Staff Software Engineer, AI Security

Robinhood; Bellevue, Menlo Park (WA, CA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Equity

401(k) matching

Bonus opportunities

Paid time off

Catered meals

Job summary

Robinhood is building an elite AI Security team to enable secure AI-powered capabilities at scale. You will lead the design and development of the foundational platform, security primitives, and high‑performing distributed services for in‑house AI agents.

This hands‑on Staff Engineer role focuses on identity, encryption, and safe AI adoption across Robinhood’s security stack. Based in the Menlo Park, CA and Bellevue, WA offices, the role requires in‑person attendance at least 3 days per week,

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software development experience.
• 6+ years building large-scale distributed systems with security focus.
• Experience building AI platforms or production AI systems.
• Proficiency in Go or Python; strong debugging skills.
• Experience with cloud-native platforms and distributed systems (AWS, Kubernetes, gRPC, Kafka).
• Strong security fundamentals and designing for secure production systems.
• Experience building reusable platform capabilities and developer tooling.

Responsibilities

• Design and build a scalable AI security platform and infrastructure.
• Develop platform services, APIs, libraries, and SDKs for AI integrations in security workflows.
• Implement strong identity, authentication, authorization, encryption, and data protection controls.
• Build and operate large-scale distributed systems for AI-powered security use cases.
• Create guardrails for safe AI agent development and operation.
• Collaborate across security, infra, and engineering to translate needs into platform capabilities.
• Identify opportunities to improve performance, reliability, and security.

Skills

Software development

Distributed systems

AI platforms

Go or Python

Security concepts

AWS

Kubernetes

gRPC

Kafka

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

gRPC

Kafka

Python

Go

Job description

Join us in building the future of finance. Our mission is to democratize finance for all. An estimated $124 trillion of assets will be inherited by younger generations in the next two decades. The largest transfer of wealth in human history. If you’re ready to be at the epicenter of this historic cultural and financial shift, keep reading.

About the team + role

We are building an elite team, applying frontier technologies to the world’s biggest financial problems. We’re looking for bold thinkers. Sharp problem-solvers. Builders who are wired to make an impact. Robinhood isn’t a place for complacency, it’s where ambitious people do the best work of their careers. We’re a high-performing, fast-moving team with ethics at the center of everything we do. Expectations are high, and so are the rewards. The mission of our team is to build a scalable and secure AI platform that enables security teams across Robinhood to develop and operate AI-powered agents and security solutions with confidence.

As a Staff Software Engineer on the AI Security team, you’ll help lead and build the foundational platform, infrastructure, and security primitives that make it easier for teams to develop AI-powered security capabilities at scale. You’ll work on complex engineering problems at the intersection of AI, distributed systems, and security, with a particular focus on areas such as identity, authentication, authorization, encryption, and platform safety. You’ll partner closely with security and engineering teams across Robinhood to create systems that make AI development easier while ensuring security is built into the platform from the start. This is a hands‑on engineering role for someone who enjoys building platforms, solving complex technical problems, and helping shape how AI is securely adopted across security. This role is based in our Menlo Park, CA and Bellevue, WA office(s), with in‑person attendance expected at least 3 days per week. At Robinhood, we believe in the power of in‑person work to accelerate progress, spark innovation, and strengthen community. Our office experience is intentional, energizing, and designed to fully support high-performing teams.

What you’ll do

• Design and build a scalable AI platform that enables security teams to develop, deploy, and operate AI-powered agents and security capabilities
• Build foundational platform services, APIs, libraries, and SDKs that make it easier for teams to integrate AI into security workflows
• Design secure systems with strong identity, authentication, authorization, encryption, and data protection controls
• Build and operate reliable, large-scale distributed systems that support AI-powered security use cases
• Develop platform capabilities and guardrails that enable teams to safely build and operate AI agents
• Partner with security, infrastructure, and engineering teams to understand their needs and translate them into reusable platform capabilities
• Identify opportunities to improve platform performance, developer experience, reliability, and security through automation
• Help shape the technical direction and architecture of Robinhood’s AI Security platform as the team and platform continue to grow

What you bring

• 8+ years of software development experience
• 6+ years of experience building large-scale distributed systems, with experience designing systems around security concepts such as authentication, authorization, identity, or encryption
• Experience building AI platforms, AI infrastructure, or production systems that support AI-powered applications or agents
• Proficiency in Go or Python, with strong problem-solving and production debugging skills
• Experience with cloud-native platforms and distributed systems technologies such as AWS, Kubernetes, gRPC, or Kafka
• Strong understanding of security fundamentals and experience incorporating security into the design of production systems
• Experience designing and building reusable platform capabilities, APIs, libraries, or developer tooling
• Proven experience delivering large engineering projects with meaningful, long-term impact
• Strong technical judgment and the ability to make thoughtful trade-offs across security, reliability, scalability, and developer experience
• Ability to solve complex engineering problems and collaborate effectively across security and engineering teams

What we offer

• Challenging, high-impact work to grow your career
• Performance driven compensation with multipliers for outsized impact, bonus programs, equity ownership, and 401(k) matching
• Top Tier benefits to fuel your work, including 100% paid health insurance for employees with 90% coverage for dependents
• Access to the Robinhood Employee Fund that gives eligible US employees the opportunity to invest in a private employee fund that provides exposure to Robinhood Ventures funds.
• Access to the best AI tools on the market and continuous AI skill-building for every employee, technical or not.
• Lifestyle wallet - a highly flexible benefits spending account for wellness, learning, and more
• Employer-paid life & disability insurance, fertility benefits, and mental health benefits
• Time off to recharge including company holidays, paid time off, sick time, parental leave, and more!
• Exceptional office experience with catered meals, events, and comfortable workspaces.
• In addition to the base pay range listed below, this role is also eligible for bonus opportunities + equity + benefits.

Base pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. The expected base pay range for this role is based on the location where the work will be performed and is aligned to one of 3 compensation zones. For other locations not listed, compensation can be discussed with your recruiter during the interview process. Base Pay Range: Zone 1 (Menlo Park, CA; New York, NY; Bellevue, WA; Washington, DC) $230,000 - $270,000 USD Zone 2 (Denver, CO; Westlak