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Technology, Crowdfunding, Internet, Financial Services

Senior Staff Software Engineer, Identity Platform

San Francisco, California, United StatesHybridFull TimeStaff$233,500–$321,200 /yrPosted 2 months agoVisa sponsorship available

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Role summary

GoFundMe is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer for its Identity Platform. This role is a technical leadership position responsible for the architecture, scalability, and reliability of the identity platform, which serves as a foundation for all GoFundMe products and services. The engineer will define and evolve the identity architecture, establish trust boundaries, make build-vs-integrate decisions, and own the technical roadmap. Key responsibilities include designing enterprise identity onboarding, architecting federation patterns, managing the consumer identity lifecycle, and building identity resolution capabilities. The role requires strong security instincts, proficiency in identity protocols, and experience with database design and observability. The engineer will also mentor other engineers and contribute to system reliability. This is a hybrid role based in San Francisco, CA.

Want to help us help others? We’re hiring!

GoFundMe is the world's most powerful community for good, dedicated to helping people help each other. By uniting individuals and nonprofits in one place, GoFundMe makes it easy and safe for people to ask for help and support causes, for themselves and each other. Together, our community has raised more than $40 billion since 2010.

Join us! GoFundMe is searching for a Senior Staff Software Engineer for Identity Platform to serve as the technical leader driving the architecture, scalability, and reliability of our identity platform, the foundational layer that every product team, enterprise customer, and internal service builds on. Your work will directly shape how millions of people trust and interact with GoFundMe, and how engineering teams across the company build identity-dependent features with confidence.

As a key technical leader, you will have the opportunity to define how consumer and enterprise identity converge into a unified, secure platform, driving impact for the company, the engineering organization, and the people we serve. Join us if you are excited to own a meaningful systems problem end-to-end while making a direct impact on trust, personalization, and the causes that matter most.

This is a hybrid role that requires 3 days per week at the office, and we are therefore only able to consider candidates who are located or willing to relocate to San Francisco, CA.

The Job

  • Define and evolve the end-to-end identity architecture spanning authentication, authorization, session management, and token lifecycle across consumer and enterprise contexts.
  • Establish trust boundaries, integration contracts, and platform primitives that make the secure path the default path for every team consuming identity services.
  • Make principled build-vs-integrate decisions across vendor (e.g., Descope, Auth0, Okta) and in-house systems, owning the tradeoffs and migration paths.
  • Design repeatable, self-service enterprise identity onboarding (SSO, SCIM provisioning, multi-tenant trust) so that each new partnership does not require bespoke integration.
  • Architect federation and provisioning patterns that support GoFundMe’s growing enterprise and nonprofit partnerships.
  • Own the consumer identity lifecycle including account continuity, progressive trust, confidence scoring, and anonymous-to-authenticated transitions.
  • Build identity resolution capabilities (visitor stitching, account linking, confidence-weighted models) that power personalization and fraud prevention.
  • Own the identity platform technical roadmap, prioritizing initiatives based on user impact, enterprise requirements, compliance obligations, and technical feasibility.
  • Set integration standards and publish platform APIs and SDKs that enable product engineering teams to consume identity correctly without absorbing auth complexity.
  • Mentor engineers across the Identity team and the broader Platform Tribe; raise the bar on system design, security thinking, and operational rigor.
  • Contribute to system reliability through on-call participation, incident response leadership, and postmortem-driven improvements to identity infrastructure.
  • Communicate architecture decisions, tradeoffs, and roadmap progress clearly to engineering leadership, product partners, and cross-functional stakeholders.

    • You

  • 8+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time at senior, staff, or principal levels working on platform or infrastructure systems.
  • Deep, hands-on expertise with identity protocols and standards: OAuth 2.x, OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0, and SCIM.
  • Track record of designing and shipping identity or auth platforms that other engineering teams depend on in production.
  • Experience architecting systems using federation standards, session/token management patterns, and well-defined trust boundaries, with an eye toward minimizing the cost of future change.
  • Strong security instincts: you threat-model as you design, understand credential risk and account takeover patterns, and build systems where the secure path is the easy path.
  • Proficiency in relational database design and data modeling for identity systems, including schema evolution strategies for high-availability environments.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead projects from ambiguity through delivery, balancing technical depth with business context and keeping teams aligned across organizational boundaries.
  • Strong observability and reliability skills: experience with monitoring, alerting, and incident response for mission-critical identity infrastructure.

