Director of Engineering, Platform (Runtime & Stateful Systems)

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 We're looking for an experienced engineering leader to own one of the most critical areas within Platform: the runtime and stateful systems Sentry runs on. You'll lead multiple engineering teams and Staff engineers responsible for OLTP and OLAP databases, real-time compute and stream processing, blob storage, and distributed caching. These systems power Sentry's products, including Seer, and are mission-critical to the business. When they perform well, every product team moves faster. When they don't, the whole company feels the impact. You'll set the technical vision across these systems, lead significant architectural changes, and develop the engineering leaders and teams responsible for building and operating them. This role requires someone who brings deep technical judgment, thinks strategically, and has a track record of driving complex engineering initiatives from concept through execution. You'll have the opportunity to shape both the technical direction and organizational growth of a critical part of Sentry's platform as our products and infrastructure continue to evolve. This is a hybrid role based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with an expectation of working from our San Francisco office three days per week. IN THIS ROLE YOU WILL - Lead multiple engineering teams and Staff engineers responsible for the runtime and stateful systems supporting Sentry, Seer, and the products built on top of them. - Set the technical vision and strategy across multiple systems, identifying opportunities to evolve our architecture as the business scales. - Drive significant architectural changes and technical initiatives, making informed tradeoffs around scalability, reliability, performance, cost, and complexity. - Provide technical leadership across teams, working closely with senior engineers to evaluate architectural decisions, challenge assumptions, and establish technical direction. - Own the execution and operational excellence of mission-critical systems, ensuring teams deliver reliable, scalable, and high-performing platform components. - Build and develop a strong engineering organization, including hiring, mentoring, and growing engineering managers and senior technical leaders. - Foster a culture of engineering excellence, technical accountability, and continuous improvement. - Partner across Platform, Infrastructure, and Product to align priorities, navigate ambiguity, and deliver complex, cross-functional initiatives. - Anticipate evolving product and infrastructure needs, identifying opportunities to build new platform capabilities and improve existing systems. YOU'LL LOVE THIS JOB IF YOU - Enjoy solving complex distributed systems problems and have strong opinions about architecture, backed by experience and sound technical judgment. - Thrive in roles where you're equally responsible for technical direction, execution, and developing engineering leaders. - Like taking ownership of ambiguous technical challenges, establishing a clear strategy, and bringing teams together to execute. - Are passionate about building large-scale systems where reliability, performance, and efficiency directly impact the business. - Enjoy partnering with senior engineers, challenging technical assumptions, and helping teams make thoughtful architectural decisions. - Take pride in building high-performing teams, developing future leaders, and raising the engineering bar. - Want to shape the runtime foundation supporting Sentry's products and AI capabilities for years to come. QUALIFICATIONS - 12+ years of experience in backend, platform, or infrastructure engineering, with significant experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems. - Director-level engineering management experience, or equivalent senior engineering leadership experience overseeing multiple teams at comparable scale and complexity. - Deep technical expertise in at least one of the following domains: - OLTP databases - OLAP databases - Real-time compute and stream processing - Blob/object storage - Distributed caching - Demonstrated experience driving significant architectural changes, including evaluating technical tradeoffs, establishing direction, and leading implementation. - Strong technical judgment and the ability to engage deeply in architectural discussions across multiple distributed systems domains. - Proven track record of leading complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives from strategy through execution, with measurable technical or business impact. - Experience hiring, developing, and leading engineering managers and senior technical talent. - Strong communication and organizational leadership skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts, influence senior stakeholders, and align teams around a shared strategy. - Experience operating mission-critical infrastructure with a strong understanding of reliability, scalability, performance, and operational efficiency. The base salary range that Sentry reasonably expects to pay for this position is $300,000 to $450,000 USD, plus an annual performance bonus of up to 20% of base salary. A successful candidate’s actual base salary 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/.