Staff Software Engineer - Customer Identity & Access Management (CIAM)

Fastly; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 211,000 - 254,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Equity and discretionary bonus

Flexible vacation

12 paid holidays

Job summary

Fastly in New York, NY is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for CIAM to design and build secure identity services with authentication and access control. You will lead architecture and guide multiple teams while delivering scalable solutions.

Bring 7+ years of experience in identity systems, strong knowledge of OIDC/OAuth/SAML, and a penchant for mentoring others. This hybrid role offers collaboration across product, security, and engineering.

Qualifications

• Significant experience designing and operating authentication and authorization systems.
• Proven ability to lead architectural initiatives across multiple teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication with documentation.

Responsibilities

• Design and build secure, scalable identity services including authentication and authorization.
• Lead complex initiatives from design through production with architectural balance.
• Serve as technical lead for CIAM areas, guiding designs and decisions.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and security to plan and manage risks.
• Translate ambiguous problems into practical solutions while upholding quality.
• Promote modern identity patterns and engineering best practices.
• Improve reliability, security, and maintainability of identity services.
• Mentor engineers through reviews and guidance.
• Foster inclusive culture and continuous improvement.
• Participate in on-call rotation as needed.

Skills

CIAM experience

Security architecture

OIDC/OAuth/SAML

Leadership

Communication skills

Tools

Go

Java

Ruby

Keycloak

Job description

Fastly helps people stay better connected with the things they love. Fastly’s edge cloud platform enables customers to create great digital experiences quickly, securely, and reliably by processing, serving, and securing our customers’ applications as close to their end-users as possible — at the edge of the Internet. The platform is designed to take advantage of the modern internet, to be programmable, and to support agile software development. Fastly’s customers include many of the world’s most prominent companies, including GitHub, Yelp, Paramount, and JetBlue.

Posting Open Date: 08/19/2026

Anticipated Posting Close Date*: 09/17/2026

• Job posting may close early due to the volume of applicants.

Staff Software Engineer - Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM)

Join our dynamic Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM) team as a Staff Software Engineer and play a pivotal role in building cutting-edge solutions that centralize and simplify how organizations manage user identities and profile data. Our CIAM team is committed to empowering customers with control over user access by providing advanced access control mechanisms, innovative authentication methods, progressive profiling, and a unified identity experience.

We are looking for passionate, highly skilled software engineers to join our team and be an integral part of our mission. If you're eager to make a significant impact and contribute to the growth of a thriving CIAM ecosystem, we would love to have you on board. Let's build something remarkable together!

What You'll Do

• Design and build secure, scalable identity services supporting authentication, authorization, identity lifecycle, and related platform capabilities.
• Lead implementation of complex technical initiatives from design through production, balancing long-term architecture with practical delivery.
• Serve as the technical lead for one or more core areas of the CIAM platform, guiding architecture, reviewing designs, and helping teams make sound technical decisions.
• Partner with engineering, product, and security to shape implementation plans, prioritize technical investments, and identify risks early.
• Break down ambiguous technical problems into practical, incremental solutions while maintaining a high bar for engineering quality.
• Champion modern, standards-based identity patterns and help teams adopt engineering best practices across the CIAM platform.
• Improve the reliability, security, and maintainability of identity-related services through strong architectural decisions and operational rigor.
• Mentor engineers within the CIAM organization through design reviews, technical guidance, and collaborative problem solving.
• Contribute to an inclusive engineering culture grounded in curiosity, pragmatism, and continuous improvement.
• Participate in on-call support rotation as needed.

What We're Looking For

• Significant experience designing and operating authentication and authorization systems in production environments. Staff engineers at Fastly typically have 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Deep understanding of identity and access standards and technologies such as OIDC, OAuth, SAML, SCIM, JWT, and SSO.
• Experience with service-to-service authentication and secure communication patterns in distributed systems.
• Strong background in software architecture and system design, especially in areas of scalability, performance, reliability, and security.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership across multiple teams through architectural guidance, delivery of complex initiatives, and collaborative influence.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear technical documentation and align diverse stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications/Bonus Points

• Experience with Go, Java, or Ruby
• Experience with Keycloak
• Production experience implementing Role and Attribute-based Access control systems
• Experience designing secure identity systems with strong consideration for authentication threats, authorization models, and operational resilience.

Work Hours

This position will require you to be available during core business hours and occasional nights and weekends as necessary to support on-call coverage.

Work Location(s) & Travel Requirements

The preferred locations for this position are:

• San Francisco, CA
• Denver, CO
• New York, NY

Fastly currently embraces a largely hybrid model for most roles which allows employees flexibility to split their time between the office and home.

There is a strong preference for Hybrid near a local office. However, we may be willing to consider highly qualified remote candidates within the US.

This position may require travel quarterly to align on technical designs and direction.

SF / LA Fair Chance Ordinance Statement

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Salary

The estimated salary range for this position is $211,370 to $253,644.

Starting salary may vary based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location.

This role may be eligible to participate in Fastly’s equity and discretionary bonus programs.

Benefits

We care about you. Fastly works hard to create a positive environment for our employees, and we think your life outside of work is important too. Curious about our offerings?

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Family planning, mental health support along with Employee Assistance Program, Insurance (Life, Disability, and Accident), a Flexible Vacation policy and up to 18 days of accrued paid sick leave are there to help support our employees. We also offer 401(k) (including company match) and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. For 2026, we offer 11 paid local holidays, 12 paid company wellness days.

Why Fastly?

• We have a huge impact. Fastly is a small company with a big reach. Not only do our customers have a tremendous user base, but we also support a growing number of open source projects and initiatives. Outside of code, employees are encouraged to share causes close to their heart with others so we can help lend a supportive hand.
• We value diversity. Growing and maintaining our inclusive and diverse team matters to us. We are committed to being a company where our employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work and have the ability to be successful -- every day.
• We are passionate. Fastly is chock full of passionate people and we’re not ‘one size fits all’. Fastly employs authors, pilots, skiers, parents (of humans and animals), makeup geeks, coffee connoisseurs, and more. We love employees for who they are and what they are passionate about.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Fastly is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity and to providing employees with a safe and welcoming work environment free of discrimination and harassment. Our employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, family or parental status, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.

Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and federal or state disability laws, Fastly will provide reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact your Recruiter, or the Fastly Employee Relations team at [e-mail] or 501-287-4901.

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