Staff Software Engineer, Sentry
Platform & Infrastructure
$240-400k
+ Equity and bonus. Performance bonus: up to 15% of base
Application performance monitoring & error tracking software
Be an early applicant
Application performance monitoring & error tracking software
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
$240-400k
+ Equity and bonus. Performance bonus: up to 15% of base
201-500 employees
Company mission
To empower developer teams to build their best possible software, more quickly and easily.
Role
Who you are
- 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
- 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
What the job involves
- 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
- 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
Our take
Defective software leads to dissatisfied users, disruptions and potential financial losses for companies. Sentry has created application monitoring and error tracking software to help developers fix errors faster, easier and more cost effectively.
More than 1 million developers and 70,000 organizations worldwide, including the likes of Microsoft, Disney, Atlassian, Cloudflare and Slack, have used Sentry to monitor their code health. And the company is well-positioned for significant growth as there is an emerging need for solutions that address holistic application health. As more companies focus on digital to engage with their customers, the reliability of their applications is essential.
The global bug-tracking software market is expected to reach over $600 million by the end of 2026 with an annual growth rate of almost 10%. Further, the company opened another office in Denver in early 2023, expanding its regional presence, as it continues to broaden its market presence.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
28% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
May 2022
$90m
SERIES E
Feb 2021
$60m
SERIES D
Total funding: $216.5m
Company benefits
- Competitive Compensation + Equity
- Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
- Commuter Stipend
- Professional Development Stipend
- Health & Wellness Benefits
- Charitable Matching Program
- Flexible PTO
- Paid Parental Leave
- 401k Plan
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
David Cramer
(Co-Founder & CPO)They started their career as a Software Engineer at Curse, before roles at Enthropia, Disqus, and Dropbox. Having co-founded Sentry in January 2012, they left Dropbox in 2015.
Chris Jennings
(Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer)They have been a Frontend Developer at AgencyTen, Director of Design and UX at Disqus and most recently a Product Designer at GitHub.
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