Staff Software Engineer - Identity and Access, Identity Squads | UK | Remote
Job description
Staff Software Engineer - Identity and Access, Identity Squads | UK | Remote at Grafana Labs.
About the role
Grafana Labs seeks a Staff Software Engineer to join the Identity Squad, focusing on authentication and access management. This role involves shaping the technical direction of critical systems that ensure secure and effortless user sign-in for millions. You will lead complex initiatives and contribute to the core authentication infrastructure for Grafana's open-source and proprietary platforms.
Key facts
What you'll do
- Dedicate approximately 55% of your time to backend development in Golang, 25% to technical leadership and cross-team collaboration, and 20% to operations and reliability.
- Define and own the technical architecture for the Identity squad's authentication systems, including a redesign of edge authentication.
- Lead the design and implementation of large-scale, multi-quarter initiatives impacting user interaction across multiple services and teams.
- Mentor and develop senior engineers by providing technical guidance, design feedback, and professional growth support.
- Serve as a technical authority for identity protocols at Grafana, driving alignment on implementing and evolving OAuth, OIDC, SAML, LDAP, and SCIM.
- Drive cross-team technical alignment on authentication standards, patterns, and best practices across Grafana's engineering organization.
- Represent Grafana Labs at meetups and conferences, contributing to the broader identity and authentication community.
Requirements
- Deep expertise in distributed systems engineering with Go, with a history of owning and delivering large-scale production systems end-to-end.
- Demonstrated ability to define technical direction and drive architectural decisions independently, with impact beyond your immediate team.
- Extensive experience building and operating low-latency, high-throughput services in distributed, multi-tenant environments.
- Proven track record of leading and delivering complex, multi-quarter initiatives spanning multiple teams or systems.
- Ability to mentor and develop senior engineers, enhancing the technical quality and capabilities of those around you.
- Strong understanding of SLOs, SLIs, error budgets, and how to design systems that balance reliability, security, and product velocity.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, able to convey complex technical decisions to diverse audiences.
- Expert-level understanding of modern identity standards and threat models (OAuth 2.x / 2.1, OIDC, SAML), and how to implement them securely at scale.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with Kubernetes.
- TypeScript/React experience.
- Experience working with OpenFGA and KiFederate IDP.
- Experience working in security critical environments.
- Experience contributing to or maintaining Open Source projects.
- Familiarity with observability tooling (e.g., Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry).
Skills & tools
- Go
- OAuth 2.x / 2.1
- OIDC
- SAML
- LDAP
- SCIM
Practical notes
This role is available for candidates located in the UK, Germany, Spain, Ireland, and Sweden. Compensation includes equity and a bonus (if applicable). Grafana Labs is a 100% remote company with a global annual leave policy of 30 days, including 3 reserved for company-wide shutdown days. New hires participate in in-person onboarding.