Software Engineer (Linux)
About this role
Join Proton and build a better internet where privacy is the default
Proton was founded in 2014 by scientists from CERN on a simple truth: privacy is a fundamental human right. Since then, we’ve built the world’s largest encrypted email service (Proton Mail) and expanded into Proton VPN, Proton Drive, Proton Pass, and Proton Calendar—tools used by millions globally to protect their freedom, fight censorship, and keep their data safe. In some situations, Proton has literally helped save lives!
We are profitable, independent (no VC control), and selectively hire from the top ~1% of applicants. Our 500+ team members across 50+ countries come from leading organizations and elite academic backgrounds. We move fast, keep hierarchy light, and prioritize impact over optics. If you want to do meaningful work with exceptionally high-caliber people, this is it. Join us and do work you can truly be proud of. Check our open-source projects here!
The Proton Drive Desktop Team
Proton Drive is our secure, private cloud storage and collaborative editing suite, with clients on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Web. One platform is missing: Linux. You will build it from scratch. This is a greenfield project with high visibility inside Proton and across the open-source community — our entire client codebase is published under an open-source license, and this will be the first public example of how to build a native application on top of the Proton Drive SDK. You will work closely with our Windows and Mac engineers to ensure feature parity, and you will contribute to our platform-agnostic SDK and CLI tooling as the Linux surface area demands it. If building something that the Linux community has been waiting for, and doing it in the open, is the kind of work that gets you out of bed — this role is for you.
Tech Stack and Tools
Linux desktop application development (GTK+ or Qt)
Rust (nice to have)
Git, CI/CD pipelines
Linux packaging and distribution (Debian, Fedora-based)
Responsibilities
- Own the design and implementation of the Proton Drive Linux desktop client, built greenfield from the ground up.
- Ensure the codebase meets the standard expected of production open-source software — it will be read and built upon by developers beyond Proton.
- Integrate deeply with Linux-specific system components, including the filesystem layer for our file synchronization engine.
- Contribute to our platform-agnostic SDK and CLI tooling to ensure Linux features are properly exposed for scripting and cross-client use.
- Build and maintain cross-client automated and end-to-end tests in collaboration with Windows and Mac engineers.
- Define and implement application telemetry to support performance analysis, debugging, and customer support.
- Own the build pipelines, packaging, and distribution across major Linux distros.
- Job requirements:
- 5+ years of experience in software development of Linux-based desktop client software, both with and without a visible interface (i.e., GUI apps as well as CLI apps).
- Applied best practices in code quality paradigms
- Experience with DevOps principles and practices (CI/CD, etc)
- Experience with source control flow through Git (code reviews, branching and merging, etc)
- Open-source Linux development, distribution, packaging and maintenance for multiple distros (e.g. on Debian or Fedora-based platforms)
- Overall, handling the entire SDLC, end to end