Software Engineer, Streaming Platform
Backend Engineer · Mid · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Join Sentry's Streaming Platform team in Toronto to design and operate next-generation infrastructure powering real-time data processing systems handling hundreds of thousands of events per second. You'll work on distributed systems challenges spanning Kafka fleet management, stream processing automation, and developer-facing abstractions while partnering with product engineers to ensure reliable ingestion pipelines at scale. This hybrid role (3 days/week onsite) requires 2-3 years of distributed systems or data infrastructure experience with proficiency in Python, Rust, Go, or Java and hands-on cloud platform expertise.
Responsibilities
- Design and Operate Streaming Infrastructure Components: Architect, build, and maintain core components of the Streaming Platform including Kafka deployments, streaming runtime systems, high-level APIs, and developer-facing abstractions that simplify complex distributed streaming infrastructure for internal engineering teams.
- Implement Resilient Stream Processing Systems: Develop high-throughput, fault-tolerant stream processing systems capable of handling unbounded datasets with strong correctness guarantees including exactly-once delivery semantics, checkpointing mechanisms, watermarking, and state management.
- Build Kafka Fleet Management Automation: Create scalable automation and control plane solutions for managing Kafka clusters at scale, including cluster provisioning, scaling policies, performance optimization, and operational efficiency improvements.
- Partner on Ingestion Pipeline Design: Collaborate cross-functionally with product engineering teams to develop and refine abstractions that enable fast, reliable, and consistent data ingestion pipelines while maintaining stability and best practices.
- Enhance Real-Time System Observability: Improve monitoring, observability, alerting, and automated failover mechanisms for mission-critical real-time systems to ensure reliability and enable rapid incident response across production environments.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Programming Language Proficiency
Strong proficiency in at least one systems programming language with primary focus on Python or Rust; strong background in Go, Java, or similar compiled/interpreted languages is transferable.
Streaming Technology Knowledge
Working understanding of stream processing concepts including windowing, state management, and event ordering; experience with Kafka, Apache Flink, Spark Streaming, or comparable streaming platforms is highly valuable.
Distributed Systems Concepts
Solid grasp of core distributed systems principles including consensus algorithms, replication strategies, eventual consistency, fault tolerance, and handling of partial failures in networked systems.
Education
Computer Science Foundation
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating strong fundamentals in algorithms, data structures, and system design principles.
Experience
Distributed Systems Development
2-3 years of professional software engineering experience with demonstrated background building, operating, and troubleshooting distributed systems handling concurrent workloads and network communication patterns.
Data Infrastructure or Streaming Experience
Proven track record working with data infrastructure platforms, real-time streaming architectures, or event-driven systems with understanding of scalability, throughput, and latency considerations.
Cloud Platform Operations
Hands-on experience building and operating systems in managed cloud environments including Kubernetes orchestration, AWS services, or GCP infrastructure with knowledge of containerization and container scheduling.
Skills
Required
Python
Primary language at Sentry for streaming platform development; required for building and maintaining production systems handling real-time data workloads.
Rust
Systems programming language used at Sentry for performance-critical streaming components; valuable for developing low-latency, memory-efficient infrastructure.
Kafka
Distributed event streaming platform core to Sentry's architecture; required knowledge of brokers, topics, partitions, consumer groups, and operational management.
Kubernetes
Container orchestration platform for deploying and managing streaming platform components at scale; essential for understanding deployment models and scaling patterns.
Distributed Systems Design
Ability to design systems with high availability, fault tolerance, and horizontal scalability; understanding of trade-offs between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance.
Stream Processing
Expertise in designing and implementing stream processing architectures with focus on handling real-time, unbounded data with correctness guarantees and low latency.
Preferred
Apache Flink Experience
Nice to haveExperience with distributed stream processing frameworks like Apache Flink provides valuable context for building scalable real-time systems with advanced windowing and state management.
Go Programming
Nice to haveExperience with Go language offers transfer value for building concurrent systems; many DevOps and infrastructure tools use Go, providing relevant architectural knowledge.
