Back-end Senior Engineer - HashiCorp Vault

Introduction

At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world's leading AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You'll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM's product and technology landscape. Here, you'll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

Your role and responsibilities

As a Senior Back-end Engineer, you will contribute to the development of the Vault initiative, which expands our flagship security product to support secure, large-scale agent-based workloads. You will work as a core member of the US engineering team, collaborating closely with senior engineers and cross-geography partners to build secure, reliable, and scalable components of Vault.

This role is hands-on and delivery focused. You will participate in design discussions, write high-quality code, and help ensure the systems we build meet the needs of our global customers.

Technical Contribution

• Implement features and enhancements within the Vault work stream.

• Lead design discussions by providing input, evaluating options, and implementing components defined by fellow engineers.

• Mentor junior engineers on best engineering practices.

• Actively highlight areas for codebase improvement, share ideas with stakeholders, and partner with them to shape and refine the scope of the work.

• Write secure, maintainable, and well-tested code that adheres to engineering standards.

• Use AI-assisted development tools (e.g., code generation, automated refactoring, test scaffolding) to improve quality, velocity, and consistency in daily engineering work.

Team Collaboration

• Work closely with engineers across geos to ensure alignment on shared components.

• Participate in architecture reviews, code reviews, sprint ceremonies, and technical deep dives.

• Communicate progress clearly and raise risks or blockers proactively.

Cross-Geography Coordination

• Collaborate with cross-time-zone partners to integrate features, clarify requirements, and resolve technical issues.

• Actively incorporate feedback from senior engineers, tech leads, and product managers.

Hands-on Engineering

• Contribute to core identity and storage components of Vault, focusing on reliability, performance, and security.

• Participate in debugging, performance optimizations, incident analysis, and operational improvements.

• Help maintain documentation and ensure strong test coverage and observability for your areas of ownership.

Stakeholder Communication

• Provide timely updates to technical leads and engineering managers.

• Work with product managers to refine requirements and ensure clarity before implementation.

Required technical and professional expertise

• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Go, Rust, Java, Python, etc.) with 5+ years of experience.

• Solid understanding of APIs, and system design fundamentals.

• Familiarity with secure coding practices and interest in identity/security engineering.

• Ability to take ownership on engineering discussions across stakeholders.

• Experience using or willingness to adopt AI engineering tools-such as AI-assisted coding, automated documentation, code review assistance, and test generation-to improve productivity and code quality.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience with Golang

• Autonomous Systems Exposure: Interest or experience with AI agent orchestration or LLM-driven workflows.

• Policy & Governance Concepts: Exposure to policy-as-code frameworks or dynamic rules evaluation systems.

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.