Staff Software Engineer, Issue Workflow

Staff Software Engineer · Staff · Full Time

San Francisco, CaliforniaUSD 240k – 300k5mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Sentry is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for their Issue Workflow team, responsible for architecting high-scale distributed systems that process billions of events daily. The ideal candidate will drive technical strategy, solve complex performance challenges, and enhance the developer debugging experience by creating scalable, high-performance monitoring solutions.

Responsibilities

  • Technical Strategy: Partner with engineering leadership, product, and design to shape the multi-quarter technical vision for Issue Workflow platform. Make strategic architectural decisions and manage technical debt.
  • Performance Optimization: Solve complex performance and scalability challenges for a platform processing billions of events daily. Design high-scale distributed systems with focus on reliability and efficiency.
  • Product Quality: Champion product quality and user experience by building delightful features that consider every detail, from interfaces to error messages. Instrument systems for continuous measurement and improvement.
  • Team Development: Mentor and elevate team members by sharing knowledge, supporting skill growth, and creating a collaborative learning environment.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Programming Languages

    Proficiency in Python and TypeScript with 10+ years of full-stack software engineering experience

  • Distributed Systems

    Deep expertise in distributed systems architecture, including eventual consistency, partitioning strategies, caching layers, and query optimization

  • Data Technologies

    Advanced knowledge of PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Kafka, and message queue systems

Education

  • Computer Science

    Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field preferred

Experience

  • System Design

    Proven track record of designing and implementing complex, scalable software systems

  • Full-Stack Development

    Comprehensive understanding of full-stack development, including frontend performance and API design

Skills

Required

  • Distributed Systems

    Expert-level understanding of high-scale system architectures and performance optimization

  • Backend Engineering

    Advanced backend development skills with focus on scalability and reliability

  • Technical Leadership

    Ability to drive technical strategy and mentor team members

Preferred

  • Open Source

    Nice to have

    Experience or interest in open-source software development

  • Performance Monitoring

    Nice to have

    Background in developer tools or application performance monitoring

Tech stack

Languages

PythonTypeScript

Databases

PostgreSQLClickHouse

Tools

Kafka

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 240,000 – 300,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Healthcare

    Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance

  • Equity

    Stock options and potential equity grants

  • Flexible Work

    Hybrid work model with in-office collaboration days (Mon, Tue, Thu)

  • Professional Development

    Continuous learning opportunities, conference attendance, and skill development programs

  • Wellness

    Mental health resources and wellness programs

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening

    HR phone screen to assess basic qualifications and cultural fit

  2. 02

    Technical Phone Interview

    In-depth discussion of technical background, system design, and problem-solving approaches

  3. 03

    Coding Challenge

    Take-home or online coding assessment focusing on distributed systems and algorithmic problem-solving

  4. 04

    Onsite/Virtual Interviews

    Multiple rounds including system design, technical deep dive, team fit, and leadership potential evaluation

  5. 05

    Final Leadership Interview

    Discussion with senior engineering leadership to assess strategic thinking and long-term potential

Full posting

Original listing.

About Sentry

Bad software is everywhere, and we’re tired of it. Sentry is on a mission to help developers write better software faster so we can get back to enjoying technology.

With more than $217 million in funding and 100,000+ organizations that believe we’re on to something, we're building performance and error monitoring tools that help companies like Disney, Microsoft, and Atlassian spend less time fixing bugs and more time building products.

Sentry embraces a hybrid work model across our global hubs, with Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays set as in-office anchor days to encourage meaningful collaboration. If you like to selfishly build things that make your digital life better, come help us build the next generation of software monitoring tools.

About the role

Issue Workflow is Sentry's primary product surface. Our issue platform processes billions events daily and turns them into actionable insights that help millions of developers fix bugs faster.

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Issue Workflow team, you'll architect the systems that power this experience. You'll work at the intersection of high-scale distributed systems and product engineering, building real-time data pipelines, search backends, and analysis systems that surface signal from noise. This is product engineering at massive scale—where every architectural decision impacts millions of debugging sessions.

You'll be the technical leader who shapes how Sentry groups issues, how we make search lightning-fast, how we enable sophisticated agentic workflows, and how we ensure that the product is performant even at billions-of-events scale. Your work will define what's possible for the most trafficked part of Sentry's platform.

In this role you will

  • Drive technical strategy and roadmap. Partner with engineering leadership, product, and design to shape the multi-quarter technical vision for Issue Workflow platform. Make strategic calls about architectural direction, technology choices, and technical debt. Ensure the team is building a strong foundation to scale with Sentry's growth.

  • Solve complex performance and scalability challenges.

  • Champion product quality and user experience. Build features that don't just work—they delight. You understand that milliseconds matter in the developer experience. You sweat the details of interfaces, error messages, loading states, and edge cases. You instrument everything so the team can measure and improve.

  • Mentor and elevate others. You've helped engineers grow their skills. You celebrate wins and learn from failures alongside your teammates.

You’ll love this job if you

  • Are a distributed systems engineer who understands the realities of high-scale architectures. You know about eventual consistency, partitioning strategies, caching layers, and query optimization. You've debugged enough systems at scale that you now know to design for failure and build systems that degrade gracefully.

  • Are product-minded and understand that great engineering serves users. You collaborate effectively with Product and Design, offering technical perspectives that shape better products. You can explain technical constraints in user-centric terms. You get excited about making developers' lives better, not just solving technical puzzles.

  • Have strong full-stack instincts. While this role is backend-heavy, you understand the entire system from data ingestion to what renders in the browser. You know enough about frontend performance, API design, and user experience to make good architectural decisions that consider the whole picture.

  • Include and uplift others. You've helped engineers grow their skills in systems design, coding practices, and product thinking. You're generous with knowledge and patient in explaining complex concepts. You celebrate wins and learn from failures alongside your teammates.

Qualifications

  • 10+ years in full-stack software engineering, ideally Python and Typescript

  • Expertise in domain modeling, distributed systems, data stores, message queues

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills

  • Experience with PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, and Kafka is preferred

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].

Want to learn more about how Sentry handles applicant data? Get the details in our Applicant Privacy Policy.

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