Java
Nice to haveBackground in Java demonstrates understanding of JVM-based systems and performance considerations relevant to distributed streaming platforms.
AWS or GCP
Nice to haveHands-on experience with cloud infrastructure services including managed Kubernetes, monitoring services, and infrastructure-as-code tools.
Observability and Monitoring
Nice to haveExperience implementing comprehensive monitoring, tracing, and logging systems for distributed applications using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or ELK stack.
CI/CD Pipeline Development
Nice to haveFamiliarity with automated deployment pipelines, testing frameworks, and infrastructure automation tools for continuous delivery.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·CAD 163,000 – 200,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Equity Grants
Participate in Sentry's equity program allowing you to share in company success through stock options or RSUs.
Comprehensive Health Insurance
Group health insurance coverage including medical, dental, and vision benefits for you and eligible dependents.
Paid Time Off
Generous paid time off policy enabling work-life balance and time for rest and personal pursuits.
Incentive Compensation
Performance-based bonus structure aligned with individual and company objectives.
Hybrid Work Arrangement
Flexible hybrid work schedule with three days per week required in Toronto office for team collaboration and mentorship opportunities.
Professional Development
Access to learning resources and opportunities to expand technical expertise in distributed systems and modern infrastructure technologies.
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Initial Screening
Brief conversation with recruiting team to discuss background, experience with distributed systems, and interest in the streaming platform role at Sentry.
- 02
Technical Assessment
Evaluation of distributed systems knowledge through technical questions or coding problems focused on stream processing, Kafka concepts, and system design principles.
- 03
System Design Discussion
In-depth conversation with engineering team about designing scalable, reliable streaming systems; discussion of real-world challenges in real-time data processing.
- 04
Team Collaboration Round
Meeting with Streaming Platform team members to assess communication style, collaborative approach, and cultural fit with team focused on developer experience.
- 05
Final Round Discussion
Conversation with team lead or manager covering career goals, experience with large-scale systems, and vision for the role's contribution to Sentry's platform.
Full posting
Original listing.
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
The Streaming Platform team at Sentry is building the next generation of infrastructure that powers our ingestion pipelines and real-time data processing systems. Our platform ingests, processes, and distributes hundreds of thousands of events per second with low latency and high reliability. We are creating a system that makes it easy for Sentry engineers to deploy and run Streaming Applications at scale by simplifying the complexity of Kafka, scaling consumers automatically, and managing state so product teams can focus on building great experiences for developers.
As part of this team, you will work on challenges at the intersection of distributed systems, real-time data processing, and developer experience. You will help us create a self-service streaming platform that improves stability, accelerates time to production, and reduces operational overhead.
This role is based in Toronto, with three days per week in the office to work closely with engineering teams.
In this role you will
Design, build, and operate components of our Streaming Platform, including Kafka, the streaming runtime, high-level APIs, and developer-facing abstractions.
Implement resilient, high-throughput stream processing systems that handle unbounded datasets with strong correctness guarantees (delivery, checkpointing, watermarking, and more).
Build scalable automation and control plane for Kafka fleet management and improve efficiency.
Partner with product engineers to ensure our abstractions enable fast, reliable, and consistent ingestion pipelines.
Improve observability, monitoring, and failover for mission-critical real-time systems.
You’ll love this job if you
You enjoy working on distributed systems at scale and care about reliability and performance.
You like building abstractions that make complex infrastructure easier for others to use.
You are motivated by designing systems that balance flexibility for developers with best practices for stability.
You are excited to shape how Sentry handles near real-time ingestion and analytics at scale.
You value being part of a collaborative team where your contributions make a broad impact across the company.
Qualifications
At least 2-3 years of software engineering experience, with background in distributed systems, data infrastructure, or real-time streaming.
Proficiency in a programming language such as Python, Rust, Go, or Java (we primarily use Python and Rust, but experience in similar languages is valuable).
Experience building and operating systems in cloud environments such as Kubernetes, AWS, or GCP.
Nice to have: experience with streaming technologies such as Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming, or similar tools.
The base salary range that Sentry reasonably expects to pay for this position is $163,000 to $200,000 CAD. 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 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 [email protected].
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