Staff Software Engineer

BambooHR; Utah; Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

4 weeks vacation

12 company holidays

Volunteer time off

Job summary

BambooHR, a Utah‑based remote-friendly employer, seeks a Staff/Principal level engineer to own a next‑gen permission service. You will define AuthN/AuthZ patterns, design the API contract, and drive token strategy across 180+ product domains, partnering with product and security teams.

You’ll mentor engineers, lead RFCs, and ensure architectural integrity while aligning with zero‑trust and least privilege principles in a multi‑tenant SaaS environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years software engineering experience.
• 3+ years at Staff or Principal level.
• Identity and access management expertise.
• Designing AuthN/AuthZ at scale.
• Policy‑as‑code and permission modeling.
• OpenAPI and microservices experience.
• Strong PHP backend fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and build of a new permission service.
• Define AuthN/AuthZ standards used by product teams.
• Design API contracts and token strategy.
• Translate access control needs into reusable primitives.
• Lead RFCs, architectural reviews, and reviews for security.
• Collaborate with Security and Compliance on audits.

Skills

AuthN/AuthZ

OAuth/OIDC

RBAC/ABAC

OpenAPI design

PHP backend

RFCs

Zero-trust

Job description

Please Note: This is a remote position available in the state listed on this job. Additionally, employment with BambooHR is contingent on passing both a background and credit check.

AI at BambooHR

At BambooHR, we’re all about setting people free to do great work, and we believe AI is a powerful partner in that mission. We’re leaning into intelligent tools to streamline our workflows, giving us more time for high-impact innovation. We look for curious, forward-thinking people who are ready to explore how AI can elevate their work and help us reimagine the future of HR.

Our ideal Staff Software Engineer, Permissions will be the technical authority for BambooHR's next-generation permission service — designing and building the system that securely controls what every user, token, and agent can do across our platform. You'll own the architecture of a greenfield permissions service from the ground up, define AuthN/AuthZ patterns for 180+ product domains, and be the connective tissue between the Token Titans team and the engineering organization that depends on the work you ship. If you get energy from solving hard identity and access problems at scale — and doing it in a way that other engineers actually want to build on — this role is for you.

You will:

• Drive the delivery of the architecture and delivery of a new permission service — from first design doc to production, including data model, policy evaluation engine, enforcement APIs, and token contract
• Refine and Define BambooHR's AuthN/AuthZ standards — the patterns for authentication flows, token issuance, scoped authorization, and role/attribute-based access control that product teams rely on
• Design the API contract for the permission service: how callers request access decisions, how policies are defined, and how enforcement is decoupled from individual product domains
• Drive token strategy — JWT issuance, rotation, scoping, revocation, and the relationship between tokens and permissions across both human and machine (API/agent) callers
• Partner with product and platform teams to translate domain-specific access control requirements into reusable permission primitives that scale across the organization
• Lead architectural reviews for features with AuthN/AuthZ implications; catch design debt before it ships
• Collaborate with Security and Compliance to ensure the permission service meets audit, least-privilege, and zero-trust requirements
• Set the technical bar for the Token Titans team: mentor engineers, lead RFCs, and ensure implementation quality matches architectural intent

What You Need to Get the Job Done

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years operating at Staff or Principal level
• Deep expertise in identity and access management — authentication protocols (OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML), authorization models (RBAC, ABAC, ReBAC), and token lifecycle management (JWTs, opaque tokens, refresh/rotation strategies)
• Demonstrated experience designing and building AuthN/AuthZ systems at scale — not just integrating with them, but owning the architecture that others build on
• Strong instincts for policy-as-code, permission modeling, and how to express complex access rules as a clean, evolvable data model
• Experience designing or reviewing OpenAPI specifications, event-driven architectures, and cross-service communication patterns in a service-oriented or microservice environment
• Strong backend engineering fundamentals; comfort working in a PHP monolith with modern architectural patterns
• Proven ability to drive org-wide architectural decisions — writing RFCs, leading reviews, building consensus across teams with competing priorities
• Excellent communication skills: precise written specs, verbal presentations to engineering leadership, and the ability to explain tradeoffs in identity and security without losing the room

What Will Make Us REALLY Love You

• Hands-on experience building a permission service or authorization framework from scratch (e.g., Zanzibar-style, OPA-based, or custom policy engine)
• Familiarity with Okta, Auth0, or similar identity platforms — and a clear sense of what to build vs. what to buy
• Experience with fine-grained authorization patterns (relationship-based access control, contextual policies, delegated permissions)
• Background in multi-tenant SaaS — understanding how permission models must account for org hierarchy, role inheritance, and tenant isolation
• Experience with secrets management, certificate rotation, or secure credential storage in production environments
• Familiarity with zero-trust architecture principles and how they apply to internal service-to-service authorization
• Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance
• Generous leave policies that include 4 weeks of vacation, 12 company holidays, parental leave, and volunteer time off so you can enjoy quality of life

At BambooHR, we're building something different: we're building a people intelligence platform that transforms HR and sets people free to do great work! We're a proven market leader driving innovation while building lasting success through thoughtful, sustainable growth. Here, you'll find a place that champions growth: both professional and personal, both individual and collective.

We invest in potential, giving you the space to stretch your capabilities and turn good ideas into reality while providing the safety net of a supportive, values-driven culture. Our approach combines meaningful work with meaningful lives, offering competitive benefits, professional development, and the flexibility to thrive both in and outside the office.

What sets us apart isn't just what we do, but how we do it: with openness, integrity, and a shared commitment to doing the right thing. Join us in creating HR software that makes work better for everyone, while we make work better for you.

BambooHR is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process. If you would like to request accommodations, please let your recruiter know.

BambooHR is An Equal Opportunity Employer--M/F/D/V Because our team members are trusted to handle sensitive information, we require all candidates that receive and accept employment offers to complete a background check before being hired.

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For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in BambooHR’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

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A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

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