Senior Backend Engineer (Data Team)

Description

Sentra is the global leader in cloud-native data security for the AI era. The company’s mission is to empower organizations to confidently scale their data operations across multi-cloud and on-premises environments while leveraging the power of AI without compromising security.

Sentra’s unique approach enables enterprises to autonomously scan their environments without the need for agents, ensuring that data remains securely within their cloud or on-premises infrastructure. This innovative methodology sets us apart in the industry, providing organizations with control and visibility over their sensitive data at all times. Our commitment to excellence in data security posture management and data detection and response makes Sentra a leader in the field.

The Senior Backend Engineer team (Data Team) builds the systems that discover, understand, and govern customer data at petabyte scale. We turn raw enterprise data into the security signal the rest of the platform builds on, working on problems like distributed systems running inside customer clouds, analytics over large data lakes, and detection logic that has to be both precise and fast. You’ll work end-to-end and ship features that every Sentra customer uses.

Responsibilities

• Designing and implementing core components within the classification and policy stack, including microservices, ETLs, and shared libraries
• Owning features end-to-end: design, implementation, rollout, testing, monitoring, and production operation
• Conducting design and code reviews with the team and across R&D
• Driving scale, performance, and cost optimizations against multi-tenant data-lake workloads
• Partnering with AI/ML, Research, Product, and Frontend to ship cross-functional initiatives

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience in software development with Python; TypeScript or JavaScript a plus
• In-depth understanding of modern SaaS application architecture and best practices
• Strong experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL) and at least one NoSQL store (MongoDB preferred)
• Comfortable writing and optimizing analytical SQL over large datasets (Athena, BigQuery, Snowflake, or equivalent)
• Demonstrated experience building and operating microservices in a cloud-native environment, preferably AWS
• Experience with asynchronous, message-driven systems (Kafka, SQS, or similar)
• Hands-on experience using AI development tools (Claude, Cursor, Copilot) in day-to-day engineering
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize effectively
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
• Self-motivated with a passionate approach to work
• Familiarity with frameworks such as FastAPI and NestJS - an advantage
• Experience with workflow orchestration (Dagster, Airflow, Prefect, or similar) - an advantage
• Background in the Cyber Security or Data Security domain (DSPM, DLP, DDR, or data governance) - an advantage
• ML pipeline or NLP exposure - an advantage