Staff Software Engineer - Wallet/Authentication Platform

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 Platform team, where we build and operate the core sign-in, registration, MFA, and account management infrastructure that over 140 million members rely on to access the ID.me identity wallet. Authentication is the front door to ID.me. Every member's journey begins with creating, signing into, or managing their Wallet. Our platform owns sign-in, registration, MFA, account recovery, password reset, and MyWallet, enabling verified identity across 20 federal agencies, 44 state governments, 66 healthcare organizations, and hundreds of consumer brands. As a Staff Software Engineer, you will set technical direction for the authentication platform, drive cross-team architectural decisions, and serve as a force multiplier for the engineers around you. You bring deep expertise in identity, security, and distributed systems — and you use it to raise the bar for the entire team. Your work shapes how millions of people prove and access who they are online. This position will work from our Mountain View, CA office five days per week. Key Responsibilities Technical Leadership & Vision: Define and drive the technical roadmap for authentication platform services, identifying systemic challenges, architectural risks, and strategic opportunities. Author architecture proposals, lead design reviews, and own critical technical decisions across the team. Cross-Team Influence: Partner with Platform, Security, Identity, Product, and adjacent engineering teams to align on authentication standards, shared infrastructure, and cross-cutting concerns. Represent the team's technical perspective in org-level planning and architectural forums. Systems Design & Architecture: Lead end-to-end design and implementation of complex, high-impact authentication features — sign-in flows, MFA, federation, account lifecycle management — balancing security, scale, and developer ergonomics. Security & Risk Engineering: Define the team's approach to auth security: threat modeling, credential protection, session management, abuse mitigation, and real-time risk signal integration. Champion security as a first-class engineering discipline across every feature the team ships. Enginee…