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# Staff Software Engineer

- **Company:** Proofpoint
- **Location:** Boston, MA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $200,300.0 - $293,810.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Java (Programming Language), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Business Analytics Applications, Microsoft Azure, Batch Processing, C++ (Programming Language), Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Stores, Cursor (Graphical User Interface Elements), Programming Tools, Distributed Systems, Amazon DynamoDB, Elasticsearch, Fault Tolerance, Graph Database, Python (Programming Language), PostgreSQL, Enterprise Messaging Systems, MongoDB, Neo4j, Node.Js, NoSQL, Performance Tuning, Software Architecture, Redis, Scala (Programming Language), SQL Databases, Data Streaming, Google Cloud, Application Enhancement Tool, GitHub Copilot, Apache Spark, Multi-Cloud, Information Technology, Apache Flink, Cassandra, Restful APIs, Data Pipelines, Golang, Microservices
- **Published:** August 15, 2026
- **Apply:** https://proofpoint.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/ProofpointCareers/job/Boston-Massachusetts/Staff-Software-Engineer_R14589

## About the Role

* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent
 * 10+ years in distributed systems and backend architecture
 * Knowledge of CAP theorem, consistency models, partitioning, replication, and sharding strategies
 * Experience with streaming/messaging systems (Kinesis) and real-time/batch processing frameworks (Flink, Spark, Beam)
 * Proficiency in one or more of: NodeJs, Go, Java, Scala, or Rust; familiarity with Python, or C/C++ a plus
 * Experience with NoSQL and SQL databases (Postgres, Cassandra, MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB, etc.)
 * Experience with graph databases (Neptune, Neo4J, etc.)
 * Cloud experience (AWS, GCP, Azure, or similar)
 * Familiarity with edge-to-cloud and multi-cloud/hybrid environments
 * Exposure to AI/ML data pipelines, large-scale analytics platforms, and AI-assisted developer tooling
 * Knowledge of enterprise security frameworks and compliance standards (SOC2, ISO, GDPR) is a plus

## Description

* Build and scale a big data platform processing billions of data points daily
 * Design resilient systems across synchronous and asynchronous (event-driven, streaming) paradigms
 * Develop RESTful APIs in a microservices architecture
 * Establish standards for scalability, fault tolerance, and performance optimization
 * Drive design decisions across streaming, processing, and storage layers for performance and cost efficiency
 * Support time-series, event-driven, and analytical workloads
 * Work with distributed messaging systems, scalable data stores (DynamoDB, Elasticsearch, etc.) and processing frameworks (Flink, Spark)
 * Ensure alignment with security, compliance, and data governance requirements
 * Champion AI-powered tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code) to accelerate development velocity across design, coding, testing, and review


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