Senior Manager, Software Engineering - Authentication Platform

Salesforce; Bellevue (KY); On-site; USD 173,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce is seeking an Authentication Platform Engineering Manager to lead the core identity services that power our production infrastructure. You will guide a team responsible for Kerberos, TOTP, and WebAuthn/FIDO2, ensuring secure, scalable access across a global fleet.

You will drive strategy, mentor engineers in modern identity standards, and uphold high-availability requirements while integrating AI tools into development and security workflows.

Qualifications

• 13+ years of software engineering experience, including leadership in infrastructure-focused environments.
• 3–5 years of experience leading teams under high-pressure conditions.
• Proven expertise in Kerberos and identity protocols such as SAML, OIDC, and LDAP.
• Experience with massive throughput systems in public cloud or hybrid environments.

Responsibilities

• Drive strategy and execution for the Authentication Platform to scale across environments.
• Provide technical leadership across a diverse protocol stack from Kerberos to WebAuthn/FIDO2 and TOTP.
• Ensure high availability and reliability of core identity services.
• Partner with security architects to implement Zero Trust principles and least-privilege access.
• Coach engineers to grow in system design and architecture in AI-augmented contexts.
• Define how AI tools are integrated into daily development and governance of AI-generated output.
• Guard architectural integrity, security best practices, and code quality as AI usage increases.

Skills

Kerberos

SAML

OIDC

LDAP

Java

Go

C#

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

AI development tools

Prompt engineering

Multi-agent workflows

Tools

CI/CD tools

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP)

Security tooling

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.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You're in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

Location: Bellevue, WA

The Experience

The Authentication Platform Engineering Manager leads the team responsible for the core identity services that power Salesforce's production infrastructure, including Kerberos-based authentication, Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP), and Fast Identity Online 2 (FIDO2) systems. This role sits at the heart of our Production Identity and Access Management (IAM) stack, ensuring every access request across our global fleet is secure, authenticated, and resilient. You will manage a team of specialists who bridge legacy infrastructure protocols and modern, cloud-native identity standards to defend against sophisticated threats.

What You'll Actually Be Doing

• Drive the strategy and execution for the Authentication Platform, ensuring these foundational services scale horizontally across diverse environments.
• Provide technical leadership across a diverse protocol stack, from Kerberos and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to modern WebAuthn/FIDO2 and TOTP implementations.
• Guarantee the reliability of services that are foundational dependencies for the entire company, targeting high availability standards.
• Partner with security architects to implement Zero Trust principles, ensuring the platform enforces strict adherence to least privilege and robust identity verification.
• Develop each engineer’s ability to work effectively in an AI-augmented environment, moving beyond tracking output to actively coaching growth into higher-level system design and architecture work.
• Own how AI tools are integrated into the team’s daily development cycle, including configuration, feedback loops, and the judgment calls about when human review is required to validate output.
• Serve as the guardian of architectural integrity, security best practices, and technical standards as AI increases code volume, coaching engineers to critically audit AI-generated code for logic flaws, vulnerabilities, and performance issues.

You're Our Person If…

• You have 13+ years of software engineering experience, including 3-5 years leading teams in high-pressure, infrastructure-centric environments.
• You have proven expertise in Kerberos and identity protocols such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), OpenID Connect (OIDC), and LDAP.
• You have experience managing systems with massive throughput and high-availability requirements in public cloud (AWS/GCP) or hybrid environments.
• You're familiar with Java, Go, or C#, and have experience with container orchestration (Kubernetes) and modern continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• You have active, hands-on proficiency with AI development tools; full utilization is the baseline expectation, along with deep technical expertise sufficient to evaluate architectural integrity and make informed decisions about AI-generated output.
• You have experience assessing candidates on their ability to formulate effective prompts, evaluate AI outputs, and orchestrate multi-agent workflows in addition to foundational technical skills.

Even Better If...

• You have experience building or maintaining enterprise-grade Identity Providers (IdP) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) platforms.
• You understand hardware security modules (HSMs), public key infrastructure (PKI), and secure credential storage.
• You have knowledge of how authentication systems meet Payment Card Industry (PCI), SOC2, or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements.
• You have experience managing on-call rotations for high-visibility production services, and a track record of hiring and growing senior engineering talent.

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.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via Accommodations Request Form.

Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.

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 is 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, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. 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.

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $172,500 - $260,100 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.