Staff Software Engineer, Security

About the team + role

We are building an elite team, applying frontier technologies to the world’s biggest financial problems. We’re looking for bold thinkers. Sharp problem-solvers. Builders who are wired to make an impact. Robinhood isn’t a place for complacency, it’s where ambitious people do the best work of their careers. We’re a high-performing, fast-moving team with ethics at the center of everything we do. Expectations are high, and so are the rewards.

The Security Engineering team focuses on protecting Robinhood’s identity infrastructure by building and maintaining systems that control how people and services access critical resources. The team owns authentication and authorization for both internal systems and customer-facing products, ensuring secure and reliable access at scale. Work includes access management, certificate lifecycle management, and improving visibility into system behavior. The team partners closely with infrastructure, product, and data engineering groups to integrate secure access patterns into all layers of the platform. You will help shape systems that protect financial data and maintain trust at scale!

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will lead the design and evolution of systems that manage identity, authentication, authorization, secure connections and encryption across Robinhood. You will guide technical direction for large-scale backend services, including a proprietary access management platform, and define secure patterns for emerging areas such as AI-driven workflows. You will also contribute to certificate lifecycle management and public key infrastructure systems. This role requires strong technical judgment, hands-on development, and mentorship of other engineers while ensuring systems meet strict reliability and latency expectations.

This role is based in our Bellevue, WA office, with in-person attendance expected at least 3 days per week.

At Robinhood, we believe in the power of in-person work to accelerate progress, spark innovation, and strengthen community. Our office experience is intentional, energizing, and designed to fully support high-performing teams.

What you’ll do

• Design and build systems that manage authentication and authorization for internal services and customer-facing applications
• Lead the technical direction of access management platforms, including scaling proprietary systems to support high traffic and low latency requirements
• Develop secure access patterns and monitoring systems for AI and machine learning workflows across engineering teams
• Build and maintain certificate lifecycle management and public key infrastructure systems with strong observability and automation
• Partner with engineering teams across infrastructure, product, and data to integrate secure access controls into new and existing systems

What you bring

• You have 8+ years of experience building backend or security systems, including work in identity and access management at scale
• You have experience with authentication protocols such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, or WebAuthn
• You have strong programming skills in Go, Python, or Rust and experience operating distributed systems in environments such as Kubernetes and AWS
• You have experience designing highly available systems with clear performance and reliability goals
• You are comfortable guiding technical decisions and supporting other engineers through code reviews and design discussions

What we offer

• Challenging, high-impact work to grow your career.
• Performance-driven compensation with multipliers for outsized impact, bonus programs, equity ownership, and 401(k) matching.
• Best-in-class benefits to fuel your work, including 100% paid health insurance for employees with 90% coverage for dependents.
• Lifestyle wallet — a highly flexible benefits spending account for wellness, learning, and more.
• Employer-paid life & disability insurance, fertility benefits, and mental health benefits.
• Time off to recharge including company holidays, paid time off, sick time, parental leave, and more!
• Exceptional office experience with catered meals, events, and comfortable workspaces.