Sr. Data Architect, Large Scale Distributed Systems

Senior Architect

We are seeking an experienced Senior Architect to lead the design and evolution of enterprise-scale distributed systems supporting 50M+ connected sensors and high-volume event processing pipelines. This role is critical to building and operating mission-critical backend platforms that process millions of events per second across both synchronous and asynchronous architectures, with stringent requirements for scalability, reliability, security, and performance.

The ideal candidate brings a proven track record of architecting and scaling production-grade systems at extreme scale, along with the ability to drive technical strategy, governance, and cross-functional alignment in a complex enterprise environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the architecture of large-scale distributed systems capable of ingesting and processing high-velocity data streams from 50M+ sensors
• Design resilient systems across synchronous (API-driven) and asynchronous (event-driven, streaming) paradigms
• Establish architectural standards for scalability, fault tolerance, and performance optimization
• Architect real-time and batch data pipelines for high-throughput ingestion, transformation, and storage
• Drive design decisions across streaming, processing, and storage layers to ensure optimal performance and cost efficiency
• Enable support for time-series, event-driven, and analytical workloads
• Define and enforce enterprise architecture principles, standards, and best practices
• Evaluate and guide adoption of modern data technologies, including distributed messaging systems, scalable data stores, and stream and batch processing frameworks
• Ensure alignment with security, compliance, and data governance requirements
• Establish and operationalize SLAs, SLOs, and error budgets
• Design for high availability, multi-region resilience, and disaster recovery
• Implement enterprise-grade observability frameworks (monitoring, logging, tracing)
• Partner with engineering, product, security, and data teams to align architecture with organizational objectives
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and architectural oversight across multiple teams
• Lead design reviews and ensure adherence to architectural standards

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in distributed systems and backend architecture
• Demonstrated success in scaling systems to 50M+ connected devices/sensors, or comparable high-scale environments
• Proven experience with high-throughput event-driven architectures in production environments
• Deep understanding of distributed systems concepts, including CAP theorem, consistency models, partitioning, replication, sharding strategies, and event delivery semantics
• Strong experience with streaming and messaging systems, real-time and batch processing frameworks, and scalable NoSQL and analytical data stores
• Expertise in designing low-latency, high-throughput APIs, event-driven and asynchronous processing systems, multi-region, highly available architectures
• Strong programming proficiency in one or more of Go, Java, Scala, or Rust

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with large-scale IoT or telemetry platforms
• Familiarity with edge-to-cloud architectures
• Experience operating in multi-cloud or hybrid environments
• Knowledge of enterprise security frameworks, data governance, and compliance (e.g., SOC2, ISO, GDPR)
• Exposure to AI/ML data pipelines and large-scale analytics platforms

Success Metrics

• Architecture supports billions of daily events with consistent performance and reliability
• Systems demonstrate horizontal scalability and fault isolation
• Clear separation and optimization of real-time vs batch workloads
• Strong adherence to enterprise architecture and governance standards

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 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 View email address on click.appcast.io.

Interested? Submit your application along with any supporting information- we can't wait to hear from you!

Consistent with Proofpoint values and applicable law, we provide the following information to promote pay transparency and equity. Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets as set out below. Pay within these ranges varies and depends on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The actual offer will be based on the individual candidate. The range provided may represent a candidate range and may not reflect the full range for an individual tenured employee. This role may be eligible for variable compensation and/or equity. We offer a competitive benefits package, including flexible time off, a comprehensive well-being program with two paid Wellbeing Days and two paid Volunteer Days per year, plus a three-week Work from Anywhere option.

Base Pay Ranges:

SF Bay Area, New York City Metro Area: Base Pay Range: 254,000.00 - 349,250.00 USD

California (excludes SF Bay Area), Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington DC Metro, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Washington, Virginia, and Alaska: Base Pay Range: 208,800.00 - 287,100.00 USD

All other cities and states excluding those listed above: Base Pay Range: 187,000.00 - 257,180.00 USD