Staff Software Engineer - Customer Identity & Access Management (CIAM)

United States Digital Space LLC; Denver; Hybrid; CAD 293,000 - 352,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity opportunity

Discretionary bonus

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Employee stock purchase program

Paid holidays & wellness days

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for our CIAM team. You will design and build secure identity services, focusing on authentication, authorization, and identity lifecycle, while balancing architecture with practical delivery.

You will lead core CIAM initiatives, collaborate with product, security, and engineering teams, and mentor others to uphold engineering excellence. The role supports a hybrid model with flexibility for US-based candidates.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant experience in authentication/authorization systems.
• Deep understanding of identity standards: OIDC, OAuth, SAML, SCIM, JWT, SSO.
• Experience with service-to-service authentication in distributed systems.
• Strong software architecture and system design skills for scalability, reliability, and security.
• Proven technical leadership across multiple teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and build secure, scalable identity services supporting authentication, authorization, identity lifecycle, and related platform capabilities.
• Lead implementation of complex technical initiatives from design through production, balancing long-term architecture with practical delivery.
• Serve as the technical lead for one or more core areas of the CIAM platform, guiding architecture, reviewing designs, and helping teams make sound technical decisions.
• Partner with engineering, product, and security to shape implementation plans, prioritize technical investments, and identify risks early.
• Break down ambiguous technical problems into practical, incremental solutions while maintaining a high bar for engineering quality.
• Champion modern, standards-based identity patterns and help teams adopt engineering best practices across the CIAM platform.
• Improve the reliability, security, and maintainability of identity-related services through strong architectural decisions and operational rigor.
• Mentor engineers within the CIAM organization through design reviews, technical guidance, and collaborative problem solving.
• Contribute to an inclusive engineering culture grounded in curiosity, pragmatism, and continuous improvement.
• Participate in on-call support rotation as needed.

Skills

OIDC

OAuth

SAML

SCIM

JWT

SSO

Architecture

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Go

Java

Ruby

Keycloak

Job description

the company helps people stay better connected with the things they love. the company’s edge cloud platform enables customers to create great digital experiences quickly, securely, and reliably by processing, serving, and securing our customers’ applications as close to their end-users as possible — at the edge of the Internet. The platform is designed to take advantage of the modern internet, to be programmable, and to support agile software development. the company’s customers include many of the world’s most prominent companies, including GitHub, Yelp, Paramount, and JetBlue.

We're building a more trustworthy Internet. Come join us.

Posting Open Date: 08/19/2026

**Anticipated Posting Close Date*: **09/17/2026

**Job posting may close early due to the volume of applicants.*

Staff Software Engineer - Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM)

Join our dynamic Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM) team as a Staff Software Engineer and play a pivotal role in building cutting-edge solutions that centralize and simplify how organizations manage user identities and profile data. Our CIAM team is committed to empowering customers with control over user access by providing advanced access control mechanisms, innovative authentication methods, progressive profiling, and a unified identity experience.

We are looking for passionate, highly skilled software engineers to join our team and be an integral part of our mission. If you're eager to make a significant impact and contribute to the growth of a thriving CIAM ecosystem, we would love to have you on board. Let's build something remarkable together!

What You'll Do

• Design and build secure, scalable identity services supporting authentication, authorization, identity lifecycle, and related platform capabilities.

• Lead implementation of complex technical initiatives from design through production, balancing long-term architecture with practical delivery.

• Serve as the technical lead for one or more core areas of the CIAM platform, guiding architecture, reviewing designs, and helping teams make sound technical decisions.

• Partner with engineering, product, and security to shape implementation plans, prioritize technical investments, and identify risks early.

• Break down ambiguous technical problems into practical, incremental solutions while maintaining a high bar for engineering quality.

• Champion modern, standards-based identity patterns and help teams adopt engineering best practices across the CIAM platform.

• Improve the reliability, security, and maintainability of identity-related services through strong architectural decisions and operational rigor.

• Mentor engineers within the CIAM organization through design reviews, technical guidance, and collaborative problem solving.

• Contribute to an inclusive engineering culture grounded in curiosity, pragmatism, and continuous improvement.

• Participate in on-call support rotation as needed.

What We're Looking For

• Significant experience designing and operating authentication and authorization systems in production environments. Staff engineers at the company typically have 7+ years of relevant experience.

• Deep understanding of identity and access standards and technologies such as OIDC, OAuth, SAML, SCIM, JWT, and SSO.

• Experience with service-to-service authentication and secure communication patterns in distributed systems.

• Strong background in software architecture and system design, especially in areas of scalability, performance, reliability, and security.

• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership across multiple teams through architectural guidance, delivery of complex initiatives, and collaborative influence.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear technical documentation and align diverse stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications/Bonus Points

• Experience with Go, Java, or Ruby

• Experience with Keycloak

• Production experience implementing Role and Attribute-based Access control systems

• Experience designing secure identity systems with strong consideration for authentication threats, authorization models, and operational resilience.

Work Hours:

This position will require you to be available during core business hours and occasional nights and weekends as necessary to support on-call coverage.

Work Location(s) & Travel Requirements

The preferred locations for this position are:

• San Francisco, CA

• Denver, CO

• New York, NY

the company currently embraces a largely hybrid model for most roles which allows employees flexibility to split their time between the office and home.

There is a strong preference for Hybrid near a local office. However, we may be willing to consider highly qualified remote candidates within the US.

This position may require travel quarterly to align on technical designs and direction

SF / LA Fair Chance Ordinance Statement

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Salary:

The estimated salary range for this position is $211,370 to $253,644.

Starting salary may vary based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location.

This role may be eligible to participate in the company’s equity and discretionary bonus programs.

Benefits:

We care about you. the company works hard to create a positive environment for our employees, and we think your life outside of work is important too. We support our teams with great benefits that start on the first day of your employment with the company. Curious about our offerings?

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Family planning, mental health support along with Employee Assistance Program, Insurance (Life, Disability, and Accident), a Flexible Vacation policy and up to 18 days of accrued paid sick leave are there to help support our employees. We also offer 401(k) (including company match) and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. For 2026, we offer 11 paid local holidays, 12 paid company wellness days.

Why the company?

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We have a huge impact.

the company is a small company with a big reach. Not only doour customershave a tremendous user base, but we also support a growing number ofopen source projects and initiatives.Outside of code, employees are encouraged to share causes close to their heart with others so we can help lend a supportive hand.

We value diversity.

Growing and maintaining our inclusive and diverse team matters to us. We are committed to being a company where our employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work and have the ability to be successful -- every day.

We are passionate.

the company is chock full of passionate people and we’re not ‘one size fits all’. the company employs authors, pilots, skiers, parents (of humans a