Staff CIAM Software Engineer

• Affirm is building the next generation of customer identity and authentication. This role is a hands-on engineering position inside Information Security, focused on designing and shipping core CIAM capabilities that protect customers and support growth
• You will build and operate backend services that power registration, login, authorization, and account lifecycle flows across B2C and B2B experiences. You will work closely with partner engineering teams and ensure identity features are delivered with strong security fundamentals, reliability, and operational rigor
• Design, build, and operate core CIAM backend services that support customer registration, authentication, authorization, account lifecycle, and profile management for B2C and B2B platforms
• Implement and extend identity standards such as OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, and SCIM in code, ensuring correctness, scalability, and clean integration patterns
• Develop backend APIs and services in Python and Kotlin that expose identity capabilities to web, mobile, and partner applications
• Integrate CIAM platforms with internal systems, including user data stores, messaging, fraud signals, and downstream customer platforms
• Own secure authentication and account flows end to end, including MFA, step-up authentication, device binding, consent, and adaptive authentication logic
• Automate CIAM infrastructure and deployments using Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD pipelines, treating identity as a core platform service
• Monitor, debug, and optimize CIAM services for performance, resilience, and abuse detection in high-scale environments

Benefits

• Compensation: We have a simple, flexible, and transparent remote-first compensation structure so you can make the best decisions for yourself and your family
• Spending Wallets: Access tech, food, lifestyle, and family planning wallets for your expenses
• Supportive Communities: Get involved with our employee resource groups and community groups
• Remote-first Workforce: If your role is remote, you can set up shop anywhere in your home country
• Generous Time Off: Take the time you need when life happens
• Health Benefits: Get a plan that fits your needs
• Mental Healthcare: Take care of your mind with great mental health programs
• Parental Leave: Birth and non-birth parents get 18 weeks’ paid leave. Plus, a 4-week return-to-work transition program, at full base pay
• Away Days: We offer 20 company-wide paid days off—which help our teams collectively pause to recharge
• Learning & Development: Engage in exciting learning programs to level up your growth

• You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team
• You have an extensive track record of developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes
• You have experience delivering major features, system components or deprecating existing functionality in a system through the definition of a technical and execution plan. You write high quality code that is easily understood and used by others
• You have 7+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin
• Clear communication skills and the ability to work closely with product, frontend, mobile, and security teams while owning backend identity services
• Experience designing APIs, automation frameworks, and distributed systems
• Strong experience designing and implementing CIAM systems, with deep, hands-on knowledge of OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, and SCIM beyond basic configuration
• Strong security fundamentals applied through engineering, including access control models, token handling, encryption, MFA, and privacy by design
• Familiarity with tools such as Cursor and other AI-augmented development environments
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and automation tools such as Terraform, plus CI/CD pipelines for deploying backend services
• 5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience
• Hands-on experience extending and integrating CIAM platforms such as Okta, Auth0, Ping Identity, ForgeRock, or Azure AD B2C using custom code, hooks, and APIs
• Strong production experience in Python or a similar backend language
• Experience with cloud-native development, preferably AWS
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Experience with GitHub-based development workflows and Buildkite or similar build systems
• Solid understanding of backend and distributed systems fundamentals, including API design, data modeling, latency, error handling, and observability