting, patching, updates, and rollbacks.
- Apply strong security controls—including encryption, access controls, and vulnerability remediation—in multi-tenant environments.
What You'll Bring
- Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 4+ years of professional software-development experience; advanced degree holders may have fewer years of experience.
- Proficiency in at least one object-oriented or systems programming language, such as Java, C++, C#, or Go.
- Experience building or operating scalable, highly available distributed systems or cloud infrastructure.
- Experience with system-level testing and automation, including performance, load, reliability, or fault-injection testing.
- Understanding of distributed-systems concepts, data structures, algorithms, operating systems, networking, and secure software-development practices.
- Strong debugging, problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with cloud platforms, such as Oracle Cloud, AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
- Experience with data-plane platforms, distributed storage, microservices, state management, replication, or large-scale data processing.
- Experience with observability, incident management, Infrastructure as Code, and production service operations.
- Familiarity with compliance requirements and security controls for cloud infrastructure.
See all 2,315+ OPT Software Engineer Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship as a Software Engineer
Target companies with H-1B filing history
Employers who have filed H-1B visa petitions for software engineers in the past are your strongest leads. Past filing behavior is the most reliable signal that a company is willing to sponsor international candidates through OPT and beyond.
Apply before your OPT start date
Hiring cycles for engineering roles take four to eight weeks. Start applying two to three months before your OPT begins so your authorization is active by the time an offer arrives and background checks clear.
Address OPT early in recruiter conversations
Mention your OPT status in the first recruiter call, not after a final-round interview. Framing it as 12 months plus a 24-month STEM extension gives employers a clearer picture of your available work timeline.
Highlight your STEM extension eligibility
Computer science, electrical engineering, and related STEM degrees qualify for the 24-month extension. Calling this out explicitly tells hiring managers you have up to three years of work authorization before any H-1B sponsorship is required.
Focus your search on mid-size tech companies
Large enterprises often have rigid sponsorship policies, while startups may lack HR infrastructure. Mid-size companies with 50 to 500 engineers frequently sponsor OPT candidates and move faster through their hiring process.
Use Migrate Mate to filter for OPT-ready employers
Migrate Mate surfaces software engineering roles at companies with verified sponsorship history. Filtering by OPT eligibility upfront saves significant time compared to screening hundreds of listings that never mention work authorization.
Software Engineer OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I work as a Software Engineer on OPT without employer sponsorship?
Yes. During your OPT period, you're authorized to work for any qualifying employer without them filing anything on your behalf initially. Your employer does not sponsor your OPT, USCIS grants it based on your F-1 status. Sponsorship only becomes relevant if you want to transition to an H-1B or another long-term visa after OPT ends.
Does my software engineering job need to be related to my degree field?
Yes, and this is enforced. OPT employment must be directly related to your degree field. A computer science graduate working as a software engineer is a clear match. A business administration graduate doing the same role would likely violate OPT terms. If your degree is adjacent, document how the work connects to your major before accepting an offer.
How does the 24-month STEM OPT extension work for software engineers?
If your degree is in a STEM-designated field such as computer science, software engineering, or electrical engineering, you can apply for a 24-month extension after your initial 12-month OPT period. Your employer must be enrolled in E-Verify, and both you and your employer must complete a formal training plan. This gives you up to 36 months of total OPT authorization.
Where can I find software engineering jobs that sponsor OPT students?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for international students on OPT and F-1 status. It surfaces software engineering roles at employers with verified sponsorship history, so you're not guessing which companies are open to work authorization. Filtering by OPT eligibility narrows your search to positions where your status is already expected and accounted for by the hiring team.
Can I do freelance or contract software engineering work on OPT?
Yes, with conditions. OPT permits self-employment and contract work as long as each engagement is directly related to your degree field and you work at least 20 hours per week in aggregate. You cannot be unemployed for more than 90 cumulative days during standard OPT, or 150 days on a STEM extension, so maintaining consistent billable work is essential for staying in status.