Staff Software Engineer, Platform & Infrastructure

About this role

Sentry

Staff Software Engineer, Platform & Infrastructure

San Francisco, CaliforniaFull-timeLead & above

Checked 5h ago

Posted 16 Oct 2026 on Sentry's careers page

What the interview will test

Tech Lead interviews are usually assessed on

• System Design Fundamentals
• Leadership & Influence
• Coding Proficiency
• Prioritization & Trade-offs
• Stakeholder Communication
• Debugging & Root Cause Analysis

Practicing for this role builds your session around these skills, with this posting's own requirements folded in.

What you'd do

• 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.

What they're looking for

• 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.