Staff Software Engineer, Platform & Infrastructure

Location: San Francisco, California Workplace: Hybrid ABOUT SENTRY Software runs the world and the pace is faster than ever. Sentry helps developers fix errors and performance issues before users notice, so teams can spend less time firefighting and more time building. Trusted by 200,000+ organizations, Sentry is today’s application monitoring standard and our team is building its AI-native future. ABOUT THE ROLE Sentry helps developers identify and resolve issues in their applications. Behind our products is a complex foundation of distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and services that must perform reliably at scale. Our Platform and Infrastructure Engineering teams build and operate the systems that power Sentry. From cloud infrastructure, distributed storage, and real-time event processing to service reliability, scalability, and developer productivity, these teams provide the technical foundation that enables our products and engineering organization to grow. We're looking for Staff Software Engineers to tackle some of Sentry's most challenging infrastructure and distributed systems problems. Depending on your experience and interests, you might work on scaling our real-time event processing systems, improving the reliability and efficiency of our cloud infrastructure, or designing and building foundational services that support our products. In this role, you'll have the autonomy to identify important technical problems, lead solutions from design through production, and influence engineering decisions beyond your immediate team. We're looking for engineers who enjoy solving difficult problems, remain hands-on with the systems they build, and take pride in delivering meaningful technical impact. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL - Design, build, and operate reliable, scalable distributed systems that support Sentry's products and engineering teams. - Own technically complex projects from identifying problems and defining solutions through implementation, deployment, and production operations. - Solve challenging engineering problems involving system architecture, performance, scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency. - Make thoughtful architectural decisions, evaluating tradeoffs between performance, complexity, maintainability, and long-term scalability. - Proactively identify technical challenges and opportunities for improvement, including problems without clearly defined requirements or established solutions. - Stay hands-on with engineering, contributing production-quality code, reviewing designs, and helping resolve complex technical issues. - Collaborate with engineers and technical leaders across teams to influence technical direction, establish engineering standards, and drive improvements. - Share technical knowledge, mentor other engineers, and help strengthen engineering practices across the organization. YOU'LL LOVE THIS JOB IF YOU - Enjoy solving difficult technical problems where the solution isn't immediately obvious. - Like designing and building systems that operate reliably at scale. - Thrive on taking ownership of complex engineering challenges, from initial design through production. - Balance hands-on engineering with technical leadership and enjoy influencing decisions without formal authority. - Think critically about architectural tradeoffs and favor pragmatic, maintainable solutions over unnecessary complexity. - Take initiative in identifying important problems rather than waiting for projects to be assigned. - Enjoy collaborating with talented engineers, sharing knowledge, and raising the bar for engineering quality. - Find satisfaction in shipping meaningful improvements and seeing the impact of your work in production. QUALIFICATIONS - 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong background in designing, building, and operating distributed systems or infrastructure. - Strong software engineering fundamentals and proficiency in at least one programming language, such as Python, Go, Java, or a comparable language. - Experience designing and implementing technically complex systems, with a track record of delivering meaningful engineering outcomes. - Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure and services, such as AWS, GCP, or Azure. - Demonstrated ability to independently own complex technical projects, navigate ambiguity, and drive solutions from design through production. - Deep technical experience in one or more of the following areas: - Cloud Infrastructure: Kubernetes, container orchestration, Terraform, infrastructure as code, networking, or service discovery. - Distributed Systems: Distributed architectures, fault tolerance, consistency, replication, or high-availability systems. - Data Infrastructure: Kafka, real-time streaming, distributed storage, OLAP/OLTP databases, or large-scale data processing. - Infrastructure Reliability: Observability, performance optimization, capacity planning, incident response, or production operations. - Developer Infrastructure: CI/CD systems, build and deployment infrastructure, developer environments, or internal developer platforms. - Strong architectural judgment, with the ability to evaluate technical tradeoffs and design systems for reliability, performance, and long-term maintainability. - Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly, collaborate effectively, and influence technical decisions across engineering teams. - Experience improving engineering practices, sharing technical knowledge, or helping other engineers grow. We recognize that strong engineers come from different backgrounds. You don't need experience in every technology or domain listed above. We're interested in candidates who bring meaningful technical depth, strong engineering judgment, and a track record of solving challenging problems. The base salary range that Sentry reasonably expects to pay for this position is $240,000 to $400,000, plus an annual performance bonus of up to 15% of base salary. A successful candidate’s actual base salary (or hourly wage) amount will be determined by a variety of relevant factors including, without limitation, the candidate’s work location, education, work and other relevant experience, skills, and job-related knowledge. A successful candidate will be eligible to participate in Sentry’s employee benefit plans/programs applicable to the candidate’s position (including incentive compensation, equity grants, paid time off, and group health insurance coverage). See Sentry Benefits https://sentry.io/careers/ for more details about the Company’s benefit plans/programs. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AT SENTRY Sentry is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to its employees and candidates for employment regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, or other legally-protected characteristic. This commitment includes the provision of reasonable accommodations to employees and candidates for employment with physical or mental disabilities who require such accommodations in order to (a) perform the essential functions of their jobs, or (b) seek employment with Sentry. We strive to build a diverse team, with an inclusive culture where every teammate can thrive. Sentry is an open-source company because we believe that everyone, everywhere, should have the ability and tools to make great software. Software should be accessible. That starts with making our industry accessible. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at accommodations@sentry.io. Want to learn more about how Sentry handles applicant data? Get the details in our Applicant Privacy Policy https://sentry.io/careers/applicantprivacy/.