Sr. Software Engineer

Proofpoint•Sunnyvale, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

About Us: Proofpoint is a global leader in human- and agent-centric cybersecurity. We protect how people, data, and AI agents connect across email, cloud, and collaboration tools. Over 80 of the Fortune 100, 10,000 large enterprises, and millions of smaller organizations trust Proofpoint to stop threats, prevent data loss, and build resilience across their people and AI workflows. Our mission is simple: safeguard the digital world and empower people to work securely and confidently. Join us in our pursuit to defend data and protect people. How We Work: At Proofpoint you’ll be part of a global team that breaks barriers to redefine cybersecurity guided by our BRAVE core values: Bold in how we dream and innovate Responsive to feedback, challenges and opportunities Accountable for results and best in class outcomes Visionary in future focused problem-solving Exceptional in execution and impact This is a hybrid role based out of our Sunnyvale office. It is not a remote role. Corporate Overview Proofpoint is a leading cybersecurity company protecting organizations’ greatest assets and biggest risks: vulnerabilities in people. With an integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, Proofpoint helps companies around the world stop targeted threats, safeguard their data, and make their users more resilient against cyber-attacks. Leading organizations of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 1000, rely on Proofpoint for people-centric security and compliance solutions mitigating their most critical risks across email, the cloud, social media, and the web. We are singularly devoted to helping our customers protect their greatest assets and biggest security risk: their people. That’s why we’re a leader in next-generation cybersecurity. Protection Starts with People. We’re looking for an engineer who loves building from the ground up - someone who enjoys turning ideas into working systems, cares deeply about quality, thrives in a fast-moving, collaborative environment. You’ll join as an early team member and help shape both the product and culture from day one

Requirements

7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a focus on backend / distributed systems.
Experience building and operating production-grade systems at scale in cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).
Experience with large-scale distributed systems ideally written in Python, Go or Rust
Experience with micro service design using API gateways, event streaming ( kafka / kinesis ) and container orchestration (Kubernetes / Docker)
Experience with DevOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines (familiarity with CloudBees / Harness is a plus)
Strong debugging, instrumentation, and observability skills across distributed systems.
Proven ability to take ownership of complex problems and learn quickly.
Experience with AI-assisted development tools such coding assistants etc.

Nice To Haves

Experience building agentic AI applications leveraging LLM frameworks, MCP servers; AI engineering experience
Startup experience — especially as a founder or early engineer who has built a product from scratch — is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Own problems end-to-end from design to deployment with a strong bias toward quality, automation, and continuous improvement.
Introduce new techniques, architecture , and best practices to improve scalability, efficiency, and reliability.
Build tooling and observability to monitor system health, identify bottlenecks, and proactively resolve instability.
Balance rapid iteration on early-stage systems with long-term maintainability and architectural soundness.
Contribute to a culture of engineering excellence, mentorship, and team-first collaboration.