Senior Staff Software Engineer – Identity for AI

Pingidentity; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 151,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO & Holidays

Parental Leave

Progressive Healthcare Options

Retirement Programs

Education reimbursement

Commuter offset (Specific locations)

Job summary

Ping Identity is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer in Platform Engineering to shape the IAM platform across the full stack, from infrastructure to UI, with emphasis on AI-enabled workflows and secure APIs.

You will collaborate with product, UX, and engineering teams to refine features, deliver scalable services, and ensure robust, well-documented interfaces. This role demands broad software experience, strong systems thinking, and mentorship in a fast-paced, global environment.

Qualifications

• Ability to design, build, test, and operate production services.
• Experience with authentication, authorization, and identity management.
• Experience turning ambiguous ideas into technical direction, prototypes, and production-ready solutions.

Responsibilities

• Deliver IAM capabilities across the Ping platform from infrastructure to UI.
• Define and evolve APIs, models, workflows, and services for platform capabilities.
• Research and deliver features in Identity for AI and AI-first experiences.
• Collaborate with product, UX, and engineering across Ping to refine features and designs.
• Participate in design, coding, testing, rollout, and production support.
• Use AI tooling to accelerate research, code understanding, prototyping, implementation, and documentation while maintaining judgment.
• Mentor engineers and communicate technical direction across teams and time zones.

Skills

Distributed systems

API design

Mentoring

Technical leadership

Communication

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Google Cloud

Job description

About Ping Identity:

At Ping Identity, we believe in making digital experiences both secure and seamless for all users, without compromise. We call this digital freedom. And it's not just something we provide our customers. It's something that inspires our company. People don't come here to join a culture that's built on digital freedom. They come to cultivate it.

Our intelligent, cloud identity platform lets people shop, work, bank, and interact wherever and however they want. Without friction. Without fear.

While protecting digital identities is at the core of our technology, protecting individual identities is at the core of our culture. We champion every identity. One of our core values, Respect Individuality, reminds us to celebrate differences so you are empowered to bring your authentic self to work.

We're headquartered in Denver, Colorado and we have offices and employees around the globe. We serve the largest, most demanding enterprises worldwide, including more than half of the Fortune 100. At Ping Identity, we're changing the way people and businesses think about cybersecurity, digital experiences, and identity and access management.

This role sits in our Platform Engineering team, which delivers features and design work that spans the Ping platform. The team is focused on building Ping's identity for AI offerings to secure and govern AI agents.

We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer who can take ideas from concept to reality and work well in a fast-paced, collaborative, cross-functional, and global team.

The ideal applicant will bring broad software development experience, strong systems thinking, creative problem-solving skills, and a passion for research, innovation, and experimentation. They will be excited by work that spans products, services, APIs, models, and user experiences, and by using AI tooling as a practical part of the engineering workflow to accelerate discovery and delivery.

This is an opportunity to help define how the software industry identifies, secures, and governs AI agents.

You Will

• Deliver IAM (Identity & Access Management) capabilities across the Ping platform encompassing the whole stack from infrastructure and databases through to UI experiences
• Define and evolve common APIs, models, workflows, orchestration surfaces, and services that enable platform-level capabilities
• Research, prototype, and deliver features in emerging areas such as Identity for AI and AI-first platform experiences
• Work closely with product management, UX, and engineering teams across Ping to refine features and designs to deliver elegant, usable, and scalable outcomes for customers
• Participate in development life cycle activities such as design, coding, testing, rollout, and production support
• Use modern AI tooling such as Claude Code as part of day-to-day engineering work to accelerate research, code understanding, prototyping, implementation, and documentation while maintaining strong engineering judgment
• Show strong communication skills, provide effective mentorship, and set a strong example for other engineers
• Thrive in a rapidly changing environment, continuously adapting to evolving customer needs, technology trends, and new ways of working

You Have

• Ability to design, build, test, and operate production services using technologies such as Java, JavaScript, Google Cloud, Docker, and Kubernetes, together with the desire to broaden your expertise
• Ability to use AI engineering tools to accelerate research, code understanding, prototyping, implementation, and documentation while applying sound engineering judgment
• Experience building distributed systems, platform capabilities, internal developer platforms, or shared product infrastructure
• Strong experience designing APIs, RESTful services, service boundaries, integration contracts, and data or domain models
• Experience turning ambiguous ideas into technical direction, prototypes, and production-ready solutions
• Experience with authentication, authorisation, and identity management
• Ability to communicate technical direction clearly, mentor other engineers, and coordinate work across teams and time zones

Bonus Points If You Have

• Experience with OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, token exchange, policy systems, delegated administration, or identity data modelling
• Experience with AI agent identity and non-human identity
• Familiarity with MCP, agent skills, and other agent integration concepts
• Experience working across multiple codebases, teams, or product areas to ship cohesive outcomes
• Experience with distributed systems at scale
• Experience working as part of an international team
• Experience balancing short-term product delivery with longer-term platform architecture
• Experience writing technical designs, PoCs, and decision-support material for leadership and partner teams

Salary Range: $151,277-$185,000

In accordance with Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB 19-085) the approximate compensation range for this role in Colorado is listed above. Final compensation for this role will be determined by various factors, such as knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Life at Ping:

We believe in and facilitate a flexible, collaborative work environment. We're growing quickly, but remain true to the innovative, can-do startup values that got us here. Most importantly, we keep hiring talented, smart, fun, and genuinely nice people because that's who we want to succeed with every day.

Here are just a few of the things that make Ping special:

• A company culture that empowers you to do your best work.
• Employee Resource Groups that create a sense of belonging for everyone.
• Regular company and team bonding events.
• Competitive benefits and perks.
• Global volunteering and community initiatives

Our Benefits:

• Generous PTO & Holiday Schedule
• Parental Leave
• Progressive Healthcare Options
• Retirement Programs
• Opportunity for Education Reimbursement
• Commuter Offset (Specific locations)

Ping is the collective sum of all our individual experiences, backgrounds and influences and we pride ourselves in growing and learning together. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse environment where everyone's individuality is respected and everyone has an Identity. In recruiting for new colleagues, we welcome the unique contributions you can bring and encourage you to be your best self.

We are an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex including sexual orientation and gender identity, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.