Systems and methods for balancing load in a distributed software defined network (SDN) packet core system include a stateless load balancer within a local SDN infrastructure instance of the distributed SDN packet core system receiving a data packet for processing by at least one of a plurality of SDN network function modules of local SDN infrastructure instance. The stateless load balancer can direct the data packet to a stateful load balancer residing on a first computing device, among the plurality of computing devices in the local SDN infrastructure instance. The stateful load balancer can determine a stateful data packet processing task to be applied to the data packet and determine a second computing device in the local SDN infrastructure instance for applying the determined stateful data packet processing task to the data packet. The stateful load balancer can then forward the data packet to the second computing device.