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Staff Software Engineer - Wallet/Authentication Platform

222k – 258kMountain View, CABackend EngineeringOnsite8+ YOE
Summary

Staff Software Engineer leading technical direction for ID.me's authentication platform, building sign-in, MFA, and account management infrastructure serving 140M+ users. Requires 8+ years experience, Java/Spring Boot expertise, and AI-assisted development tooling experience.

About the role

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Vision

  • Define and drive the technical roadmap for authentication platform services
  • Identify systemic challenges, architectural risks, and strategic opportunities
  • Author architecture proposals, lead design reviews, and own critical technical decisions

Cross-Team Influence

  • Partner with Platform, Security, Identity, Product, and adjacent engineering teams
  • Align on authentication standards, shared infrastructure, and cross-cutting concerns
  • Represent the team's technical perspective in org-level planning and architectural forums

Systems Design & Architecture

  • Lead end-to-end design and implementation of complex authentication features: sign-in flows, MFA, federation, account lifecycle management
  • Balance security, scale, and developer ergonomics

Security & Risk Engineering

  • Define the team's approach to auth security: threat modeling, credential protection, session management, abuse mitigation, and real-time risk signal integration
  • Champion security as a first-class engineering discipline

Engineering Excellence

  • Set the standard for code quality, testing, observability, and incident response
  • Drive technical debt reduction and platform reliability improvements
  • Mentor senior and mid-level engineers through code reviews, design critiques, and pairing

AI-Augmented Development

  • Model and champion AI-first engineering practices using tools like Claude Code and Cursor
  • Help the broader team adopt AI-assisted workflows

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
  • 8+ years of professional software development experience, with demonstrated impact at a senior or staff level
  • 5+ years of experience in backend services engineering, with strong proficiency in Java and Spring Boot
  • 1+ years experience with AI-assisted development tooling (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) with at least one year of daily use

Preferred Qualifications

  • Deep expertise in authentication and identity protocols: OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML 2.0, FIDO2/WebAuthn
  • Proven ability to lead large-scale technical initiatives from design through production
  • Experience designing, building, or operating an Identity Provider (IdP) or IAM platform at scale
  • Familiarity with government identity and security frameworks: NIST SP 800-63 (IAL/AAL), FedRAMP, or Kantara Initiative accreditation
  • Experience with federation, SSO, and enterprise identity integration patterns (SCIM, XACML, LDAP/Active Directory)
  • Strong background in auth security engineering: threat modeling, credential attack mitigation, account takeover prevention, rate limiting, session security
  • Experience with React or modern frontend frameworks in the context of authentication UX
  • Track record of mentoring senior engineers and driving improvements to engineering culture
  • Startup or high-growth company experience with strong bias toward ownership and execution

Compensation & Benefits

  • Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, health savings account, flexible spending accounts
  • Basic and voluntary life and AD&D insurance, 401(k) with company match
  • Parental leave, unlimited paid time off, 8 company holidays
  • Short and long-term disability insurance, accident and critical illness insurance
  • Referral bonus policy, employee assistance program, pet insurance, travel assistant program
  • Wellbeing and childcare discounts, learning and development benefit
Skills
JavaSpring BootOAuth 2.0OpenID ConnectSAML 2.0FIDO2WebAuthnReactThreat ModelingIdentity and Access Management
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