Senior Staff Software Engineer, Data Streaming

About SandboxAQ

SandboxAQ is a high-growth company delivering AI solutions that address some of the world's greatest challenges. The company’s Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) power advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, cybersecurity, and other sectors.

We are a global team that is tech-focused and includes experts in AI, chemistry, cybersecurity, physics, mathematics, medicine, engineering, and other specialties. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022, funded by leading investors and supported by a braintrust of industry leaders.

At SandboxAQ, we’ve cultivated an environment that encourages creativity, collaboration, and impact. By investing deeply in our people, we’re building a thriving, global workforce poised to tackle the world's epic challenges. Join us to advance your career in pursuit of an inspiring mission, in a community of like-minded people who value entrepreneurialism, ownership, and transformative impact.

About The Role

The Cybersecurity Group at SandboxAQ is looking for a Data Streaming Engineer to help functionalize AQtive Guard, our groundbreaking solution for modern non-human identity and cryptography management, already launching globally with major organizations like top-tier financial institutions and government agencies.

We’re looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer with deep expertise in Kafka and data streaming to join our platform team. This role will focus on designing, building, and maintaining the data streaming pipelines that are core to our platform. You will be instrumental in enhancing the performance and reliability of our systems, providing our customers with groundbreaking cybersecurity analysis and protection.

What You'll Do

• Serve as the team's subject matter expert for Kafka and KStreams.
• Design, build, and maintain the high-performance data streaming pipelines that form the core of the AQtive Guard platform, responsible for ingesting massive volumes of data from a wide array of sources, including first-party sensors, cloud provider APIs, and other cybersecurity platforms.
• Optimize database queries and data access patterns to ensure efficiency and high performance at scale.
• Take ownership of projects in a fast-paced startup environment, demonstrating a tolerance for ambiguity and a proactive approach to getting things done.
• Collaborate closely with a diverse team of cryptographers, ML experts, and developers to integrate their research and advancements into new products and features.

Who You Are

• You have experience with Kafka and KStreams.
• You have production experience with data streaming, as well as traditional RDBMS
• You have a proven ability to thrive on a small team in a fast-paced, fluid environment, effectively managing uncertainty.
• You have a solid understanding of standard IT security best practices.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of production experience with Kafka.
• 3+ years of production experience with KStreams.
• Practical, "production scale" experience with RDBMS (e.g., PostgreSQL).
• Proficiency in Kotlin or a willingness to learn it, with a strong background in Java.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Knowledge of security-related concepts and technologies.
• Familiarity with Bazel.
• Proficiency in other languages, in order of preference: Golang, Rust, Python.
• General knowledge of cryptography.
• Experience contributing to the Kafka open-source project.

_The US base salary range for this full-time position is expected to be $217k-$304k per year. Our salary ranges are determined by role and level. Within the range, individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. This role may be eligible for annual discretionary bonuses and equity.

_SandboxAQ welcomes all.

We are committed to creating an inclusive culture where we have zero tolerance for discrimination. We invest in our employees' personal and professional growth. Once you work with us, you can’t go back to normalcy because great breakthroughs come from great teams and we are the best in AI and quantum technology.

We offer competitive salaries, stock options depending on employment type, generous learning opportunities, medical/dental/vision, family planning/fertility, PTO (summer and winter breaks), financial wellness resources, 401(k) plans, and more.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status.

Accommodations: We provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities in job application procedures for open roles. If you need such an accommodation, please let a member of our Recruiting team know.