Staff Software Engineer — Active Directory Internals & Directory Services

Cohesity is the leader in AI-powered data security. Over 13,600 enterprise customers, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 and nearly 70% of the Global 500, rely on Cohesity to strengthen their resilience while providing Gen AI insights into their vast amounts of data. Formed from the combination of Cohesity with Veritas’ enterprise data protection business, the company’s solutions secure and protect data on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge. Backed by NVIDIA, IBM, HPE, Cisco, AWS, Google Cloud, and others, Cohesity is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, with offices around the globe. We’ve been named a Leader by multiple analyst firms and have been globally recognized for Innovation, Product Strength, and Simplicity in Design , and our culture. Want to join the leader in AI-powered data security? About the Role We're looking for an engineer who understands Active Directory the way its designers do — not just how to administer it, but how it actually works underneath: how objects replicate, how changes are tracked, how deletions age out, and how identity continuity is preserved across restores. You'll build and harden the core engine that reads, tracks, and safely writes AD state, powering reliable backup, synchronization, and recovery at scale. This is a deep-systems role. If you've ever debugged a replication metadata mismatch, reasoned about USN rollback, or cared about SID history surviving a cross-domain restore, you'll be at home here. What You'll Do Design and implement the directory engine that discovers, tracks, and safely applies changes to Active Directory objects. Build robust change-tracking pipelines using DirSync, USN cookies, and change notification, handling cursor persistence, catch-up, and re-sync correctly. Implement correct object lifecycle handling — tombstones, deleted-object lifetime, and Recycle Bin semantics — for accurate backup and recovery. Guarantee identity continuity across operations: SID, SID history, and GUID preservation and validation. Implement safe write paths — modify, ModifyDN, and object creation — with idempotency, conflict handling, and integrity guarantees. Work with AD-integrated DNS and Group Policy internals to ensure complete, consistent capture and restore. Diagnose and resolve complex replication, consistency, and LDAP edge cases in production environments. Required Skills & Experience You should have hands-on, internals-level expertise across most of the following: Schema & Replication AD schema, object classes, and linked-value replication Replication metadata, USN semantics, and consistency reasoning Directory Access LDAP search and controls, including paged and persistent search DirSync, USN cookies, and change notification for change tracking Object Lifecycle Tombstones, deleted-object lifetime, and AD Recycle Bin behavior Identity Continuity SID, SID history, and GUID continuity semantics across domains and restores Group Policy & DNS Group Policy internals: GPC / GPT and SYSVOL AD-integrated DNS zones and records Safe Writes Correct and safe modify, ModifyDN, and object-create operations Nice to Have Experience building backup, replication, disaster-recovery, or migration tooling for Active Directory. Familiarity with Entra ID / Azure AD hybrid environments. Depth in C/C++, C#, Go; systems-level performance work. Experience operating against large, multi-domain / multi-forest deployments. Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates: For information on personal data processing, please see our Privacy Policy. Equal Employment Opportunity Employer (EEOE) Cohesity is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or nationality, ancestry, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status or any other category protected by law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, or are limited in the ability or unable to access or use this online application process and need an alternative method for applying, you may contact us at 1-855-9COHESITY or recruiting@cohesity.com for assistance. In-Office Expectations Cohesity employees who are within a reasonable commute (e.g. within a forty-five (45) minute average travel time) work out of our core offices 2-3 days a week of their choosing. We strongly prefer candidates who are currently located in or near the designated job location. Candidates outside the area should apply only if they are committed to relocating prior to their start date and have the legal right to work in the job location. Join our talent community and receive the latest Workday news, content, and be first in line for new job opportunities. At Cohesity, we move fast, think big and act with purpose.  As cyberthreats rise, our mission is to protect, secure, and unlock insights from the world’s data. We operate as One Team—driven by bold innovation, speed, and a culture of belonging, accountability, and impact.   Join us and help shape one of the most critical missions of our time.  At Cohesity, we foster a culture of excellence and innovation, valuing collaboration across the globe. United as one team, we set high standards and pursue ambitious goals, always looking ahead. Explore our values Cohesity is a place where—regardless of background or identity—every voice matters, every identity is celebrated, and collaboration fuels our innovation. Together, we’re building a workplace where each voice contributes to our success, shaping a future where every employee feels seen, supported, connected, and proud.  Learn More