Senior Backend Engineer, IAM

Reddit, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 190,800 - 267,100; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare benefits

401(k) with employer match

Equity

Job summary

Reddit, Inc. is seeking an experienced Identity & Access Management engineer to design and maintain high‑performance systems for authentication, authorization, and user identity across Reddit's massive platform.

You will lead architecture efforts, work with product and security teams, and mentor junior contributors. The role emphasizes building scalable backend services, leveraging OAuth2/OIDC/SAML, and operating within a cloud and containerized environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing large-scale distributed backend systems.
• Security-sensitive domain experience (IAM, Security, Privacy, or Anti-Abuse).
• Proficiency with identity concepts and protocol suites (OAuth2/OIDC/SAML).

Responsibilities

• Steer high-leverage IAM projects aligned with Reddit's goals.
• Architect scalable backend services for authentication, authorization, and identity.
• Mentor and collaborate with cross-functional teams across Reddit Engineering.
• Continuously evolve technical and non-technical skills.
• Partner with product, security, and backend teams to define IAM roadmap.

Skills

Go

OAuth2/OIDC/SAML

RBAC/ABAC

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

AWS/GCP

Tools

CI/CD

Job description

Reddit is a community of communities. It's built on shared interests, passion, and trust, and is home to the most open and authentic conversations on the internet. Every day, Reddit users submit, vote, and comment on the topics they care most about. With 100,000+ active communities and approximately 126 million daily active unique visitors, Reddit is one of the internet's largest sources of information.

Identity & Access Management Team

The Identity and Access Management team develops and maintains mission‑critical, highly performant, and highly scalable systems that manage user identity, authentication, and authorization for all of Reddit's millions of daily users and backend services.

Key Challenges

• Building systems around authentication, authorization and identity to meet the needs of Reddit's engineering organization and millions of daily users.
• Design, build and ship backend services powering experiences for one of the most visited sites in the world.
• Work with product management, security, client engineering, and backend teams to define and implement Reddit's IAM vision and roadmap.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• Steer: Work with the team to select, scope, and drive high‑leverage projects that align with Reddit's goals.
• Build: Execute on a strategy and create a more performant, more scalable, higher‑quality architecture around authentication, authorization and identity.
• Amplify: Mentor, coach, and collaborate with other technical contributors.
• Collaborate: Work together with a variety of cross‑functional teams across Reddit Engineering.
• Evolve: Learn and improve your own technical and non‑technical abilities.

Who You Might Be

• 5+ years of experience designing and developing large‑scale distributed backend systems with at least 2+ years focused on security‑sensitive domains (IAM, Security, Privacy, or Anti‑Abuse).
• Technical understanding of core identity concepts, authentication protocols (OAuth2, OIDC, SAML), session management and/or authorization access models (ABAC, RBAC, ReBAC), centralized authorization engines.
• Proficiency in one or more general‑purpose programming languages (preferably Go).
• Experience with (or curiosity to learn about) essential cloud infrastructure (Kubernetes, CI/CD, AWS, GCP).
• Experience identifying and driving high‑impact projects that align with the company's strategy.
• High empathy and excellent communication skills to collaborate across the organization.

Benefits

• Comprehensive healthcare benefits and income replacement programs.
• 401(k) with employer match.
• Global benefits programs that fit your lifestyle, from workspace to professional development to caregiving support.
• Family planning support.
• Gender‑affirming care.
• Mental health & coaching benefits.
• Flexible vacation & paid volunteer time off.
• Generous paid parental leave.

Pay Transparency

The base salary range for this position is: $190,800—$267,100 USD.
In addition to base salary, this job is eligible to receive equity in the form of restricted stock units, and depending on the position offered, it may also be eligible to receive a commission.

EEO & Privacy

Reddit is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to building a workforce representative of the diverse communities we serve. Reddit is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during the interview process, please let your recruiter know.