Staff Software Engineer – Site Defense

Reddit, Inc.

Staff Software Engineer designing distributed defenses for Reddit, a community discussion platform. Protecting internet-scale traffic from DDoS attacks, bots, scraping, and automated abuse.

Posted 9/2/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $217,000 - $303,900 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

Use this summary to align your resume positioning with the role.

Demonstrates expertise in building and operating high-scale, low-latency distributed systems, with a strong focus on DDoS mitigation, bot management, and real-time traffic analysis. Proven ability to mentor engineers and collaborate effectively across teams to enhance security and user experience.

Highest-signal resume keywords

DDoS MitigationPython ProgrammingDistributed SystemsNetworking FundamentalsReal-Time Systems

ATS Keywords

Tailor your resume

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills

PythonGoRustJavaC++DDoS MitigationTraffic ClassificationAnomaly DetectionLoad BalancingHTTP

Soft Skills

Excellent CommunicationMentoring

Tools & Technologies

WAFsCDNsProxiesTCP/IPTLS

Industry Keywords

High ThroughputLow LatencyAutomated AbuseIncident ResponseOperational Excellence

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

C++Distributed SystemsGoJavaPythonRustTCP/IP

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Design, build, and operate high-scale, low-latency systems protecting Reddit from DDoS attacks, bots, and automated abuse
Analyze, develop, and evolve ingress-level defenses across CDN, edge, and internal infrastructure layers
Build real-time systems to detect, score, and mitigate malicious traffic at per-request and per-user granularity
Partner with Infrastructure, Security, and internal Safety teams to balance security, performance, and user experience
Mentor junior engineers
Contribute to ML-at-Ingress initiatives, including models for traffic classification, bot detection, and anomaly detection
Own services end-to-end, including design, implementation, on-call, and operational excellence
Participate in incident response and post-incident analysis for large-scale network or abuse events

Requirements

What you’ll need

7+ years of experience building and operating high throughput and low latency production distributed systems
Software development experience in one or more general purpose programming languages: Python, Go, Rust, Java, or C++
Excellent communication skills to collaborate with a service-oriented team and company
Experience with DDoS mitigation, WAFs, bot management, or abuse prevention systems
Experience with networking fundamentals: HTTP, TLS, TCP/IP, proxies, CDNs, and load balancing

Benefits

Comp & perks

Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Income Replacement Programs
401k with Employer Match
Global Benefit programs that fit your lifestyle, from workspace to professional development to caregiving support
Family Planning Support
Gender-Affirming Care
Mental Health & Coaching Benefits
Flexible Vacation & Paid Volunteer Time Off
Generous Paid Parental Leave
Equity in the form of restricted stock units
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
Generous time off for vacation and parental leave
Opportunity to opt out of interview recording, transcription, and summarization