Software Engineer II/III/Senior, Gateway

About ngrok Inc.

ngrok is an all-in-one cloud networking platform that secures, transforms, and routes traffic to services running anywhere. Instead of cobbling together nginx, NLBs, VPNs, model routers, and oodles of other tools, developers solve every networking problem with one gateway. Doesn’t matter if they’re sharing localhost or running AI workloads in production.

We're trusted by more than 9 million developers at companies like GitHub, Okta, HashiCorp, and Twilio. What started as a way to put your local app on a public URL has grown into a universal gateway for API delivery, AI inference, device fleets, and site-to-site connectivity. It’s the same ngrok that millions of developers have loved and leaned on every day for years, now with the power to run production traffic at scale.

A few things you should know:

• We are obsessed with our pets, Viper sunglasses and Bufo (yes, the toad)


• We have a designated Chief Emoji Officer - they are vital to our success!


• We like software that’s serious and culture that’s not

Still reading? Good. There's more below worth your time.

About the Gateway Team

We own ngrok’s core gateway layer — the infrastructure that sits between the internet and everything our customers run.

Every request, response, retry, and timeout passes through here.

Our job is to make sure that traffic is:

• Routed exactly where it’s supposed to go


• Secured correctly, every time


• Allowed or blocked for reasons we can explain


• Rate-limited and shaped without surprises


• Observable when something inevitably goes sideways

What You’ll Actually Do

• Build and operate the gateway core: You’ll work on the services every ngrok request passes through. They’re very fast, very hot, and have extremely high standards.


• Design routing and security primitives everyone depends on: You’ll build low-level policy, routing, and validation systems used across the platform—making sure bad configs fail fast and don’t accidentally DDoS the internet.


• Debug distributed systems in the wild: You’ll chase bugs caused by timing, load, and incorrect assumptions. Expect metrics, traces, packet captures, and the occasional “how is this even possible?”


• Ship infrastructure people sleep on (in a good way): You’ll build simple, durable systems and clean abstractions that other teams rely on daily—while thinking about blast radius, safety, and rollbacks more than flashy demos.

You Might Be a Great Fit If…

• You’re comfortable in Go, Rust, C/C++, or Java (bonus points for Go)


• You’ve built networking, proxy, or infrastructure systems in production


• You understand TLS/mTLS


• You enjoy systems that are invisible until they’re not


• You passionate about building primitives other teams depend on


• You’ve said “this needs to be rock solid” and meant it literally

Extra credit if you’ve worked on:

• Gateways, proxies, or edge platforms


• Security-critical infrastructure


• Multi-tenant networking systems


• Config-heavy systems that must never surprise users


• Anything described as “simple” in the original proposal

Tech Stack

ngrok runs entirely on AWS. Engineers develop by SSH’ing into remote EC2 environments that run a full Kubernetes cluster of the ngrok stack, closely mirroring production. The codebase is primarily Go and TypeScript. We use Postgres for persistence, Kafka for streaming, Protobuf for service boundaries, and Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, and Buildkite to operate and ship reliably. React is used for user interfaces, and GitHub supports our development workflows and remembers everything.

Location

This is a remote position for candidates outside of the Bay Area and a hybrid role for candidates within commuting distance to San Francisco. Our Bay Area employees commute to the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Sponsorship

All candidates must be US-based, and legally authorized to work in the United States.

At this time, ngrok is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a permanent, ongoing basis without the need for current or future sponsorship.

Compensation

Senior Software Engineer

• Tier 1 (SF, LA, Seattle, NYC): $202,500 – $247,500


• Tier 2 (rest of US): $186,300 – $227,700

Software Engineer III

• Tier 1 (SF, LA, Seattle, NYC): $180,000 – $220,000


• Tier 2 (rest of US): $165,600 – $202,400

Software Engineer II

• Tier 1 (SF, LA, Seattle, NYC): $148,500 – $181,500


• Tier 2 (rest of US): $136,600 – $166,900

Job level and actual compensation will be evaluated based on factors including, but not limited to, qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), internal equity with other team members, market data, and specific work location. We provide an attractive mix of salary and equity.

#LI-Remote

Full Time Employee Benefits

• Health stuff that actually matters. Full premiums covered on base healthcare, dental, and vision for you. Half covered for your dependents. Mental health and well-being support included, because taking care of your brain is as important as taking care of your teeth.


• Retirement matching that doesn't suck. 401(k) with 100% match up to 3% of your salary and 50% match up to another 2%. Future you will appreciate present you.


• Actually flexible time off. We say "open, flexible vacation policy" and actually mean it. Take the time you need. Your manager will bug you if you're not taking enough.


• Parental leave that's realistic. Up to 16 weeks if you give birth, up to 8 weeks for new parents (birth, adoption, fostering—however your family grows).


• Money to keep growing. Annual professional development budget for books, courses, conferences, or whatever helps you level up. Plus an annual home office/desk stipend to make your workspace not terrible.


• Work from wherever. Co-working space stipend if you want to get out of your house but aren't near our SF office.


• Lunch on us. 2x+ per week for employees onsite at our San Francisco office. Free food tastes better.


• Company offsites. Twice a year we get the whole team together. It's part strategy, part bonding, part excuse to hang out with Bufo (the toad).


• Regular feedback and fair compensation. Bi-annual reviews to make sure you're getting real feedback and staying competitively compensated. No surprises, no waiting around for performance conversations.