Staff Identity & Access Engineer, AI Platform

Redpanda Data; United States; Remote; USD 220,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Redpanda is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to own AuthN, AuthZ, and OBO for agents across the Agentic Data Platform and Cloud platform. You will set technical bets and implement them, shaping security at scale.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in identity systems, deep OAuth/OIDC experience, and a proven ability to influence across teams in a fast-moving startup environment. This is a high-autonomy IC role with global impact.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software development and delivery, with deep, hands-on expertise in authentication, authorization, or identity systems.
• Production experience with OAuth 2.0/2.1, OIDC, token exchange or delegation patterns (e.g. RFC 8693, on-behalf-of flows), and the practical tradeoffs of running an authorization server and token vault at scale.
• A strong, current point of view on where agent identity standards are heading — MCP auth, A2A, cross‑app access patterns (e.g. Okta XAA, Entra Agent ID, Auth0 for AI Agents) — and the judgment to bet on a direction before the market fully settles.
• Experience designing systems that must federate with, rather than replace, a customer’s existing identity provider (Okta, Entra, Ping, or similar) in security‑conscious enterprise environments.
• A track record of driving technical direction across multiple teams or orgs as an individual contributor — through design docs, RFCs, code, and direct influence, including with teams outside your own reporting chain.
• Comfortable working with a globally distributed engineering team, collaborating on GitHub, in the open, and a self starter
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain identity and delegation tradeoffs to engineers, security teams, and customers who may not share your specialist vocabulary

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction for AuthN, AuthZ, and OBO across Agentic Data Platform and the Cloud platform — deciding which emerging industry patterns Redpanda adopts, adapts, or deliberately avoids.
• Design and build the systems yourself: extending the OAuth 2.1 authorization server and token vault, delegated tool‑access flows, and the cryptographic delegation model that lets an agent act on‑behalf‑of a human or another agent with a provable, auditable chain of authority.
• Partner closely with the identity‑federation surface (Okta, Entra, Ping, and similar) so Redpanda enforces access locally while federating cleanly with what enterprise customers already run.
• Work cross‑functionally with Agentic Data Plane and Cloud platform engineering, Security, and Product to make sure identity and delegation decisions hold up under real customer security review — not just internal design review.
• Represent Redpanda’s technical position on agent identity externally where relevant — in customer‑facing security conversations, documentation, or engagement with emerging standards efforts.
• Ship to customers: this is an IC role measured on shipped, production‑hardened systems, not just architecture proposals.
• Mentor and level up engineers across both Agentic Data Platform and Cloud platform on identity and access concepts, without formal management authority over them.
• Bring up difficult and/or systemic challenges and impediments to the attention of engineering leadership.
• Actively discuss strategic topics with peers and Directors to help shape engineering’s environment.
• Track progress, assess risks, and actively communicate contingency and mitigation plans for the initiatives you own.

Skills

Identity systems

OAuth 2.0 / 2.1

Authorization

Delegation patterns

Influence through leadership

Job description

Redpanda is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to own AuthN, AuthZ, and OBO for agents across the Agentic Data Platform and Cloud platform. You will set technical bets and implement them, shaping security at scale.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in identity systems, deep OAuth/OIDC experience, and a proven ability to influence across teams in a fast-moving startup environment. This is a high-autonomy IC role with global impact.