# Steffen Smolka

> L6 TLM at Google | Leading ARCNET: Automated Reasoning & Contracts for Networking

Location: Mountain View, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/steffensmolka

I am a Computer Scientist and Staff Software Engineer with expertise and experience in programming languages, formal methods, compilers, hardware accelarators, and probability theory -- and building the infrastructure and low-level distributed systems powering Google. At Google, I founded and lead ARCNET, the Automated Reasoning and Contracts for Networking team. We leaverage techniques such as formal methods, AI, and domain specific languages in order to make Google's data center networks fast and easy to program, evolve, reason about, and get right. We also contribute directly to developing Google's data center networks for AI, compute, and storage. During a Google internship during my PhD, I designed and implemented an analysis tool for Google Cloud configurations that has been patented (PCT/US2020/026729 "Cloud Network Reachability Analysis") and launched as an official Google product (https://cloud.google.com/network-intelligence-center).A theoretician at heart, I have a track record of using tools from theory to solve practical problems in real-world settings.

## Work Experience
### Staff Software Engineer (L6) @ Google
Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area
Leading a team that builds tools that automatically find bugs in network devices.
Our SIGCOMM'22 paper has more details: https://research.google/pubs/pub51497/

### Senior Software Engineer (L5) @ Google
Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area

### Software Engineer (L4) @ Google
Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area

### Member of Technical Steering Committee @ P4 Language Consortium (P4.org)
Jan 2021 – Present

### Co-Chair of the P4 API Working Group @ P4 Language Consortium (P4.org)
Jan 2021 – Present

### Research Assistant @ Cornell University
Jan 2013 – Jan 2019
PhD student in Computer Science focused on Programming Languages, and how to use them to make networks more reliable and more programmable.

### Guest Lecturer @ Cornell University
Jan 2016 – Jan 2019
Gave lectures in:
- Advanced Programming Languages (CS 6110 by Adrian Sampson)
- Compilers (CS 5120 by Andrew Myers)
- Network Programming Languages (CS 5114 by Nate Foster)
- Kleene Algebra (CS 6861 by Dexter Kozen)
- Data Structures and Functional Programming (CS 3110 by Nate Foster)

### Teaching Assistant @ Cornell University
Jan 2016 – Jan 2018
- Compilers (CS 5120 by Andrew Myers)
- Advanced Programming Lectures (CS 6110 by Adrian Sampson)

### Software Engineer Intern @ Google
Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Sunnyvale
Designed & build a framework for automated Google Cloud configuration analysis from scratch.
Now an official Google product: https://cloud.google.com/network-intelligence-center
Patented under PCT/US2020/026729 "Cloud Network Reachability Analysis".

### Visiting Researcher @ UCL
Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | London, United Kingdom
Worked on decision procedures for probabilistic programs with Alexandra Silva.

### Intern @ Barefoot Networks
Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Palo Alto, CA
Worked on the early development of the P4 programming language and its eco system.

### Research Intern @ Microsoft
Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Cambridge, United Kingdom
Designed & implemented a compiler that automatically parallelizes programs with tough real-time constraints written in a domain-specific language for software-defined radio.
Hosted by Dimitrios Vytiniotis.

### Research Assistant @ Technical University of Munich
Jan 2012 – Jan 2013
Designed and implemented algorithms for automated proof manipulation and optimization with Jasmin Blanchette and Tobias Nipkow during my Bachelor.

### Teaching Assistant @ Technical University of Munich
Jan 2011 – Jan 2011
Led tutorials for 40 students for "Functional Programming" lecture by Andrey Rybalchenko.
https://archive.model.in.tum.de/um/courses/infoII/ws1112/index.html


## Education
### PhD in MS, Computer Science
Cornell University

### Visiting Student in Computer Science
Stanford University

### BS in Computer Science
Technical University of Munich

### Abitur
Gymnasium am Schloss, Saarbrücken


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/steffen-smolka
- Portfolio: https://smolka.st
- Portfolio: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KRvHM1wAAAAJ
- GitHub: https://github.com/smolkaj

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Source: https://flows.cv/steffensmolka
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/steffensmolka/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-12