Principal Software Engineer (Sensor, Telemetry & Observability)

TL;DR

Principal Software Engineer (Sensor, Telemetry & Observability): Own the architecture and technical strategy for a unified telemetry and observability platform, from endpoint sensor SDK through cloud ingestion, decoding, and analytics, with an accent on crash-survivable in-memory telemetry, resource-constrained collection, and performance-sensitive data paths. Focus on designing telemetry data governance (type safety, PII auditability, privacy compliance) and evolving the platform end-to-end across Windows, macOS, and Linux while leading cross-team technical direction.

Company

CrowdStrike builds an AI-native cybersecurity platform that protects endpoints and correlates telemetry across customer fleets.

What you will do

• Own architecture and technical strategy for unified telemetry and observability from endpoint collection SDK to cloud ingestion, decoding, and analytics.
• Design endpoint telemetry collection for crash survivability, resource constraints, priority stream separation, and performance-sensitive execution paths.
• Drive structured logging and telemetry data governance, including type safety, PII auditability, and privacy compliance at scale.
• Evolve the platform without breaking existing consumers and act as connective technical authority across multiple teams.
• Own designs from concept through shipped code across on-endpoint and in-cloud components with cross-platform deliverables.
• Lead, mentor, and raise the technical bar across a distributed engineering team.

Requirements

• Deep, hands-on experience architecting at-scale telemetry, observability, or crash-reporting platforms end-to-end (agent SDK through cloud ingestion and analytics) with production systems you designed.
• Strong low-level and systems engineering in C/C++, with a track record of performance-sensitive, resource-constrained design.
• Experience with structured logging, telemetry data governance, and privacy/PII handling at scale.
• Proven ability to ship and evolve platforms without breaking consumers and to influence technical direction across teams.
• Strong debugging fundamentals across crashes, memory issues, contention, and system performance.
• Ability to lead, mentor, and collaborate in a distributed team.

Nice to have

• OS-level performance and diagnostic instrumentation experience (e.g., ETW, PMU/hardware telemetry).
• Data lake and analytics stack experience (KQL, SQL, Snowflake) and Go-based cloud services.
• Endpoint security domain knowledge and comfort in an Agile, frequently-shipping environment.

Culture & Benefits

• Market-leading compensation and equity awards.
• Comprehensive physical and mental wellness programs.
• Competitive vacation and holidays, plus paid parental and adoption leaves.
• Professional development opportunities for employees at all levels.
• Vibrant office culture with world-class amenities.
• Employee networks and volunteer opportunities.

Hiring process

• Interviews and technical evaluation focused on architecture, systems/low-level engineering, and telemetry/observability experience.
• Discussion of cross-team influence, shipped impact, and collaboration in a distributed environment.

Location: USA - Sunnyvale, CA

Salary: $195,000 - $290,000 per year