Senior Software Engineer, Identity Platform

Upstart is a leading AI lending marketplace committed to reducing the cost and complexity of borrowing for Americans. They are seeking a Senior Software Engineer for their Identity Platform Team to design and secure authentication and authorization systems, ensuring a seamless and secure identity framework for their lending products.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and optimize secure and scalable authentication and authorization systems
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities, including OAuth, OpenID Connect, MFA, and SSO
• Partner with Security teams to enhance security policies and standards, ensuring protection against threats and unauthorized access
• Improve Experimentation platform and Lifecycle across the Upstart Network Inc Products
• Drive best engineering practices for clean, maintainable, and efficient code
• Participate in architectural discussions, helping to shape the long-term vision of Identity Platform
• Mentor and collaborate with other engineers to elevate the team’s technical skills and knowledge
• Work on high impact initiatives that solve for making credit accessible to everyone

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics, or a related field (or its equivalent) + 4 years of experience
• Strong proficiency in backend technologies (e.g., Kotlin, Java, Ruby, C#)
• Hands-on experience with authentication and authorization protocols (OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML)
• Experience building scalable APIs using containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes
• Understanding of security principles, including encryption, token-based authentication, and identity federation
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, with an emphasis on performance optimization
• Ability to balance the needs of the business with engineering best practices and security considerations
• Passion for clean code, architecture, and continuous improvement of engineering processes
• Experience with AI Coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code etc
• Excellent communication skills – able to translate complex technical concepts for a variety of stakeholders
• Experience working with IAM platforms and security services
• Knowledge of A/B testing, gRPC, and DevOps practices
• Experience with Keycloak, NextJS, and Ruby is a plus
• Proven ability to influence technical direction without direct authority
• Strong product and analytical mindset, capable of making trade-offs between risk, ROI, and performance
• Experience working at companies experiencing rapid growth and scaling challenges
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for the quality and timely delivery of work
• Ability to influence and lead without direct authority