Sr. Engineering Manager - Architecture

Illumio; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Illumio, a leader in ransomware containment and Zero Trust, seeks a senior backend engineering leader to drive scalable cloud services and AI-enabled platform capabilities. You will guide architecture across microservices, APIs, and cloud-native apps in a fast-paced cybersecurity environment.

Join a team partnering with Product, Security, Infrastructure, and Data Science to deliver reliable, observable systems across AWS, Azure, and GCP.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building distributed backend systems.
• 3+ years leading software teams.
• Experience with microservices and cloud-native architectures.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of backend engineers.
• Drive strategy for distributed systems and APIs.
• Partner with Product, Security, Infra, and Data Science teams.
• Define architecture for large-scale microservices and cloud-native apps.
• Shape Illumio’s AI roadmap, including LLMs and RAG architectures.
• Establish engineering best practices around reliability and observability.
• Mentor engineering managers and senior engineers.
• Drive quarterly planning, staffing strategy, and architectural reviews.
• Ensure delivery of highly available services across AWS, Azure, and GCP environments.

Skills

Distributed backend

Engineering leadership

Backend languages: Java Go Python

Microservices & cloud-native

Kafka

AI systems (LLMs)

Product collaboration

Communication skills

Production reliability

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Langfuse

Job description

Onwards Together! Illumio is the leader in ransomware and breach containment, redefining how organizations contain cyberattacks and enable operational resilience. Powered by the Illumio AI Security Graph, our breach containment platform identifies and contains threats across hybrid multi-cloud environments – stopping the spread of attacks before they become disasters. Recognized as a Leader in the Forrester Wave™ for Microsegmentation, Illumio enables Zero Trust, strengthening cyber resilience for the infrastructure, systems, and organizations that keep the world running.

Location: 5 on‑site days a week in Sunnyvale, CA Headquarters.

Our Team’s Vision

Our Engineering team is driven by a culture that thrives on visionary leadership, autonomy, and ownership, creating a dynamic synergy that drives us forward in the ever‑evolving landscape of cybersecurity. When you join our team, you become part of the leader in Zero Trust Segmentation. You'll work with a cutting‑edge technology stack that spans operating systems, distributed applications, and immersive UI/visualization tools. We're shaping the future of cybersecurity. And together, we will continue to build world‑class products—led by people with different perspectives, backgrounds, and a commitment to innovation in a time when the world faces its greatest cybersecurity threats in history.

Your Impact

• Lead and grow a team of backend engineers building highly scalable cloud services and AI‑powered platform capabilities.
• Drive technical strategy and execution for distributed systems, platform APIs, and AI‑enabled services.
• Partner closely with Product, Security, Infrastructure, and Data Science teams to deliver intelligent platform experiences.
• Define architecture for large‑scale microservices, event‑driven systems, and cloud‑native applications.
• Help shape Illumio’s AI roadmap, including agentic workflows, LLM integrations, RAG architectures, and AI infrastructure.
• Establish engineering best practices around reliability, observability, scalability, security, and operational excellence.
• Mentor engineering managers and senior engineers while fostering a culture of ownership and innovation.
• Drive quarterly planning, staffing strategy, technical roadmaps, and architectural reviews.
• Ensure successful delivery of highly available services running across AWS, Azure, and GCP environments.

Your Toolkit

• 10+ years building distributed and scalable backend systems.
• 3+ years leading software engineering teams and engineering leads/managers.
• Strong experience in Java, Go, Python, or equivalent backend technologies.
• Deep expertise with microservices, APIs, cloud‑native architectures, Kubernetes, and containerized workloads.
• Experience building high‑scale distributed systems and event‑driven architectures leveraging technologies such as Kafka.
• Practical understanding of modern AI systems, including LLMs, AI agents, RAG architectures, model serving, prompt engineering, and agent orchestration frameworks.
• Experience partnering with Product Management to define strategy and deliver customer‑facing capabilities.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence technical direction across organizations.
• Experience operating services in production with a focus on telemetry, monitoring, and reliability.

Bonus Points

• Experience leading AI Platform, ML Infrastructure, or Agentic Systems teams.
• Hands‑on knowledge of vector databases, inference optimization, model evaluation frameworks, and AI observability platforms such as Langfuse.
• Security or cybersecurity domain experience.
• Experience building enterprise SaaS platforms at scale.
• Familiarity with Terraform, cloud automation, and Infrastructure‑as‑Code.

This position involves access to software/technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Any job offer made will be contingent upon the applicant’s capacity to serve in compliance with U.S. export controls.

Our Commitment

Illumio believes that an environment of unique backgrounds, experiences, viewpoints, and individual contributions creates a culture of belonging, drives our future, and makes us stronger together in support of our customers and their success.

All official job offers from our company are extended directly by our recruitment team and will be sent through an official E‑Signature document for your review and signature. Please be aware that we do not ask for any personal information in the process of extending offers of employment, such as financial details or social security numbers. Upon acceptance of any offer, we will request such information as part of the onboarding process prior or on your first day of employment, and only after completing a background check through an authorized third‑party vendor. If you receive any communication asking for personal details outside of these processes, please contact us immediately to verify the authenticity of the request. Your security is important to us, and we are committed to a safe and transparent hiring experience.

For roles in San Francisco and Los Angeles: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance or the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for hiring, Illumio will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.