Identity- Software Engineer, Principal Member Technical Staff

100 Salesforce, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Time off

Medical insurance

Dental coverage

Vision care

Mental health support

Job summary

Salesforce, Inc. is seeking a Software Engineer to design and implement secure authentication and session services on Core platforms. You will work on scalable identity protocols, token technologies, and hardened session management within a hybrid engineering model.

The role emphasizes an AI-aware approach to secure development and collaboration across teams. You will mentor peers, review designs, and contribute to building reliable login flows, MFA, and defense mechanisms against credential

Qualifications

• Related technical degree required; 3+ years of professional software development experience (Senior level: 5+ years).
• Strong Java and OO design; experience with large, multi-tenant codebases.
• Hands-on experience with OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, or SAML; cryptography basics.
• Secure-coding practices per OWASP; knowledge of TLS/mTLS and key management.
• Experience with automated testing (unit/functional) using Java/JUnit/Selenium.
• AI-first approach: ability to use AI tools responsibly in development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, implement, test, and deliver scalable authentication and session services on Salesforce Core (Java).
• Develop and evolve identity protocols (OAuth/OpenID Connect/SAML) and related token technologies.
• Harden sessions against hijacking; implement secure cookie design and token rotation.
• Threat-model new features and address findings from tests, bug bounty, and incident reviews.
• Roll out security features safely using feature flags, phased cohorts, and telemetry.

Skills

Java

Authentication

Cryptography

Web technologies

Automated testing

Secure coding

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related

Tools

OAuth 2.0

OpenID Connect

SAML

PKI/TLS

JWT/JWS/JWE

Job description

Job Category

Software Engineering

Job Details

About Salesforce Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn't a buzzword - it's a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

The Experience

Join our dynamic team at Salesforce and make a real impact with your code! We’re looking for passionate individuals who want to shape the future of our products and deliver exceptional experiences to our customers. Equally important is advanced prompt engineering - the ability to write precise, structured prompts and cultivate the system context that makes AI outputs reliable, secure, and production-ready.

Come be a part of our innovative and collaborative environment, where your skills will thrive and your ideas will be valued.

We embrace the hybrid model and celebrate the individual strengths of each team member while encouraging everyone on the team to grow into the best version of themselves. We believe that autonomous teams with the freedom to make decisions will empower individuals, products, companies, and customers to thrive.

About the Team

Authentication Core decides how every user, admin, and integration signs in to Salesforce. We own login flows, session management, MFA, and the OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect and SAML endpoints that issue and validate credentials at global scale. We also own the defenses around them: binding sessions to devices (DBSC and Web Crypto) to prevent session hijacking, rolling out mTLS, enforcing PKCE and refresh-token rotation for connected apps, and retiring legacy login protocols. A mistake here is a security incident or a global outage, so we hold a high bar for correctness, security, and operations.

Your Impact

Your work protects every Salesforce customer’s front door. You’ll ship security improvements to hundreds of millions of users without breaking the integrations enterprises depend on.

What You'll Actually Be Doing

• Architect, design, implement, test, and deliver highly scalable authentication and session services on Salesforce Core (Java), with strict availability and latency requirements
• Build and evolve standards-based identity protocols, including OAuth 2.0/2.1, OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0, and newer ones such as PKCE, DPoP, mTLS-bound tokens (RFC 8705), token exchange, and Device Bound Session Credentials (DBSC)
• Harden sessions and credentials against hijacking, replay, phishing, and credential stuffing, using token binding, refresh-token rotation, secure cookie design (SameSite, CHIPS), and step-up authentication
• Threat-model new features, work with Product Security, and fix findings from penetration tests, bug bounty, and incident reviews
• Roll out security enforcement safely for customers using feature flags, phased cohorts, telemetry-driven decisions, backward compatibility, and clear deprecation plans for legacy endpoints
• Master our development process, culture, and code base, then improve it
• Operate optimally in the hybrid engineering model where engineers are encouraged to be able to craft and complete the vital work to ensure quality in their own code as well as other engineers
• Mentor others in development technologies, tools, processes, and secure-coding practices
• Present your own designs to internal/external groups and review designs of others
• Develop test strategies, design automation frameworks, and write unit/functional tests, including negative and abuse-case tests for authentication paths
• Participate in the team’s on-call rotation to address sophisticated problems in real time, including authentication outages and security incidents, and keep services operational and highly available
• Build and ship high-quality, production-grade software using modern engineering practices, with AI as a core part of your development workflow by pushing the boundaries of AI development tools to deliver secure, optimized, and high-quality code
• Design and orchestrate complex systems where AI agents integrate seamlessly into human workflows, driving efficiency and innovation at scale
• Contribute to building and maintaining the shared system context, an explicit repository of system designs, constraints, and standards that enables AI to operate accurately and reliably
• Critically evaluate code (human or AI-generated) for correctness, quality, security, and performance, especially authentication, authorization, and cryptographic logic, where subtle mistakes become vulnerabilities

You're Our Person If…

• A related technical degree required 3+ years of professional software development experience (Senior Level: 5+ years, including ownership of production services)
• Strong Java and object-oriented design skills; experience with large, multi-tenant codebases is a plus
• Solid grasp of authentication and authorization basics: identity vs. access, session lifecycle, and token types (access, refresh, ID), with hands-on experience with at least one of OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, or SAML
• Working knowledge of applied cryptography: symmetric vs. asymmetric encryption, hashing, HMAC, password hashing (bcrypt, scrypt, Argon2, PBKDF2), digital signatures, PKI and X.509 certificates, TLS and mTLS, JWT/JWS/JWE, and key management and rotation, plus the judgment to use vetted libraries rather than writing your own
• Secure-coding fundamentals: OWASP Top 10, CSRF, XSS, session fixation, open redirects, injection, timing side channels, and safe handling of secrets and PII
• Understanding of the browser security model: cookies and their attributes, same-origin policy, CORS, CSP, and security headers
• Proven understanding of web technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML5, JSON, and HTTP
• Validated understanding of database technologies such as SQL and relational database schema design
• Experience in automated testing including unit and functional testing using Java, JUnit, and Selenium
• A demonstrated, genuine AI-first approach to engineering: using AI to move faster, build fluency across the stack, and contribute well beyond your core specialty, while using it responsibly with security-sensitive code (checking AI-generated cryptographic and authentication logic against specs, and never exposing secrets or customer data in prompts)
• Experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor) in development workflows
• Advanced prompt engineering skills and the ability to write precise, structured prompts and cultivate the system context that makes AI outputs reliable, secure, and production-ready
• Excellent interpersonal skills

Even Better If…

• Experience building highly scalable web applications or identity infrastructure (identity providers, SSO, federation, token services)
• Experience with MFA and passwordless authentication (WebAuthn/FIDO2, passkeys, TOTP)
• Familiarity with identity RFCs and specifications (RFC 6749, 6750, 7519, 7636, 8705, 9449; OpenID Connect Core), or participation in the IETF OAuth Working Group or the OpenID Foundation
• Experience with HSMs, cloud KMS, or secrets-management systems
• Experience in regulated environments (FedRAMP, GovCloud, FIPS 140-3 cryptography)
• A security track record, such as CVEs, bug bounty findings, security reviews, or incident response
• Experience with Agile software development and test-driven development
• Track record of being a top performer in current and past roles
• Office-Flex: Work in-person three days per week; or 10 days per quarter for some engineering teams

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love.

Benefits

• time off programs
• medical
• dental
• vision
• mental health support
• paid parental leave
• life and disability insurance
• 401(k)
• an employee stock purchasing program

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.