Staff Software Engineer (Java, Kafka, AWS)

About Us:
We are the leader in human-centric cybersecurity. Half a million customers, including 87 of the Fortune 100, rely on Proofpoint to protect their organizations. We’re driven by a mission to stay ahead of bad actors and safeguard the digital world. 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.

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.  Proofpoint.

 
The Role 
We are looking for a highly experienced Staff Software Engineer to join our Platform Engineering team. This role is focused on building and scaling the foundational infrastructure and services that power our internal engineering ecosystem. 
As a senior individual contributor, you’ll be instrumental in designing, developing, and maintaining petabyte-scale production platforms with a strong emphasis on resilience, performance, and developer experience. You'll work on distributed systems, deployment infrastructure, and internal service frameworks, enabling teams across the organization to deliver with speed, security, and reliability. 

Your day-to-day 
•    Architect, build, and maintain scalable, fault-tolerant systems that support petabyte-scale workloads in production
•    Lead development of RESTful APIs using Java or similar high-performance languages (e.g., Go, Kotlin, Scala)
•    Contribute to the evolution of our internal platform by improving core infrastructure components and abstractions
•    Design and optimize data pipelines and backend systems leveraging distributed technologies like Apache Kafka and Cassandra
•    Drive platform modernization through Kubernetes-based deployments and configuration management using tools like Puppe
•    Champion best practices in CI/CD, observability, security, and cloud-native architecture
•    Collaborate with product and engineering teams to understand their needs and deliver reusable, scalable solutions
•    Mentor other engineers, review design documents and code, and provide leadership in solving complex technical challenges
•    Own the operational health of platform services, including reliability, uptime, and on-call rotations.

What you bring to the team
•    12+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant time spent on infrastructure or platform teams
•    Proven track record of designing and operating petabyte-scale systems in production environments
•    Deep experience with Java and working knowledge of other programming languages such as Python, Go or Scala
•    Strong understanding and hands-on experience with RESTful service design and implementation
•    Solid background in distributed systems and experience with technologies like Kafka, Cassandra, or equivalents
•    Proficiency with Kubernetes (K8s), Terraform and Puppet, or similar deployment and configuration management tools
•    Familiarity with AWS, Azure (preferred) or other public cloud ecosystems; understanding of cloud-native patterns and cost-aware design
•    Experience with system monitoring, logging, and alerting tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK)
•    Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills with the ability to influence at multiple levels. 

Nice to Have
•    Experience building internal developer platforms or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings
•     Contributions to open-source tools and frameworks in the infrastructure or backend ecosystem. * Exposure to security best practices and compliance considerations in large-scale environments

Why Proofpoint
Protecting people is at the heart of our award-winning lineup of cybersecurity solutions, and the people who work here are the key to our success.  We’re a customer-focused and a driven-to-win organization with leading-edge products. We are an inclusive, diverse, multinational company that believes in culture fit, but more importantly ‘culture-add’, and we strongly encourage people from all walks of life to apply.
 

We believe in hiring the best and the brightest to help cultivate our culture of collaboration and appreciation. Apply today and explore your future at Proofpoint! #LifeAtProofpoint

#LI-CB1

Why Proofpoint? At Proofpoint, we believe that an exceptional career experience includes a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Here are just a few reasons you’ll love working with us:

• Competitive compensation

• Comprehensive benefits

• Learning & Development: We are committed to the growth and development of our team members, offering a range of programs including leadership and professional development workshops, stretch project assignments, and mentoring opportunities to help employees reach their full potential.

• Flexible work environment: [Remote options, hybrid schedules, flexible hours, etc.].

• Annual wellness and community outreach days

• Always on recognition for your contributions

• Global collaboration and networking opportunities

Our Culture:

Our culture is rooted in values that inspire belonging, empower purpose and drive success-every day, for everyone. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to [email protected]. How to Apply Interested? Submit your application here https://www.proofpoint.com/us/company/careers. We can’t wait to hear from you!