SRE Manager (VPN)

We chose a simple stack on purpose, and we plan to keep it and extend it.

This is a management role, so you will not write production code. You do need to be technical enough to read the team's code, question its designs, and examine its postmortems in detail.

What you will do

• Manage and develop a team of eight engineers.
• Decide what the team automates and measures first, and deliver that plan.
• Own the reliability of the Proton VPN fleet, including SLOs, error budgets, incident response, and postmortems.
• Build monitoring that shows what users experience in each country, starting with throughput.
• Replace manual provisioning, deployment, and repair work with tooling that ships changes to the fleet quickly and safely.
• Set the engineering standards for the team, and coach engineers to solve operational problems with software.
• Plan capacity and new locations with VPN product engineering, Proton's infrastructure teams, and our network and datacenter providers.

What we are looking for

• Several years of experience managing site reliability, infrastructure, or platform teams.
• Experience leading a team from manual operations to automated ones, with results you can describe.
• Strong technical judgment on large Linux fleets. You can review a design, read Python and Ansible, and find the gaps in a postmortem.
• Experience owning the reliability of a production service, including SLOs, error budgets, incident response, and postmortems.
• Experience building or rebuilding the monitoring of a production service, and getting engineers to rely on it.
• Experience running physical infrastructure, or a clear willingness to learn it.
• Experience developing engineers, giving direct feedback, and addressing underperformance.
• Experience delivering projects that depend on teams outside your own.
• The habit of setting your own priorities. We will give you goals, and you will decide with the team how to reach them.
• Clear writing in strategy documents, incident reports, and engineering standards.
• A commitment to privacy. Proton VPN keeps no logs of user activity, and you will have to improve observability within that limit.
• Proton is an office-first company. We expect you to spend most of your time in the office, and while we do offer some flexibility to work from home, we believe in-person collaboration helps us build the best products.

Bonus points for

• Deep networking knowledge: routing, peering, tunnelling protocols such as WireGuard and OpenVPN, and packet-level debugging.
• Experience with censorship circumvention, or with running infrastructure in restricted network environments.
• Experience operating a fleet across many countries, including the vendor and legal work involved.
• A background as a software engineer, in Python or another language.

What We Offer

• Work that Matters: millions of people trust Proton with their privacy. We answer only to our users — not advertisers, not investors with conflicting agendas, not governments. The work you do here is real, and the impact is measurable.
• Stock Options: at Proton, we all have the opportunity to be owners of the company. From day one, you have a real stake in what we're building. When Proton wins, you win.
• Technology: you'll get the right hardware and the right software you need to do your best work.
• Learning & Development: we invest in your growth because sharp people make us better. Proton is one of the fastest ways to accelerate your career because you'll be thrown into real challenges, with real ownership, from day one.
• Employee Benefits: your wellbeing isn't an afterthought. We offer strong health coverage, solid retirement options, generous leave, and wellness support so you can bring your best self to work every day.
• Food: Lunch and snacks are on us every day in our offices so you can focus on the work and not on what's for lunch.
• Transport: getting to the office shouldn't cost you. We cover public transport, bike allowances, or parking, whichever works for you.
• Flexible Working: you own your schedule. Set hours that work for you and your team — because outcomes matter more than when the clock says you started.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Proton, we believe diversity drives innovation and strengthens our mission to provide privacy as a default for all. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical ability, or socio-economic background, feel valued and empowered. We strive to create equal opportunities, promote open dialogue, and support continuous learning to ensure every voice is heard and respected.

Compensation range

Barcelona: 62,000-95,000 euros gross annually. Other locations: Compensation will be discussed during the interview process. Final compensation will be determined based on the candidate's qualifications, skills, and previous experience.