Senior Software Engineer - Virtual Network Security Appliance, C++ / Go / Rust

Senior Software Engineer – Virtual Network Security Appliance (C++ / Go / Rust)

Hybrid – Pune, India · Full-time, direct hire · Rust · C/C++ · Go · Linux networking · Containers · AWS

The role

You'll build and own Securly's edge proxy appliance: a virtual appliance (containers on a minimal Linux OS image) that we deliver into customers' school networks to intercept, inspect, and filter web traffic. You own it end to end: the traffic-handling datapath, how it's packaged and shipped, how it updates itself safely, how it fails without cutting off a network, and how the deployed fleet reports back to our AWS control plane.

This is a senior role in Pune Engineering, reporting to the SVP of Engineering.

You'll bring

You've shipped software that runs inside a customer's network, such as a proxy, firewall, secure web gateway, VPN gateway, load balancer, or network security appliance. We're open to strong C/C++ or Go engineers whose Rust is still growing, as well as Rust engineers with appliance or proxy experience.

• 8+ years of software engineering in systems, networking, or security products
• Production experience in Rust, C/C++, or Go. Rust is where the new proxy is headed, so you'll write Rust here.
• Network programming below the HTTP layer: TCP streams, sockets, bidirectional forwarding, transparent proxying (TPROXY), TLS, and the Linux network stack
• A shipped appliance, proxy, or network security product you can name, and the problems you solved on it
• Containerization and software delivery into customer networks: Docker image builds, minimal Linux images, container networking, installs and upgrades
• Network security fundamentals: TLS, mTLS, certificates, and hardening systems against tampering
• Performance testing and profiling: load tests, CPU/memory profiling, flame graphs
• Working knowledge of AWS and infrastructure as code (CloudFormation or Terraform)

Strongly preferred: production Rust (async, Tokio); Linux kernel networking (eBPF/XDP, netfilter, routing); HAProxy or Envoy; OTA or fleet management at scale; high-availability design (watchdogs, VRRP/CARP failover).

Nice to have: RADIUS; fleet messaging (gRPC over mTLS, MQTT, AWS IoT Core); observability (CloudWatch, Splunk, SLO definitions); immutable OS images (Flatcar, Talos, Buildroot).

What you'll build

• Proxy datapath: TCP interception, transparent proxying, and TLS inspection, plus Linux network stack tuning for throughput and latency.
• Appliance packaging and delivery: Container images and a minimal, immutable OS image that installs and runs cleanly inside customer networks.
• Safe updates: Zero-downtime OTA updates with A/B swaps, automatic health-check rollbacks, and phased canary rollouts to machines you can't log into.
• Fail-open and high availability: Watchdogs, failover, and bypass logic so the customer's internet keeps working if the appliance doesn't.
• Fleet control plane: Secure, low-latency channels for policy updates and telemetry between deployed appliances and AWS.
• Security hardening: Protecting the appliance against tampering and configuration drift in environments we don't own.
• Performance baselines: Load tests that simulate sharp, predictable traffic spikes (everyone on the network coming online at the start of the school day), profiling, and written baselines.

The technical challenges

• Traffic you have to handle correctly, every time. The proxy sits in the path of all web traffic on the network. Latency, memory use, and correctness under load all matter.
• Machines you can't touch. Appliances run inside networks we don't control. Updates, rollbacks, and debugging all have to work remotely, through telemetry and careful rollout design.
• Failure has to be safe. If the appliance crashes or an update goes wrong, traffic must keep flowing. Designing fail-open behavior and failover is core to the job.
• Every environment is different. Customer networks vary widely in hardware, firewall setups, and configuration. The appliance has to install and run cleanly across all of them.
• Architecture decisions are yours. Many design choices, standards, and documents for the appliance are still to be defined. You'll make those decisions and write them down.

What you'll gain

• Production Rust systems experience on a high-throughput network proxy, one of the most in-demand and hardest-to-get skill sets in systems engineering. If you're coming from C/C++ or Go, you'll make that move on real production work.
• End-to-end ownership of an appliance platform: datapath, OS image, update pipeline, HA, security, and fleet control plane. Most engineers only ever own one of these layers.
• Architecture experience, with your design decisions and written docs shaping how the platform is built.
• Hands-on depth in Linux networking and security: TPROXY, TLS inspection, eBPF/XDP, mTLS, and hardening.
• Close work with a Distinguished Engineer on architecture, plus mentoring other engineers on the team.
• A path toward technical leadership across the proxy and filtering platform.

Compensation and benefits

Competitive compensation, based on experience.

• Comprehensive health insurance (employee, spouse, children, and parents)
• Accidental and term life insurance
• Learning and development reimbursement
• Paid time off, plus 10+ public holidays per year
• Retirement benefits (EPF and gratuity)
• Parental leave (as per statutory norms)
• Structured onboarding and ongoing coaching

Why Securly

The appliance you build filters web traffic for students in schools. Securly's technology has been credited with helping save 2,400+ student lives, and Pune engineering is where core infrastructure like this gets built, not a satellite team.

Securly is the market leader in AI-powered student safety and wellness, trusted by 20M+ students across 20,000+ schools. Since launching the first cloud-based K-12 web filter in 2013, we've combined AI and human insight to help schools spot and respond to bullying, self-harm, and violence. TIME named us one of America's Top EdTech Companies 2026, and we're a GSV 150 honoree and an EdTech Top 40 "Most Used Product."

Our people-first culture shows in the numbers (Source: Securly Qualtrics Employee Survey, 2025; WSA Global Benchmark):

• 82% employee engagement, vs. a 73% global benchmark
• 94% of employees are proud to work here
• 91% rate manager effectiveness above benchmark

Securly is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a diverse, inclusive workplace.

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