Principal Software Engineer | Data Science

ExtraHop; United States; Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, Dental, and Vision Benefits

Flexible PTO

Educational Reimbursement

401k with Employer Match

Pet Insurance

Job summary

ExtraHop is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to drive the architecture and execution of high-impact engineering initiatives in cybersecurity. This role requires expertise in Python and Go, with substantial experience in machine learning applications.

You will collaborate with data scientists and engineers to improve network security tools. The position offers a competitive salary range of $175,000 - $195,000 with additional bonuses and benefits, including flexible PTO and hybrid work options.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 2 years in a senior role.
• Expertise in machine learning and statistical techniques.
• Experience with production AI/ML systems and lifecycle management.

Responsibilities

• Design, write, and maintain AI/ML models for threat analysis.
• Collaborate across teams to build high-performance services.
• Drive engineering excellence through mentoring and reviews.

Skills

Expert programming in Python

Expert programming in Go

Machine learning systems

Data/training pipelines

Threat detection methodologies

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

At ExtraHop, we’re on a mission to protect and empower the connected enterprise. We reveal what is happening in the very infrastructure that sustains businesses, lives, and communities, and ensure the integrity of networks, data, systems, and processes. Organizations rely on ExtraHop to provide visibility into the cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and network performance issues that evade their existing security and IT tools. With this insight, organizations can investigate smarter, stop threats faster, and keep operations running.

Position Summary

ExtraHop is at the forefront of innovation in the cybersecurity space, delivering cutting‑edge solutions to protect organizations against evolving threats. Our Network Detection and Response (NDR) products empower businesses to detect, respond to, and mitigate cyber risks in real time. We seek a Principal Software Engineer to join our product development organization and serve as a technical anchor on our NDR platform. In this role, you will drive the architecture and execution of complex, high‑impact engineering initiatives that define the future of our products. You will operate with significant autonomy, influence engineering direction across teams, and mentor engineers at multiple levels while delivering software that addresses the most sophisticated challenges in network security.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, write, and maintain robust, high-performance software to deploy AI/ML models that analyze network traffic for anomalous or malicious behaviors.
• Design and develop autonomous AI agent architectures and multi‑agent workflows.
• Collaborate with data scientists, threat researchers, and cloud teams to build high-performance services, pipelines, and tooling that accelerate ML experimentation and production workflows.
• Drive engineering excellence across teams through code reviews, design reviews, and the establishment of standards, patterns, and best practices.
• Lead cross‑functional technical initiatives and represent engineering in conversations with senior leadership and external stakeholders.
• Contribute to product strategy by bringing deep technical insight to roadmap discussions, build‑vs‑buy decisions, and competitive differentiation.
• Lead by example. Provide technical mentorship to software engineers on the team, fostering a culture of continuous learning, optimization, and rigorous engineering discipline.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 2 years in a Principal, Lead, or Staff capacity shipping enterprise‑grade software.
• Expert‑level programming skills in Python and Go, with an emphasis on writing production‑quality, well‑tested, and modular code.
• Experience in machine learning, statistics, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Experience building or operating production AI/ML systems, including model lifecycle management, data/training pipelines, and monitoring.
• Expertise in applying machine learning or data science techniques to cybersecurity use cases such as anomaly detection, behavioral analysis, or threat classification.
• Advanced understanding of threat detection methodologies, intrusion prevention systems, and incident response workflows.

Preferred Qualifications

• A strong fundamental understanding of network telemetry and protocols.
• Prior experience working in the cybersecurity domain. Familiarity with threat actor techniques and common network attack vectors.
• Familiarity with machine learning applications in cybersecurity.
• Understanding of threat detection, intrusion prevention, and incident response strategies.
• Deep experience with cloud services on AWS or Azure.
• Deep experience with containerization and orchestration technologies including Docker and Kubernetes at production scale.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to influence technical and non‑technical audiences at the executive level.

The salary range for this role is $175,000 - $195,000 + bonus + benefits.

Benefits

• Health, Dental, and Vision Benefits
• Flexible PTO, Sick Time prorated based on date of hire, and all federal holidays (US Only) + 3 days of paid volunteer time
• Non‑Commissioned Positions may be eligible to participate in the Annual Discretionary Bonus Plan
• FSA and Dependent Care Accounts + EAP, where applicable
• Educational Reimbursement
• 401k with Employer Match or Pension where applicable
• Pet Insurance (US Only)Parental Leave (US Only)
• Hybrid and Remote Work Model