As a Software Engineer at Obsidian Security, you will play a critical role in defining the future of SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM). Obsidian Security is dedicated to protecting SaaS environments from complex threats, insider risks, and posture misconfigurations. In this role, you will design and build highly scalable, fault-tolerant systems capable of processing massive volumes of event data and configurations from various SaaS platforms like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Workday.

Your engineering efforts will directly impact how enterprise organizations detect and mitigate security threats in real-time. You will work on sophisticated data pipelines, API integrations, and security analysis frameworks that must operate seamlessly at immense scale. This requires a deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and modern security patterns.

The engineering organization at Obsidian Security values practical problem-solving, real-world thinking, and collaborative execution. You will face complex challenges involving high-throughput data ingestion, complex event processing, and security analysis. For engineers who thrive on solving hard technical problems at the intersection of cloud scale and cybersecurity, this position offers an incredibly rewarding and high-impact environment.

The questions encountered during the Obsidian Security hiring process are designed to evaluate your practical engineering skills, system architecture capabilities, and behavioral alignment. These questions are drawn from real reported interview experiences and are structured to test your real-world thinking rather than rote memorization.

System Design and Security Analysis

These questions assess your ability to architect scalable, secure, and resilient systems that align with Obsidian Security's core domain.

• How would you design a scalable data ingestion pipeline to process high-volume event logs from multiple third-party SaaS APIs?
• Explain how you would handle rate limiting and API throttling when fetching data from external SaaS providers.

Preparing for an interview at Obsidian Security requires a balanced approach that covers technical depth, architectural design, and behavioral readiness. You should focus on demonstrating practical application rather than theoretical perfection.

Technical Deep Dive & Domain Knowledge – You must show a strong command of modern programming languages (such as Python, Go, or Java) and cloud technologies. Be ready to explain the inner workings of distributed data pipelines, caching strategies, and database indexing. Interviewers will probe your understanding of SaaS integrations and security protocols like OAuth, SAML, and IAM.

System & Security Architecture – Candidates are heavily evaluated on their ability to design systems that are both scalable and secure. Practice designing end-to-end architectures, focusing on data ingestion, storage, and processing layers. You should be prepared to discuss real-world constraints such as network latency, data consistency, and API rate limits.

Problem-Solving & Practical Application – Obsidian Security values engineers who can think on their feet and apply engineering principles to practical security problems. Avoid over-engineering your solutions; instead, focus on simple, robust designs that address the core requirements. Be prepared to explain your trade-offs clearly.

Cultural & Executive Alignment – You will likely interact with engineering leadership and executives during the process. They will evaluate your professional maturity, communication style, and career alignment. Be prepared to discuss your background confidently and handle direct, challenging questions about your past technical choices.

The interview process for a Software Engineer at Obsidian Security is structured to thoroughly evaluate both your technical capabilities and your alignment with the company's engineering culture. The process is designed to be collaborative, with a strong focus on real-world engineering scenarios.

Initially, you will undergo an HR screen to discuss your background, career goals, and compensation expectations. Following a successful screen, you will progress to a technical deep dive with a hiring manager and a tricky online technical assessment. The core of the evaluation takes place during a rigorous panel phase that tests your system design and security analysis skills through practical assessments and collaborative discussions.

While the overall structure is highly organized, candidates should be prepared for varying timelines. Response times can be fast initially but may slow down during the final decision-making steps post-panel. Additionally, some candidates will face an executive interview round that focuses heavily on your background and career decisions.

The timeline above outlines the standard progression from the initial recruiter contact to the final decision. Candidates should use this timeline to pace their preparation, ensuring they allocate sufficient time to practice system design before the take-home and panel stages. Note that the exact timing of the executive interview can vary depending on leadership availability.

System Design and Security Analysis

This is one of the most critical evaluation areas at Obsidian Security. The engineering team wants to see how you approach building complex, secure SaaS monitoring systems. You will be evaluated on your ability to handle high-throughput data, manage third-party API limitations, and design for high availability.

Be ready to go over:

• Data Ingestion Architectures – How to queue, buffer, and process large volumes of incoming SaaS event data using technologies like Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• SaaS API Integration – Strategies for handling token management, rate limits, and schema evolution across multiple external platforms.
• Security & Multi-Tenancy – Ensuring strict data isolation, secure key management, and robust access controls across the entire system.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Zero-trust network architectures, real-time stream processing optimization, and complex event correlation engines.

Example scenarios:

• "Design a system that securely connects to 50 different enterprise SaaS applications, continuously pulls user activity logs, and normalizes the data into a single schema."
• "How would you architect a rate-limiting fallback mechanism that ensures no security logs are lost when an external SaaS API temporarily blocks our requests?"

Coding and Practical Problem-Solving

The coding evaluations at Obsidian Security focus on your ability to write clean, maintainable, and efficient code. The initial online assessment is known to be challenging, featuring tricky test cases designed to evaluate your attention to detail and edge-case handling.

Be ready to go over:

• Data Structure Optimization – Selecting the right data structures to minimize time and space complexity in high-throughput pipelines.
• Concurrency and Parallelism – Writing thread-safe code, managing connection pools, and handling asynchronous tasks.
• Parsing and Validation – Safely parsing, validating, and transforming unstructured or semi-structured JSON and XML payloads.

Example scenarios:

• "Write a function that parses a stream of security logs and detects duplicate login events within a sliding time window."
• "Implement an algorithm to efficiently merge overlapping IP address ranges in a network security configuration list."

Behavioral and Executive Review

The behavioral and executive rounds at Obsidian Security assess your communication, resilience, and professional alignment. You may encounter rigorous questioning from executives who will critically analyze your career choices, past employers, and engineering decisions.

Be ready to go over:

• Career Decisions – The rationale behind your career moves and what you learned at each of your previous companies.
• Conflict and Feedback – How you handle critical feedback regarding your technical designs or past experience.
• Ownership and Collaboration – Examples of how you have driven projects to completion and collaborated across multi-functional teams.

Example scenarios:

• "Why did you choose to work at your last company, and why do you believe now is the right time to transition?"
• "Describe a time when a senior leader strongly disagreed with your technical approach. How did you handle the critique and move the project forward?"