Senior Software Engineer 1
Role Summary
The Senior Software Engineer 1 is responsible for owning medium-complexity engineering initiatives that improve the automation, tooling, cloud infrastructure, and software delivery capabilities that enable Sophos engineering teams to build, test, and deliver cloud-based services reliably, securely, and at scale.
This is a hands-on engineering role requiring strong technical depth across platform engineering, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, Kubernetes, and developer tooling. The engineer is expected to lead work from design through production, make sound technical decisions with minimal guidance, improve engineering practices, and mentor less experienced engineers. Success in this role requires balancing software engineering fundamentals with operational excellence while collaborating across engineering, QA, product management, architecture, security, and release teams.
The ideal candidate is passionate about automation, operational reliability, and continuous improvement, communicates effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, and leverages approved AI-assisted engineering tools responsibly to improve productivity, documentation, troubleshooting, and engineering quality.
Role Summary
The Senior Software Engineer 1 is responsible for owning medium-complexity engineering initiatives that improve the automation, tooling, cloud infrastructure, and software delivery capabilities that enable Sophos engineering teams to build, test, and deliver cloud-based services reliably, securely, and at scale.
This is a hands-on engineering role requiring strong technical depth across platform engineering, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, Kubernetes, and developer tooling. The engineer is expected to lead work from design through production, make sound technical decisions with minimal guidance, improve engineering practices, and mentor less experienced engineers. Success in this role requires balancing software engineering fundamentals with operational excellence while collaborating across engineering, QA, product management, architecture, security, and release teams.
The ideal candidate is passionate about automation, operational reliability, and continuous improvement, communicates effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, and leverages approved AI-assisted engineering tools responsibly to improve productivity, documentation, troubleshooting, and engineering quality.
What You Will Do
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Own the end-to-end delivery of medium-complexity platform engineering, DevOps, and CI/CD initiatives from design through production support.
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Design, implement, and improve developer platforms, release automation, and engineering workflows that increase reliability, scalability, and engineering productivity.
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Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub, Jenkins, Artifactory, and related tooling to support cloud-native software delivery.
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Drive improvements to Kubernetes (Amazon EKS) environments, deployment standards, operational readiness, and platform reliability.
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Design, provision, and maintain AWS infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code with Terraform while leveraging Ansible, Packer, or similar automation frameworks where appropriate.
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Develop and maintain automation using Python, Groovy, and Bash to eliminate manual work, improve consistency, and simplify operational processes.
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Collaborate with software engineers, architects, QA, product management, security, and release stakeholders to translate business and engineering requirements into scalable technical solutions.
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Troubleshoot complex build failures, deployment issues, infrastructure problems, Linux systems, cloud services, Kubernetes workloads, and application runtime behavior using logs, metrics, monitoring, and debugging tools.
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Design technical solutions that balance scalability, reliability, operational complexity, security, and long-term maintainability.
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Improve platform observability through logging, metrics, dashboards, monitoring, and alerting that reduce operational risk and improve service reliability.
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Champion secure engineering practices including secrets management, certificate lifecycle management, DevSecOps integrations, compliance tooling, and least-privilege access.
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Leverage approved AI-assisted engineering tools to accelerate development, scripting, troubleshooting, documentation, code reviews, and operational analysis while applying sound engineering judgment and adhering to security and privacy standards.
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Communicate technical designs, implementation plans, deployment status, risks, tradeoffs, dependencies, and operational readiness across engineering teams and stakeholders.
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Participate in operational support and on-call rotations, driving root-cause analysis and long-term improvements that reduce recurring operational issues.
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Mentor Software Engineers and early-career engineers through technical guidance, code reviews, design discussions, and knowledge sharing while helping establish engineering best practices.
What You Will Bring
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5+ years of experience in Platform Engineering, DevOps, Release Engineering, Cloud Infrastructure, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.
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Demonstrated ability to independently own medium-complexity engineering initiatives from design through implementation, validation, production readiness, and operational support.
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Strong experience designing and operating CI/CD pipelines using GitHub, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Artifactory, or similar developer platforms.
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Strong working knowledge of AWS cloud services including IAM, EC2, EKS, VPC, S3, Route 53, CloudWatch, Auto Scaling, Load Balancers, and other cloud-native services. Azure experience is a plus.
