# Principal Software Development Engineer Person & Trust Platform

**Company:** [Idme](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/idme)
**Location:** Mountain View, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $243k – $307k/yr
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** Data Modeling, Graph Databases, API Design, Graph Data Structures, Nist 800-63, GCP, AWS, Azure, Verifiable Credentials, Decentralized Identifiers, OIDC
**Posted:** 2026-07-02

> Principal engineer owning data model strategy, API contracts, and architecture for ID.me's foundational Person, Trust, and Inspection Catalog systems that determine identity and confidence scoring. Requires 10+ years experience with deep expertise in graph data modeling and source-of-truth APIs.

## Job Description

## Key Responsibilities
- Own the data model strategy and long-term architecture across the Person API, Trust Service, and Inspection Catalog, keeping all three as the authoritative source of truth for identity, evidence, and confidence.
- Own the API contracts across the domain, including versioning, compatibility, and governance standards that internal and external consumers depend on.
- Set technical direction and design standards for the domain.
- Mentor staff and senior engineers, raising the bar for data modeling, API design, and trust architecture across the organization.
- Lead the modernization and consolidation of legacy identity data into a scalable, modular set of services and contracts.
- Ensure the security, privacy, and compliance of Person, Trust, and Inspection Catalog data.

## Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time as a recognized technical authority for a complex domain spanning multiple systems.
- Deep expertise in data modeling and graph data structures, including designing schemas and relationships that remain correct, performant, and auditable at scale.
- Proven track record designing and owning APIs and data contracts for source-of-truth systems used by internal and external consumers.
- Demonstrated ability to set technical strategy and drive alignment across engineering teams without direct authority.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.

## Preferred Qualifications
- Hands-on experience with graph databases and the modeling tradeoffs between graph and relational representations of connected identity data.
- Experience modeling evidence and confidence scoring into a coherent, queryable record.
- Experience building or owning systems that model, store, and maintain person or entity attributes and relationships at scale.
- Expertise in NIST 800-63 IAL2/AAL2 standards, including evidence requirements, verification methods, and identity lifecycle management.
- Experience with cloud-native infrastructure (GCP, AWS, or Azure).
- Experience operating in regulated environments (security, compliance, or data privacy requirements).
- Familiarity with emerging identity and credentialing standards (e.g., Verifiable Credentials, Decentralized Identifiers, OIDC extensions).
- Excellent communication skills and a track record of influencing technical direction across an organization.

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