Senior Software Engineer - Customer Engineering
AI is being run everywhere, by humans and agents. Harmonic Security governs all of it. The AI Governance and Control (AIGC) platform understands user / agent intent and data context in real time, giving security teams visibility and control across every tool and workflow so companies can move faster with AI while minimizing risk.
We operate in one of the fastest-moving spaces in tech: the emerging intersection of AI and cybersecurity. It's a market still being defined, and we're among the first to build natively for it - protecting sensitive data in real time, at the endpoint, with minimal friction for the teams using it. Enterprises get full visibility and control. Their people get to innovate without guardrails slowing them down.
Named to the Rising in Cyber 2026 list, Harmonic is gaining serious recognition and serious traction. We're led by deep cybersecurity expertise and backed by investors who know the space: N47, Ten Eleven Ventures, and In-Q-Tel.
As AI adoption inside the enterprise accelerates, the ability to safely observe, control, and enforce policy in real time isn't a nice-to-have. It's mission-critical infrastructure. That's what we build.
How We Work: AI-First by Design
Harmonic exists to help enterprises adopt AI safely and at scale. We hold ourselves to that same standard. Everyone here actively leverages AI tools to perform their best work - from deep research and writing to building robust processes and automating complex workflows. We expect every new hire to bring a genuine curiosity for AI and a commitment to using it to work smarter, faster, and with greater creativity.
For some, this involves tinkering and remaining open to emerging tools; for others, it means architecting entirely new systems with AI at the core. We will be transparent about expectations for every role and provide the tools and support needed for you to thrive.
About the Team
Customer Engineering is a brand-new function at Harmonic, and you'll be one of the first people to build it. This is a deliberate philosophy, not just a new team name: we're treating customer experience as an engineering problem. Every repeated question or manual fix is a signal that something should be automated, instrumented, or resolved at the root, not answered by hand.
The mission is simple to state and hard to do well: give customers fast, accurate answers, and use engineering to make the next hundred questions faster to answer than the last one. That means real backend work - fixing bugs, shipping small customer-driven improvements, and building automation and tooling that reduces how much of this has to be done by hand at all. You'll have direct influence over how this function is run, tooled, and measured from day one.
About the Role
We're looking for a Backend Engineer to sit inside Customer Engineering rather than the product roadmap team. You'll be the technical backbone for how we support and delight customers day-to-day: triaging and fixing bugs, resolving smallish customer requests, spotting opportunities to get ahead of a problem or surprise a customer with something they didn't ask for, and - critically - building tools and automation that let customers (and the team around you) get answers without needing an engineer in the loop every time. You'll work across our core applications, identity providers, and data security platforms, and you'll bring the same engineering rigor to this function as you would to product work - just pointed at a different problem.
What You'll Do
Triage, diagnose, and fix customer-reported bugs across our backend services
Deliver smallish customer-driven requests and improvements, keeping a lightweight roadmap of your own
Build tooling and automation that let customers and internal teams self-serve answers, cutting down repeat questions that would otherwise need an engineer
Dig into microservices, event-driven pipelines, and integrations with identity providers and data security platforms to find and resolve root causes, not just symptoms
Work directly with customers and internal stakeholders to understand what's actually blocking them, then decide whether the right fix is a patch, a tool, or a process change
Instrument and monitor the systems customers depend on so recurring issues get surfaced and fixed before they pile up - and so you can spot chances to reach out or ship something before a customer even raises it
Look for moments to delight, not just resolve: a workflow that could be smoother, a report that could be automatic, a question that could be answered before it's asked
Track how much of the customer experience is still manual, and systematically drive that down through automation and fixes
Help define what "good" looks like for this function - process, tooling, and metrics - since you're building it from scratch
What You Bring
5+ years of professional software engineering experience building backend services and distributed systems in the Java ecosystem (Java, Spring Boot, Maven)
Strong understanding of event-driven architectures, asynchronous processing patterns, messaging systems, and distributed system design
Proven experience designing and maintaining RESTful APIs, web hooks, and service-to-service integrations
Comfortable operating in AWS, GCP, or Azure environments and working with modern observability tooling, logging, and monitoring platforms
A track record of delivering performant, reliable and scalable applications
Excellent collaboration and communication skills in cross-functional teams, including direct, empathetic communication with customers
Comfortable moving between hands-on debugging, small feature delivery, and building internal tooling in the same week
You Might Be a Fit if You
Have experience building products in cybersecurity, identity, governance, compliance, data protection, or enterprise SaaS environments
You understand not just how to build systems, but why architectural decisions matter
You can balance scalability, reliability, maintainability, and speed of execution
You think critically about security, observability, and operational excellence from day one
Love the idea of blending software development, distributed systems and data-intensive applications
Strong familiarity with authentication and identity technologies such as OAuth, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML, SCIM, Entra ID (Azure AD), Okta, or other enterprise identity providers
Thrive in fast-paced startup environments where ambiguity is the norm
Enjoy shaping culture and engineering practices, not just writing code - especially for a function that doesn't exist yet
Get satisfaction from unblocking a customer quickly, and then from automating away the need to do it again
Prefer variety and a mix of problem sizes over long, single-threaded builds
Leverage AI tools as an engineer to help you build smarter, faster and better
Why Join Us
This isn't just a job - it's a chance to help define a category. We're building at the intersection of AI and security, carving out an emerging market where the rules haven't been written yet, and the people who join now will write them.
We believe today's talent is tomorrow's success, and we're committed to creating an environment where you can do the best work of your life.
Recognized momentum - We made the Rising in Cyber 2026 list, a signal that the market is taking notice
Rare market opportunity - Join early in a category-defining company at the convergence of AI and security, where your work directly shapes how enterprises tackle one of the biggest unsolved problems in tech
Competitive pay and meaningful equity - A real stake in Harmonic's success, not a token gesture
Comprehensive benefits - 401K, pension plan, generous PTO, and flexible hybrid work
A small, high-trust team that values transparency, creativity, and continuous learning - no politics, no bureaucracy
Thoughtful leadership - that cares deeply about your growth, not just your output
Annual global off-sites - past trips include Lisbon, Portugal and Nashville, TN
Real ownership - you'll shape the product, the culture, and the direction of the company from day one
Harmonic's Core Values
Flourish in the Unknown
We embrace new, unfamiliar situations that require initiative and rapid decision-making. We orient ourselves quickly and deliver results with minimal guidance.
Never Full
We raise our hands, take on challenges, and assist others whenever possible. We hunger for opportunities to learn and do more.
Perfect Harmony
We support one another to create cohesion and unity. We collaborate openly, share feedback honestly, and help everyone produce their best work