← All roles

Senior R&D Engineer

Proton· CC - Engineering - VPN
Apply on company site
Hybrid (Barcelona; Geneva; Vilnius)full-timePosted 7mo ago

About the role

Senior Performance Engineer to lead Proton VPN’s end-to-end performance measurement, analysis, and optimization across clients, platforms, and global infrastructure, with a focus on making Proton VPN fast, resilient, and reliable.

Responsibilities

  • Design and own Proton VPN’s performance framework, defining metrics and KPIs that reflect real-world user experience (time-to-connect, throughput, latency, stability, reconnection rates, etc.).
  • Develop distributed testing systems that simulate real network conditions, including low bandwidth, packet loss, and high-latency scenarios.
  • Continuously measure and analyze performance across platforms (desktop, mobile, backend) and regions to identify bottlenecks and regressions.
  • Collaborate with backend, R&D, and client teams to optimize protocol handling, connection setup, routing, and encryption performance.
  • Create dashboards, reports, and automated alerts to track global performance health.
  • Contribute to the design of resilient connectivity strategies that adapt dynamically to variable network conditions.
  • Serve as the performance champion within the engineering organization, mentoring others and driving a data-driven performance culture.

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in performance engineering or systems QA, ideally in networking, VPNs, or distributed systems.
  • Knowledge of network protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, TLS, WireGuard, debugging, manipulating, and performance profiling tools).
  • Proven ability to analyze latency, throughput, and stability metrics across multiple layers (client, OS, transport, application).
  • Proficiency in Python (or similar scripting language)
  • Familiarity with network emulation and simulation tools (e.g., tc/netem, iperf, IPTables/nfTables…).
  • Experience with monitoring and observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, Loki) and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Cross-platform experience with Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS preferred.

Skills

Required:Performance engineeringNetwork protocolsMetrics and data analysisPythonNetwork emulation/toolsObservability/CI-CD
Nice to have:Cross-platform experience

Benefits

  • Office First: offices in Geneva, Zurich, Prague, Barcelona, Paris, London, Vilnius, Skopje, and Taipei with up to 30% remote work.
  • Technology: devices and software provided to excel in role.
  • Food: lunch and snacks provided daily at offices.
  • Transport: subsidies for public transport, bike allowances, or parking based on location.
  • Stock Options: stock options upon joining.
  • Flexible Working: own working hours with team meetings.
  • Learning and Development: training programs, conferences, and continual learning.
  • Employee Benefits: health insurance, retirement options, vacation and leave policies, wellness programs.
Last updated Jul 9, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Proton

Privacy by default

Proton was started in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN and shared a vision of an internet that defends freedom and puts people first.

EmailCalendarVPNDriveDocsSheetsPhotosPassword manager
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at Proton