Staff Software Developer in Test, Systems Test

About Cribl

Cribl does differently. It means we are a serious company that doesn’t take itself too seriously; and we’re looking for people who love to get stuff done, and laugh a bit along the way. We’re growing rapidly - looking for collaborative, curious, and motivated team members who are passionate about putting customers first. As a remote-first company we believe in empowering our employees to do their best work, wherever they are.

As the data engine for IT and Security many of the biggest names in the most demanding industries trust Cribl to solve their most pressing data needs. Ready to do the best work of your career? Join the herd and unlock your opportunity.

Why You'll Love This Role

Cribl is looking for a Staff Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to join our System Test team. This is a high-impact role for an experienced engineer who not only drives deep technical testing initiatives but also helps define and evolve our strategic approach to product quality.

As a Staff Software Developer in Test, you’ll dig deep into Cribl’s distributed systems, customer usage patterns, and codebase to uncover gaps in test coverage, expand automated testing frameworks, and proactively identify risk areas before our customers ever see them. You’ll partner closely with developers to identify complex edge cases, with customer-facing teams to analyze field issues, and with product and test leadership to build long-term roadmaps that strengthen our testing ecosystem.

This role requires both technical mastery and systems-level thinking—you’ll not only solve problems, but also shape how we discover and prevent them.

As An Active Member Of Our Team, You Will…

• Lead technical and strategic initiatives that improve the depth and breadth of our testing coverage across Cribl’s product suite.
• Perform meta-analysis on customer-reported issues to identify systemic risks and patterns in product usage.
• Work with the development team as you inspect product code, understand intricate system behaviors, and telemetry data to identify high risk functionality and create strategies to test them.
• Partner with Customer Support, Sustained Engineering, and Product teams to do root cause analysis, reproduce issues, and strategize long-term quality improvements.
• Design and evolve the architecture of test frameworks, tooling, and data-driven analysis systems to meet our testing needs that scale with our growing product line.
• Define and drive multi-phase roadmaps that enhance our testing environment—balancing short-term improvements with long-term infrastructure and automation goals.
• Mentor other SDETs and engineers in advanced test design, system analysis, and debugging best practices.
• This position may require occasional stand-by or on-call duties outside of normal business hours, based on business need.

If You've Got It - We Want It

• 8+ years of experience as a Software Engineer or SDET, with a Computer Science degree and/or equivalent technical experience.
• Proven expertise in analyzing complex systems, reading and understanding production code, and designing test strategies for distributed architectures.
• Hands-on experience with cloud and container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, etc.).
• Strong proficiency in at least one programming language (Python, Go, Java, or similar) and the ability to work across multiple languages or stacks.
• Experience creating and scaling test frameworks and automation systems that support both backend and frontend testing.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to use customer data, logs, and metrics to uncover risk areas and opportunities for test coverage expansion.
• Demonstrated success in driving cross-functional quality initiatives that span engineering, support, and product management.
• Familiarity with data-intensive systems or stream processing environments is a major plus.
• Excellent communication skills—able to articulate technical findings and recommendations with clarity to both engineers and leadership.
• Proven ability to lead through influence, mentor peers, and break complex quality improvement initiatives into executable workstreams.

Salary and Benefits

The salary for this role is dependent on geographic location. The salary offered within the range described will be based on the individual candidate’s job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to a competitive salary, Cribl also offers a generous benefits package which includes health, dental, vision, short-term disability, and life insurance, paid holidays and paid time off, a fertility treatment benefit, 401(k), equity, and eligibility for a discretionary company-wide bonus.

Bring Your Whole Self

Diversity drives innovation, enables better decisions to support our customers, and inspires change for the better. We’re building a culture where differences are valued and welcomed, and we work together to bring out the best in each other. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics in the location in which the candidate is applying.

Interested in joining the Cribl herd? Learn more about the smartest, funniest, most passionate goats you’ll ever meet at cribl.io/about-us.

Key skills/competency

• Distributed Systems
• Test Automation
• Cloud Technologies
• Containerization
• Python
• Go
• Java
• Data Analysis
• Root Cause Analysis
• System Design