    • Preferred

  • Hands-on experience with commercial identity platforms (Descope, Auth0/Okta, Ping, or comparable) in production, including migration between providers.
  • Experience spanning both enterprise and consumer identity contexts, such as at fintech, SaaS, payments, or identity-forward companies.
  • Familiarity with advanced authorization models: RBAC, ABAC, ReBAC, or policy engines such as OPA/Cedar.
  • Experience with compliance and audit requirements relevant to identity systems (SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR, CCPA) and data residency considerations.
  • Practical experience deploying and operating identity services on cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) at scale.
  • Contributions to identity standards bodies, open-source identity projects, or published thought leadership in the IAM space.

    • Why you’ll love it here

  • Make an Impact: Be part of a mission-driven organization making a positive difference in millions of lives every year.
  • Innovative Environment: Work with a diverse, passionate, and talented team in a fast-paced, forward-thinking atmosphere.
  • Collaborative Team: Join a fun and collaborative team that works hard and celebrates success together.
  • Competitive Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay and comprehensive healthcare benefits.
  • Holistic Support: Enjoy financial assistance for things like hybrid work, family planning, along with generous parental leave, flexible time-off policies, and mental health and wellness resources to support your overall well-being.
  • Growth Opportunities: Participate in learning, development, and recognition programs to help you thrive and grow.
  • Commitment to DEI: Contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion through ongoing initiatives and employee resource groups.
  • Community Engagement: Make a difference through our volunteering program.

    • We live by our core values: impatient to be great, find a way, earn trust every day, fueled by purpose. Be a part of something bigger with us!

    GoFundMe is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that actively pursues candidates of diverse backgrounds and experiences. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnicity, nationality or national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy status, marital status, age, medical condition, mental or physical disability, or military or veteran status.

    The annual U.S. salary range for this full-time position is $233,500 - $321,200. The company also offers equity and other benefits to employees, including healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance and 401(k) saving program. In addition to this wage, there are geolocation differentials that will increase pay depending on the work location. Additionally pay may vary depending on other factors including skills, experience, education, or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific total compensation package based on your location during the hiring process.

    If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete a job application or a job interview or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please contact us at accommodationrequests@gofundme.com.

    Global Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates and Applicants:

    Depending on your location, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or certain US privacy laws may regulate the way we manage the data of job applicants. Our full notice outlining how data will be processed as part of the application procedure for applicable locations is available here. By submitting your application, you are agreeing to our use and processing of your data as required.

    Learn more about GoFundMe:

    We’re proud to partner with GoFundMe.org, an independent public charity, to extend the reach and impact of our generous community, while helping drive critical social change. You can learn more about GoFundMe.org’s activities and impact in their FY ‘25 annual report.

    Our annual “Year in Help” report reflects our community’s impact in advancing our mission of helping people help each other.

    For recent company news and announcements, visit our Newsroom.

    Notice to Applicants for Jobs Located in NYC or Remote Jobs Associated With Office in NYC Only

    We use Metaview as part of our hiring process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an automated employment decision tool (AEDT), as defined by New York City Local Law 144. As part of the hiring process, we provide Metaview with job requirements and candidate submitted resumes and application materials to assist in evaluating job-related qualifications. While this tool is used to improve efficiency and support our recruiting personnel, all final hiring decisions are made by GoFundMe employees.

    We began using Metaview on March 10, 2026. The Metaview tool has been reviewed by an independent auditor. Results of the audit may be viewed here. The tool evaluates your professional experience, technical skills, education, and other qualifications using information collected directly from your submitted resume and application materials; all such data is retained in accordance with GoFundMe’s Personnel Privacy Notice and applicable legal requirements. If you would like to request an alternative selection process or a reasonable accommodation, please contact accommodationrequests@gofundme.com.

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