Staff Software Engineer, GRC

Vanta; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical/Dental/Vision

Parental Leave (16 weeks)

Remote stipend

401(k) matching

Flexible PTO

Holiday list

Job summary

Vanta is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to set technical direction and scale our product and infrastructure. You will lead complex initiatives across the engineering stack, mentor engineers, and collaborate with leadership to ensure alignment with Vanta's strategy.

Expect a role that blends hands-on development, leadership, and cross-functional impact. You will champion engineering excellence, guide tough technical decisions, and work with teams to deliver scalable security and compliance

Qualifications

• Over 10 years of industry experience with deep expertise in one or more technical areas (e.g., frontend, databases, distributed systems, APIs, AI).
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives and drive strategic projects.
• Mastery in system design and software architecture for SaaS products.
• Strong leadership and mentorship to elevate teams.
• Excellent communication skills with ability to influence at all levels.
• Open to using AI to amplify skills and improve efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Identify, scope, and lead large technical projects across the stack with long-term impact.
• Drive a portfolio of complex initiatives spanning multiple quarters.
• Rally cross-functional teams to drive initiatives to completion without direct management.
• Make strategic decisions balancing long-term success with technical direction.
• Champion engineering excellence by improving processes, methodologies, and practices.
• Mentor engineers and influence organizational performance.

Job description

At Vanta, our mission is to help businesses earn and prove trust. We believe that security should be monitored and verified continuously, and we empower companies to practice better security and prove it with ease. Vanta has a kind and talented team, and while some have prior security experience, many have been successful at Vanta without it.

Vanta’s team and technology surface are growing quickly, and it’s essential that we invest in the right abstractions and systems to enable us to scale with our business. As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll be responsible for setting technical direction to enable our product and infrastructure to scale with our business, driving complex projects across our technical stack, and mentoring our talented engineering team. Your past experience will be leveraged to enable and accelerate Vanta’s growth.

Our business has found incredible product-market fit and has monetized effectively since the day we signed our first customer. We’re growing at a blistering pace, which presents career-defining opportunities for engineers to accelerate their growth and to contribute to a rapidly-scaling company.

The GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) organization is the primary org responsible for developing and maintaining Vanta's core product offerings. These teams are at the heart of Vanta moving upmarket to support enterprise customers and build products that enable our customers’ existing security and compliance programs to integrate seamlessly with Vanta, giving them invaluable insights and recommendations to continue to operate, mature and evolve their programs.

As a Staff Software Engineer at Vanta, you will play a critical role in driving the long-term technical strategy, leading complex initiatives, and making high-impact decisions that affect your product area and the broader engineering organization. You will set the tone for engineering excellence and culture. This role involves a mix of hands-on development, leadership, strategic thinking, and cross-functional collaboration. You will work closely with engineering leadership and product teams to ensure the alignment of systems with Vanta’s technical strategy, and you will actively influence key decisions across the organization. Visit our Vanta Engineering Blog to learn more about what our team is working on!

What you’ll do as a Staff Software Engineer at Vanta:

• Identify, scope, and lead large technical projects, laying the groundwork for building highly performant, reliable, and customizable systems with long-term impact.
• Drive a portfolio of complex initiatives with a duration spanning multiple quarters, ensuring iterative and sustainable impact across product areas.
• Rally cross-functional teams to drive initiatives to completion, even without direct management of team members.
• Make strategic decisions that prioritize long-term success, while influencing Vanta’s technical direction alongside senior engineers and leadership.
• Champion engineering excellence by continuously improving processes, methodologies, and technical practices across the organization.
• Guide teams on tough technical decisions, balancing tradeoffs and resolving conflicts.
• Address product, technical, and operational challenges with clear, impactful solutions.
• Serve as a cultural leader, modeling collaborative behaviors and mentoring engineers to elevate organizational performance.

How to be successful in this role:

• Over 10 years of industry experience with deep expertise in one or more technical areas (e.g., frontend, databases, distributed systems, APIs, AI, etc.).
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives, driving strategic projects and improving organizational processes in fast-paced, dynamic environments.
• Mastery in system design and software architecture, with a strong ability to balance technical considerations and execution constraints.
• Extensive experience building user-facing SaaS products, catering to both startup and enterprise users.
• Expertise in building 0→1 products and solving large-scale challenges, especially in environments that prioritize a bias for action.
• Strong leadership and mentorship experience, consistently up-leveling teams and leading by example.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and advocate for technical decisions at all levels of the organization.
• Open to using AI to amplify their skills and strengthen their work - demonstrating curiosity, a willingness to learn, and sound judgment in applying AI responsibly to improve efficiency and impact.

What you can expect as a Vanta’n:

• Industry-competitive salary and equity
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, with 100% of employee-only benefit premiums covered for most medical plans
• 16 weeks fully-paid Parental Leave for all new parents
• Health & wellness stipend
• Remote workspace, internet, and cellphone stipend
• Commuter benefits for team members who report to the SF and NYC office
• Family planning benefits
• Matching 401(k) contribution with immediate vesting
• Flexible PTO policy, plus 80 hours of Sick Time
• 11 company-paid holidays
• Virtual team building activities, lunch and learns, and other company-wide events!
• Offices in SF, NYC, London, Dublin, Tel Aviv, and Sydney

To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. We set standard base pay ranges for all roles based on function, level, and country location, benchmarked against similar-stage growth companies. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors and may vary based on candidate location, skills, depth of work experience, and relevant licenses/credentials.

At Vanta, we are committed to hiring diverse talent of different backgrounds and as such, it is important to us to provide an inclusive work environment for all. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender identity, age, religion, sexual orientation, veteran or disability status, or any other protected class. As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage and welcome people of all backgrounds to apply.

About Vanta

We started in 2018, in the wake of several high-profile data breaches. Online security was only becoming more important, but we knew firsthand how hard it could be for fast-growing companies to invest the time and manpower it takes to build a solid security foundation. Vanta was inspired by a vision to restore trust in internet businesses by enabling companies to improve and prove their security. From our early days automating security monitoring for compliance standards like SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO 27001 to creating the world\'s leading Trust Management Platform, our vision remains unchanged.

Now more than ever, making security continuous—not just a point-in-time check— is essential. Thousands of companies rely on Vanta to build, maintain and demonstrate their trust— all in a way that\'s real-time and transparent.

Referral Instructions

If you are being referred for the role, please contact that person to apply on your behalf.