SailPoint SaaS Engineering Interview Process

Author: Adeline Chew

When searching for a new position, candidates are looking for a company that is compelling, supportive and aligns with their career goals. And hiring conscientious, dependable, and helpful people is a crucial part of a successful business and a pleasant work environment.

The hiring process at SailPoint is a multi-stage process that gives us the opportunity to evaluate potential candidates while also allowing candidates to evaluate us. However, the biggest challenge with the interview process is that both parties are ultimately evaluating strangers within a short, confined time period.

At SailPoint, we strive to:

1. Provide a great candidate experience, no matter the outcome.
2. Hire excellent teammates who exemplify SailPoint’s Core Values — the Four I’s: Innovation, Integrity, Impact, and Individuals.

This is why the SaaS Engineering department of SailPoint opted for structured interviews at each step of the interview process. It is important to note that this is a guideline; ultimately, it is a conversation between the interviewers and candidates. Interviews can be daunting for interviewees and even seasoned interviewers.

The Application Process

The first step in the process is to apply for an open position on the SailPoint Career site or LinkedIn. The process is fast and easy, where candidates can autofill the forms based on their resume details.

The End-to-End Interview Process

In our current remote work era, calls and interviews take place through Zoom video meetings. The process typically follows the process shared below:

1. Recruiter call
2. Hiring manager call
3. Technical interview (depending on the role)
4. Panel interviews (3–5 sessions)
5. Written feedback submission
6. Roundtable discussion
7. Decision to candidate

Now, let’s dive into what each step in the process will look like.

Recruiter Call

The conversation with a recruiter is the first step in SailPoint’s Engineering interview process. It introduces SailPoint and helps determine the type of role that will be most suitable depending on personal preference, interests, and experience. It also gives candidates the opportunity to ask questions about life at SailPoint, and discover why SailPoint has been awarded as one of the best places to work multiple years in a row! E.g., 2023: 100 Best Large Companies to Work For in Austin 2023 | Built In

Hiring Manager Call

The hiring manager call is a great opportunity for the manager to meet the candidates who could potentially join their team. Similarly, for candidates, this is a chance for them to get to know the person they will be reporting to. Candidates should take advantage of the opportunity to get to learn about the manager’s management style, communication skills, and growth opportunities in the organization.

The manager’s goal of the interview is to understand a candidate’s qualifications and skills based on their past roles, their ability to communicate and problem solve, and to determine whether a candidate could be successful in the role. From a candidate’s perspective, it is important they fully understand the role, its expectations, and how it fits within the organization. After this conversation, the manager determines whether the candidate will proceed to the next interview.

Technical Interview

The technical interview is the step to evaluate a candidate’s problem-solving and programming abilities. Depending on the role, the candidate may be presented with coding exercises through an online code editor that allows the interviewer and candidate to collaborate in real time. Skeleton code will be provided in the shared development environment when applicable. Candidates may implement the solutions in any language of their choosing. Candidates are scored against a rubric based on their technical implementation, which will help determine whether they proceed to the next step of the process.

Panel Interviews

Some roles include a panel interview stage, which consists of 3–5 sessions spanning 45 minutes per session. Panel interviews cover various categories including problem-solving, team and project leadership experience, collaboration, and communication. In addition, there is a set of questions in each category that are directly tied to SailPoint’s Core Values — the Four I’s: Innovation, Integrity, Impact, and Individuals. A rubric is used as a guide for the quality of the answers. Additional resources are available to guide interviewers on how to interpret, assess, and follow up on the discussions with the candidate.

Panel interviews usually have at least two interviewers to increase the number of people the candidate gets to meet and to offer additional perspectives (reducing the chance of interviewer bias) for our assessment process. In every interview setting, we attempt to leave time at the end for candidate questions about SailPoint and the interviewers’ roles here.

Internal Written Feedback Submission

Once an interview session is completed, interviewers submit feedback, recommendations, and general notes to the appropriate role-based interview scorecard before the roundtable. This step is done in isolation to avoid interpersonal bias. The hiring manager can then easily aggregate the team’s feedback, identify gaps or improvements in our knowledge, and potential opportunities to improve the interview process.

Roundtable Discussion

The purpose of a roundtable is to enable interviewers to discuss their feedback on a candidate with the hiring manager. It starts off with a vote from each interviewer on whether to hire or not hire a candidate. Each interviewer will have an opportunity to provide their perspectives on their interview session. The roundtable discussion among the interviewers is crucial because it allows for a more holistic view of the person. At the end of the discussion, a hiring decision will be made by the hiring manager. SailPoint will inform the candidate of the decision within a reasonable timeframe.

The Onboarding Process

Once a candidate accepts a position with SailPoint (Hooray!), the crew member’s (like a sailboat — get it?) onboarding process commences. Below is a sneak peek into the SailPoint SaaS Engineering onboarding process:

1. Before their start date, new crew members will receive a welcome email that includes equipment selection, forms & instructions, logistical information, and important dates.
2. On their first day, a new crew member will meet their manager, get HR forms, initiate training, and get their laptop set up with IT.
3. In addition, the new crew member will be assigned a buddy, who has been around a while and can talk to them about: team processes & practices and be a general helpful guide for the new crew member as they acclimate to SailPoint. The structure is in place to ensure a positive onboarding experience for new crew members!
4. In their first week, the new crew member should: meet their team, take compliance trainings, get invited to team meetings, learn about our products, and get a 30-day plan in place from their manager.
5. Every team has a bit of a different process after this point, but everyone gets introduced to what makes our SailPoint culture special and gets an opportunity to contribute early and often to their team.

If this sounds appealing to you, please check out our open positions. We hope to welcome you aboard!