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Strong hands-on experience supporting Kubernetes in production environments, with Amazon EKS experience strongly preferred.
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Strong experience with Docker and containerized application development, deployment, and runtime troubleshooting.
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Advanced Linux administration and troubleshooting skills, including shell scripting, process management, networking, system services, permissions, and performance analysis.
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Strong debugging and analytical skills with the ability to independently diagnose build failures, deployment issues, infrastructure problems, cloud services, and application runtime behavior.
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Strong programming and automation experience using Python and Groovy, with working knowledge of Bash scripting.
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Experience supporting Java/Spring Boot-based applications in production environments is preferred. The ability to troubleshoot application issues, understand application architecture, and collaborate with software development teams is more important than extensive application development experience.
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Strong experience designing and maintaining Infrastructure as Code using Terraform is a must. Experience with Ansible, Packer, Chef, or similar automation frameworks is highly desirable.
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Experience with release management practices including branching strategies, versioning, artifact promotion, progressive deployments, rollback planning, and release risk management.
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Experience administering GitHub repositories, developer workflows, artifact repositories, and engineering automation platforms.
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Familiarity with build tools such as Gradle, Maven, NPM, or equivalent tooling.
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Solid understanding of secrets management, SSL/TLS certificates, PKI concepts, least-privilege access, and secure automation practices.
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Experience integrating or operating DevSecOps tooling such as Black Duck, Prisma Cloud, Veracode, or similar security scanning platforms is preferred.
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Experience effectively using AI-assisted engineering tools such as GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT Enterprise to improve engineering productivity, automate repetitive tasks, accelerate troubleshooting, review code, summarize operational data, and generate technical documentation while exercising sound engineering judgment.
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Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills with the ability to communicate technical concepts, architectural tradeoffs, operational risks, and engineering recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
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Demonstrated ability to identify recurring operational pain points, eliminate manual effort through automation, and continuously improve engineering efficiency, platform reliability, and developer experience.
The ideal candidate has extensive experience designing, building, and operating cloud-native platforms and developer tooling that enable reliable software delivery. This role requires strong software engineering fundamentals, deep Linux expertise, cloud infrastructure experience, excellent troubleshooting skills, and the ability to independently lead engineering initiatives while positively influencing team practices and technical direction.
Ready to Join Us? At Sophos, we believe in the power of diverse perspectives to fuel innovation. Research shows that candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don't check every box in a job description. We challenge that notion. Your unique experiences and skills might be exactly what we need to enhance our team. Don't let a checklist hold you back – we encourage you to apply. What's Great About Sophos? · Sophos operates a remote-first working model, making remote work the primary option for most employees. However, some roles may necessitate a hybrid approach. While we are a remote first organization, applicants must have legal authorization to work in the jurisdiction where the position is posted, without requiring employer sponsorship. · Our people – we innovate and create, all of which are accompanied by a great sense of fun and team spirit · Employee-led diversity and inclusion networks that build community and provide education and advocacy · Annual charity and fundraising initiatives and volunteer days for employees to support local communities · Global employee sustainability initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint · Global fitness and trivia competitions to keep our bodies and minds sharp · Global wellbeing days for employees to relax and recharge · Monthly wellbeing webinars and training to support employee health and wellbeing Our Commitment To You We’re proud of the diverse and inclusive environment we have at Sophos, and we’re committed to ensuring equality of opportunity. We believe that diversity, combined with excellence, builds a better Sophos, so we encourage applicants who can contribute to the diversity of our team. All applicants will be treated in a fair and equal manner and in accordance with the law regardless of gender, sex, gender reassignment, marital status, race, religion or belief, color, age, military veteran status, disability, pregnancy, maternity or sexual orientation. We want to give you every opportunity to show us your best self, so if there are any adjustments we could make to the recruitment and selection process to support you, please let us know. Data Protection If you choose to explore an opportunity, and subsequently share your CV or other personal details with Sophos, these details will be held by Sophos for 12 months in accordance with our Privacy Policy and used by our recruitment team to contact you regarding this or other relevant opportunities at Sophos. If you would like Sophos to delete or update your details at any time, please follow the steps set out in the Privacy Policy describing your individual rights. For more information on Sophos’ data protection practices, please consult our Privacy Policy Cybersecurity as a Service Delivered | Sophos