Senior Software Engineer; API​/Middleware

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.

• 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

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.

About the Role

We’re seeking a Senior Software Engineer to architect and operate backend APIs and data services for the Sender Security and Authentication product group. This is a high‑impact role building foundational features used across products – balancing greenfield design with pragmatic modernization, adopting an AI‑first mindset to accelerate delivery and quality, and working in a collaborative, high‑ownership culture focused on outcomes and excellence.

You’ll partner closely with product and cross‑functional teams to translate requirements into reliable, observable, and scalable services.

• Design and build scalable, secure REST/gRPC APIs and microservices
• Own services end‑to‑end across design, implementation, code reviews, testing, deployment, observability, and on‑call.
• Model and optimize data with Postgre
  
  SQL (SQL DDL/DML, indexing, query tuning, caching), ensuring performance and cost efficiency.
• Operate in AWS/Kubernetes (EKS, RDS/Postgres, S3, SNS/SQS, IAM) with Docker and Terraform.
• Establish core platform components that are reusable, extensible, and flexible across product teams.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with product, design, security, and data teams to deliver business outcomes.
• Adopt AI‑First practices to speed development, testing, and ops, and safely integrate GenAI where it adds value.

• Languages:
  
  Strong proficiency in Node.js (JavaScript/Type Script) and/or Go; willingness to learn the other.
• API design:
  Deep experience with REST/gRPC, versioning, schema design (OpenAPI), and backward compatibility.
• Security fundamentals:
  Authentication/authorization (OAuth2/OIDC/SSO/JWT), secrets management, secure coding practices.
• Deep authz knowledge: RBAC/ReBac; caching/consistency strategies for check and list operations.
• Data expertise:
  Advanced SQL with Postgre
  
  SQL, schema design, performance tuning; familiarity with Redis or similar caching.
• Cloud & platform:
  Hands‑on with AWS (RDS, S3, SNS/SQS), Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform; CI/CD (Jenkins/Git Hub Actions or similar).
• Reliability mindset:
  Observability (metrics/tracing/logging), capacity planning, resilience patterns, and on‑call ownership.
• Large‑scale migrations:
  Proven track record shipping complex, low‑risk migrations in production with observability and rollback.
• Collaboration & leadership:
  Strong code review habits, architectural thinking, and ability to mentor peers.
• Education:
  
  Must have a minimum of a Bachelor of Science degree from an accredited school in an engineering related…