Sr. Distributed Systems Eng-Security

eBay; Dublin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

eBay is a global ecommerce leader seeking a Distributed Systems Engineer to build cloud-scale identity and access platforms. You will design directory services, authorization engines, and policy systems supporting real-time decisions for millions of users and services.

You will apply an AI-first approach to accelerate development, improve reliability, and automate tasks while shaping responsible AI integration in the engineering lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years building large-scale backend or distributed systems with scalability and fault tolerance.

Responsibilities

• Design and build cloud-scale directory services that manage identities, entitlements, and relationships across eBay's global platform.
• Develop high-performance policy engines and low-latency authorization services for real-time requests.
• Build secure, observable APIs and microservices that are easy for partner teams to integrate.
• Leverage AI-assisted engineering to improve design, coding, testing, debugging, documentation, and operations.
• Integrate AI-driven capabilities to improve policy intelligence, anomaly detection, and adaptive access decisions.
• Collaborate with Identity, Platform, Security, and Infrastructure teams to improve eBay's security posture.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Open to AI-first engineering

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Engineering

Tools

Java

Go

Kubernetes

OPA

Cedar

LDAP

Cloud-native architectures

Job description

At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader - we're changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We're committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.

Our customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work - every day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our customers, our company, and our planet.

Join a team of passionate thinkers, innovators, and dreamers - and help us connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.

About The Team And Role

eBay's Cloud Security Engineering team is building the next generation of identity and access platforms that secure one of the world's largest commerce ecosystems.

Our distributed systems power millions of users, services, and transactions every day and are foundational to eBay's trust, security, and reliability. As a Distributed Systems Engineer, you'll design and build cloud-scale directory services, authorization platforms, and policy engines that enable secure, real-time access decisions across human and non-human identities.

We're looking for engineers who combine deep distributed systems expertise with an AI-first engineering mindset. You view AI as a force multiplier - accelerating software development, improving system reliability, automating repetitive tasks, and enabling smarter operational decisions. You'll help evolve traditional identity systems into intelligent, adaptive platforms while shaping how AI is responsibly integrated into the engineering lifecycle.

What You'll Accomplish

• Design and build cloud-scale directory services that manage identities, entitlements, and relationships across eBay's global platform.
• Develop high-performance policy engines and low-latency authorization services supporting fine-grained access control (RBAC, ABAC, PBAC) for millions of real-time requests.
• Build resilient APIs and microservices that are secure, observable, scalable, and easy for partner teams to integrate.
• Leverage AI-assisted engineering throughout the software development lifecycle to improve design, coding, testing, debugging, documentation, and operational efficiency.
• Integrate AI-driven capabilities into identity and authorization platforms to improve policy intelligence, anomaly detection, operational insights, and adaptive access decisions.
• Build highly observable services with automated deployment, monitoring, and incident response using modern cloud-native engineering practices.
• Partner with Identity, Platform, Security, and Infrastructure teams to define next-generation identity architectures and continuously improve eBay's security posture.
• Continuously identify opportunities to automate engineering workflows, improve developer productivity, and simplify operations through responsible adoption of AI technologies.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years building large-scale backend or distributed systems with strong knowledge of scalability, consistency, replication, partitioning and fault tolerance.
• Experience developing cloud-native services using Java, Go, or similar languages, including scalable APIs and microservices.
• Experience with SQL, NoSQL, or graph databases and modeling identity, entitlement, or relationship data.
• Strong understanding of authorization models (RBAC, ABAC, PBAC) and familiarity with policy engines (OPA, Cedar), IAM, LDAP, or modern identity platforms.
• Experience using AI-powered engineering tools to improve software development, testing, code quality, troubleshooting, documentation, and operational excellence.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, cloud-native architectures, service meshes, and modern observability platforms.
• A growth mindset with a passion for continuous learning, automation, and adopting emerging AI technologies responsibly to improve engineering outcomes.

What We're Looking For

You are an engineer who embraces AI as an integral part of modern software engineering - not as a replacement for technical expertise, but as a tool to amplify your impact. You continuously learn, automate repetitive work, improve engineering processes, and use AI to build secure, reliable, and scalable systems faster while maintaining the highest standards of quality, security, and operational excellence.

Additional Details

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at [e-mail]. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities.

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