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Network Security Engineer (Protocol & Architecture)

Gen
Greater London
4 days ago
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Job Description

Who Are We?
We’re not just a company; we’re a global force—fiercely committed to ensuring that everyone, everywhere, can live digitally safe. Our family of brands—Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender, and CCleaner—unites the brightest minds, sharp tech, and diverse thinking to protect over 500 million people.
We’ve built an inclusive workplace where your well-being is a priority, because true success comes from balance and authenticity. When you’re thriving, you’re unstoppable. Bring us your bold ideas and relentless passion.
The digital world isn’t a distant future—it’s our present. If you’re ready to push boundaries and be part of something bigger, join #TeamGen.

Mission and Goals:
We’re looking for a VPN Tech Lead to drive the evolution of our VPN technology—the engine behind Norton Secure VPN and Avast SecureLine VPN. You’ll lead innovation, performance improvements, and protocol development across both client and infrastructure layers.
Our team operates at the core of internet privacy, owning protocols such as WireGuard and Mimic (our in-house solution). Your mission: push the boundaries of VPN performance, reliability, and obfuscation—and ensure our tech meets the needs of hundreds of millions of users in a complex, high-scale environment.
This role can focus purely on technical leadership (architecture, coding, mentoring) or evolve to include organizational/team leadership—depending on your skills and ambitions.

Objectives (What You Will Do in This Role):

Design, implement, and evolve VPN protocols and supporting systems—including WireGuard, Mimic, and related infrastructure.

Optimize performance, reliability, and scalability across client platforms (mobile/desktop) and backend VPN servers.

Collaborate with infrastructure, client, and product teams to align protocol improvements with real-world user needs.

Lead deep technical investigations into bottlenecks, protocol anomalies, and production traffic issues.

Mentor engineers, champion best practices, and set technical direction for the VPN stack.

Drive obfuscation techniques and anti-censorship strategies in network-challenging environments.

Competencies (What You’ll Need to Be Successful in This Role):

Strong working knowledge of network protocols, TCP/IP, and VPN technologies (especially WireGuard, OpenVPN, or proprietary protocols).

Experience building and debugging high-performance, secure systems.

Ability to drive technical projects across both client and infrastructure layers.

Effective communication skills and a collaborative mindset.

Nice to Have:

Experience with custom protocol design, obfuscation, or traffic-shaping techniques.

Background in mobile or desktop VPN client development.

Experience with containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).

Familiarity with infrastructure automation or configuration management (e.g., Terraform, Puppet).

Contributions to open-source security or networking projects.

What We Can Offer:

Annual bonus program.

Unlimited PTO and flexible working hours.

The chance to join a major global tech company in the S&P 500.

Opportunities to learn from and work with leaders in Digital Security.

Cafeteria points via Benefit Plus (meal plan, pension insurance, travel, leisure activities, Multisport card, and more).

Tuition reimbursement for job-related courses.

A personal Learning & Development plan.

A sustainable home-improvement bonus.

Gen is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer, committed to diversity and inclusivity. We base employment decisions on merit, experience, and business needs, without considering race, color, national origin, age, religion, sex, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military or veteran status, or other unlawful factors. Gen prohibits discrimination based on these protected characteristics and recruits talented candidates from diverse backgrounds.We consider individuals with arrest and conviction records and do not discriminate against employees for discussing their own pay or that of other employees or applicants. Learn more about pay transparency. To conform to U.S. export control regulations, applicant should be eligible for any required authorizations from the U.S. Government.

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