Staff Software Engineer - Identity Proofing

Idme; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 217,565 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical and dental benefits

401(k) with company match

Unlimited paid time off

Job summary

ID.me is seeking a Staff Software Engineer in Mountain View, CA. This role focuses on designing and leading scalable authentication systems critical for millions of users across various services.

The ideal candidate will have over 8 years of software engineering experience, with proficiency in authentication and identity proofing technologies, and a passion for technical leadership. Experience with modern programming languages is essential, as well as a penchant for collaborating with diverse teams.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 3+ years designed/authenticated systems including MFA, SSO.
• 1+ years experience with AI-assisted development tooling.

Responsibilities

• Architect & lead authentication systems ensuring high scalability.
• Drive excellence in identity proofing flows.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for cohesive features.

Skills

Authentication Systems Design

Cross-Team Collaboration

Technical Leadership

Cloud Infrastructure

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Ruby

Java

Go

Python

Job description

Company Overview

ID.me is the next-generation digital identity wallet that simplifies how individuals securely prove their identity online. Consumers can verify their identity with ID.me once and seamlessly login across websites without having to create a new login and verify their identity again. Over 152 million users experience streamlined login and identity verification with ID.me at 20 federal agencies, 45 state government agencies, and 70+ healthcare organizations. More than 600+ consumer brands use ID.me to verify communities and user segments to honor service and build more authentic relationships. ID.me’s technology meets the federal standards for consumer authentication set by the Commerce Department and is approved as a NIST 800-63-3 IAL2 / AAL2 credential service provider by the Kantara Initiative. ID.me is committed to “No Identity Left Behind” to enable all people to have a secure digital identity. To learn more, visit https://network.id.me/.

ID.me is a full-time, in-office culture. Unless a specific job description explicitly states otherwise, all roles are on-site five days per week at one of our offices in McLean, VA; Mountain View, CA; New York City, NY; or Tampa, FL. Certain roles — such as field-based sales or other remote-by-design positions — may have different work arrangements as noted in their individual postings.

At ID.me, we embrace the thoughtful use of AI tools in our daily work and there are even occasions where we leverage AI in our hiring process. However, during the interview process, we want to understand your individual skills and experiences. Therefore, we have guidelines on how AI can be appropriately used during your application and interviews which can be found here.

Role Overview

ID.me is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join the Wallet – Authentication & Identity Proofing team. This team owns the core authentication and identity verification flows that millions of members rely on every day — from secure login and multi-factor authentication to passkeys, biometrics, and the end-to-end member experiences that establish trust and unlock access to government, healthcare, and commercial services.

As a Staff Engineer, you will be a technical anchor for one of ID.me’s most critical and high-scale engineering domains. You will drive architecture decisions, lead complex cross-team initiatives, and raise the bar for engineering quality, security, and reliability. You’ll collaborate closely with product, security, and platform teams to shape the next generation of authentication and identity proofing at ID.me.

This position will work from our Mountain View, CA office five days per week.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect & Lead Authentication Systems: Design and evolve scalable, secure, and resilient authentication experiences, including MFA, passkeys (FIDO2/WebAuthn), biometric flows, push notification authentication, and OAuth2/OIDC-based login systems that serve tens of millions of members daily at peak volume.
• Drive Identity Proofing Excellence: Lead the technical design of end-to-end member-facing verification flows, including document-based identity proofing, face match, supervised verification, and trusted referee experiences — ensuring they meet NIST 800-63-3 IAL2/AAL2 standards with minimal friction.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Serve as a technical anchor for the team — setting the standard for code quality, system design, and engineering best practices. Mentor senior and mid-level engineers through code reviews, architectural guidance, and pairing.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with Security, Platform, Identity Graph, Product, and Compliance teams to deliver cohesive features and integrations. Drive alignment on shared architectural decisions and multi-team initiatives that span authentication and identity verification.
• Reliability, Performance & Security: Own the availability and performance of authentication services at scale. Lead initiatives around observability, alert hygiene, capacity planning, and incident response for high-traffic, high-sensitivity systems.
• Compliance & Data Integrity: Champion compliance initiatives including data retention, compromised credential detection, biometric data governance, and privacy-preserving design patterns. Ensure authentication systems meet evolving legal and regulatory requirements.
• Roadmap Influence: Provide technical input into team roadmap planning. Identify engineering investments that improve developer velocity, system resilience, and member experience — and advocate for them with engineering leadership and product.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating high-availability production services.
• 3+ years of expertise designing and implementing authentication systems — including MFA, SSO, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and/or passkeys (FIDO2/WebAuthn).
• 3+ years of experience operating distributed systems at scale, such as caching or async processing, and other cloud-native infrastructure (GCP preferred).
• 1+ years of experience with AI-assisted development tooling such as Claude Code, Cursor, or equivalent.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of identity proofing and credentialing standards, including NIST 800-63-3 (IAL2/AAL2), Kantara Initiative requirements, or equivalent federal/state compliance frameworks.
• A commitment to fostering an AI-first engineering culture that maximizes team quality and velocity.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-team technical initiatives from definition through delivery with minimal oversight.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with experience influencing technical direction across engineering, product, and security stakeholders.
• Experience with modern frontend Frameworks like React, and strong backend engineering fundamentals in one or more languages such as Ruby, Java, Go, or Python, with a track record of building secure, scalable APIs and services.
• Hands‑on experience with modern frontend technologies including TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, and build tooling (Vite, Webpack, Babel, ESLint); proficient in testing frameworks (Jest, Playwright, Testing Library), styling (Tailwind CSS, Sass), and building reusable component libraries with Storybook.
• Experience with event-driven architectures, database performance optimization, and caching strategies for high-throughput identity systems.
• Familiarity with cloud data compliance frameworks including biometric data retention regulations, PII handling, and audit logging requirements.
• Experience working in regulated industries such as government, healthcare, or financial services.
• Track record of improving engineering culture through documentation, technical standards, and developer experience improvements.

Benefits

The annual base salary listed does not include a company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity and benefits which will be determined based on experience, skills, education, relevant training, geographic location and role.

ID.me offers comprehensive medical, dental, vision, health savings account, flexible spending accounts (medical, limited purpose, dependent care, commuter benefit accounts), basic and voluntary life and AD&D insurance, 401(k) with company match, parental leave, ability to participate in unlimited paid time off subject to the terms and conditions of the PTO policy, including 8 company wide holidays, short and long-term disability insurance, accident and critical illness insurance, referral bonus policy, employee assistance program, pet insurance, travel assistant program, wellbeing and childcare discounts, benefit advocates, and a learning and development benefit.

Final offers may vary from the amount listed based on qualifications, professional experiences, skills, education, relevant training, geographic location and other job related factors.

Mountain View, CA Pay Range: $217,565 — $260,000 USD

Equal Opportunity & Privacy

ID.me maintains a work environment free from discrimination, where employees are treated with dignity and respect. All ID.me employees share in the responsibility for fulfilling our commitment to equal employment opportunity. ID.me does not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, 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. ID.me adheres to these principles in all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, benefits, social and recreational programs, and discipline. In addition, ID.me’s policy is to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified employees who have protected disabilities to the extent required by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances where a particular employee works. Upon request we will provide you with more information about such accommodations.

Please review our Privacy Policy, including our CCPA policy, at id.me/privacy. If you provide ID.me with any personally identifiable information you confirm that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions set out in our Privacy Policy.

ID.me participates in E-Verify.