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.
How We Work:
At Proofpoint you’ll be part of a global team that breaks barriers to redefine cybersecurity guided by our BRAVE core values:
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
Corporate Overview:
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 leaders in next-generation cybersecurity.
Protection Starts with People. Proofpoint.
We’re looking for an engineer who loves building from the ground up - someone who enjoys turning ideas into working systems, cares deeply about quality, thrives in a fast-moving, collaborative environment. You’ll join as an early team member and help shape both the product and culture from day one
Responsibilities
- Own problems end-to-end from design to deployment with a strong bias toward quality, automation, and continuous improvement.
- Introduce new techniques, architecture, and best practices to improve scalability, efficiency, and reliability.
- Build tooling and observability to monitor system health, identify bottlenecks, and proactively resolve instability.
- Balance rapid iteration on early-stage systems with long-term maintainability and architectural soundness.
- Contribute to a culture of engineering excellence, mentorship, and team-first collaboration.
- Skills 4+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a focus on backend / distributed systems.
- Experience building and operating production-grade systems at scale in cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Experience with large-scale distributed systems ideally written in Python, Go or Rust.
- Experience with micro service design using API gateways, event streaming (kafka / kinesis) and container orchestration (Kubernetes / Docker) Experience with DevOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines (familiarity with CloudBees / Harness is a plus)
- Strong debugging, instrumentation, and observability skills across distributed systems.
- Proven the ability to take ownership of complex problems and learn quickly.
- Experience with AI-assisted development tools such coding assistants etc.
Bonus - Experience
- Building agentic AI applications leveraging LLM frameworks, MCP servers; AI engineering experience
- Startup experience — especially as a founder or early engineer who has built a product from scratch — is a strong plus
Why Proofpoint?
At Proofpoint, we believe that an exceptional career experience includes a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Here are just a few reasons you’ll love working with us:
Competitive compensation
Comprehensive benefits
Career success on your terms
Flexible work environment
Annual wellness and community outreach days
Always on recognition for your contributions
Global collaboration and networking opportunities
Our Culture:
Our culture is rooted in values that inspire belonging, empower purpose and drive success-every day, for everyone.
We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to [email protected].
How to Apply
Interested? Submit your application along with any supporting information- we can’t wait to hear from you!
Skills Required
- 4+ years of professional software engineering experience focused on backend or distributed systems
- Experience building and operating production-grade systems at scale in cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Experience with large-scale distributed systems, ideally written in Python, Go, or Rust
- Experience designing microservices using API gateways, event streaming technologies such as Kafka or Kinesis, and container orchestration with Kubernetes or Docker
- Experience with DevOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines
- Strong debugging, instrumentation, and observability skills across distributed systems
- Ability to take ownership of complex problems and learn quickly
- Experience with AI-assisted development tools, including coding assistants
- Experience building agentic AI applications using LLM frameworks or MCP servers
- AI engineering experience
- Startup experience, especially as a founder or early engineer building a product from scratch
Proofpoint Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Proofpoint and has not been reviewed or approved by Proofpoint.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage spans medical, dental, vision, life, and disability, complemented by global physical, mental, and financial health programs. Wellbeing resources such as mindfulness, resilience, and meditation courses are explicitly highlighted.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off provisions include PTO, paid holidays and sick days, with parental and family medical leave available. Added flexibility appears in wellness days, a hybrid-first model, and limited work-from-anywhere periods.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered competitive in many roles and settings, with external recognition indicating strong standing relative to peers. Feedback suggests employees in several departments view compensation favorably when considering base, bonus, and benefits together.
Proofpoint Insights
What We Do
We provide the most effective cybersecurity and compliance solutions to protect people on every channel including email, the web, the cloud, and social media.
