Senior Software Engineer 2
Drata · San Diego, United States · 2d ago
Drata is building the trust layer between great companies - automating compliance, managing risk, and helping organizations prove trust continuously as they scale. We're Dratanauts: a global crew of 600+ professionals united by a culture that rewards integrity, ownership, and raising the bar, no matter where in the world we're working from.
Why Join the Drata Team?
At Drata, you're not maintaining legacy compliance software - you're building the agentic AI platform defining what trust looks like for the next generation of companies. Here's what makes the work itself worth showing up for:
Problems without a playbook: You'll work at the edge of AI and security, building agentic governance, continuous compliance, and real-time trust verification to solve problems that don't have an established answer yet. You're writing it as you go.
Real ownership, not just process: Our values center on owning outcomes and raising the bar, not checking boxes. You're expected to have opinions and back them.
A seat at the table: Your perspective is unique and valued. Open debate and diverse viewpoints are built into how decisions actually get made here, at every level.
Growth at rocketship speed: Drata is scaling fast, which means scope grows fast too. High performers get more ownership, visibility, and experience.
A crew, not just coworkers: Dratanauts consistently describe a "come as you are" culture with sharp, curious people—the kind of team that makes hard problems genuinely fun to solve. See what they say here and follow us on LinkedIn for company news, employee stories, and career updates.
Job Summary:
The Senior Software Engineer II helps lead the platform development by making architecture decisions to ensure we're building clean, maintainable, and beautiful applications. This person is responsible for maintaining, expanding, and scaling our APIs that power our web applications. They develop specifications for moderately complex software programming applications and modify/maintain the existing software. This position participates in design and coding activities with other staff members. The Senior Software Engineer will work closely with management and other leads to design and implement new systems, maintain operations of the production systems and to coordinate work across all the initiatives of the Engineering team. They will operate in a distributed architecture, building the infrastructure to manage Big Data and solve complex algorithmic problems.
What you’ll do:
Architect and develop highly scalable web applications, including AI-powered features
Build RESTful APIs and integrate with LLM services and AI capabilities
Design and implement streaming responses and real-time UI patterns for AI-driven experiences
Build tools, services, and automation to extend platform capabilities
Run critical operational portions of our ingestion, analytics, and storage infrastructure
Collaborate with product managers and AI engineers to define strategic solutions and participate in the agile refinement process
Assist with server-side code and database architecture on the back-end in NodeJS
Develop clean UI/UX with the collaboration of our design teams, with attention to AI interaction patterns
Work with management and other architects to ensure quality in solutions and software design
Participate in development lifecycle activities like design, coding, testing, and production release
Write reusable, testable, and efficient code
Deliver code in an agile team environment
Research and train on technologies you think may be appropriate for current or future projects, including emerging AI/LLM capabilities
What you’ll bring:
7+ years of experience as a software engineer
3+ years of experience with NodeJS
1+ years experience in NestJS preferred
3+ years of experience with React
Strong skills needed in: Javascript, ES6, NodeJS, TypeORM, MySQL, Git, and REST principles
Knowledge in Jest and Redis
Proficiency in object-oriented programming
Good understanding of algorithms, network protocols, and web services
Experience with one of the major cloud hosting systems (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Self-directed, independent, and has experience owning complete features/products
Experience developing real-world web applications
Outstanding ability to negotiate difficult tradeoffs (e.g., quality vs. speed, collaboration vs. get-it-done)
Agile development experience
Previous startup or scaling experience is a plus
Self-motivated and adaptable to changing technologies and requirements
Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or related field
Strong communication ability - we want to know your thoughts and input!
Nice to have: Terraform, ElasticSearch, & Snowflake
Nice to have: Experience with compliance frameworks like SOC2, ISO27017, NIST etc.
Bilingual in English & Spanish is a plus
AI Experience (required - at least one of the following):
Hands-on experience building features that integrate with LLMs or AI services
Demonstrated passion for AI through personal projects, contributions, or continuous learning
Experience with prompt engineering and understanding of LLM capabilities and limitations
Familiarity with streaming responses and real-time UI patterns for AI applications
Experience building conversational interfaces, chatbots, or chat-based user experiences
Understanding of conversation state management, context windows, and multi-turn dialogue patterns
How we support you:
At Drata, our people are our strongest advantage—and we prove it with support that exceeds industry standards. Our total rewards package is designed to power your well-being, accelerate your growth, and keep your work-life balance thriving.
Explore how we invest in your Life at Drata.
Shared Success: We provide stock equity to ensure that as the company grows, you share directly in that success. Equity gives every employee a sense of ownership and the opportunity to celebrate our wins together—because your contributions don’t just support our progress; they help drive our collective success.
Health & Wellness: Up to 100% employer-paid premiums for medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and their dependents, along with comprehensive wellness benefits and healthcare concierge services designed to support your needs beyond traditional insurance.
Financial Well-being: A comprehensive suite of financial benefits, including a 401(k) plan, company-paid life and disability insurance, tax-advantaged spending accounts, and a range of discounted voluntary offerings to help you customize and strengthen your overall financial position.
Family Support: We want to support you in life's most important moments, so we offer a paid Parental Leave policy, after six months of employment. Employees also receive access to Kindbody fertility and family-building benefits and dedicated leave specialists who help guide you through the entire process.
Growth & Development: Generous annual stipends for both professional and personal development, empowering you to invest in your continued growth. You’ll also have access to a wide range of internal learning opportunities, ensuring you can build new skills, deepen your expertise, and advance your career with confidence.
Time Off & Flexibility: We believe that to do your best work, you should get the time you need for rest, rejuvenation and recovery. Drata offers a flexible vacation policy, paid holidays, and other perks to recharge.
The expected base salary range for this role is between $157,500 - $262,500 and is listed to provide transparency. Actual base pay will vary based on multiple factors — market location, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and overall alignment to the role.
Candidates shouldn't expect automatic placement at any particular point within the range. Offer amounts are determined by the qualifications each candidate brings to the position. Total compensation may also include equity designed to provide meaningful ownership in the company, as well as health and wellbeing benefits.