Staff Software Engineer - Trust Service Team

About the role

ID.me is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join the Trust Service team, where you will own the technical vision and execution of the core infrastructure that decides how much trust to extend to every identity claim made by over 152 million members. You will architect and lead the Trust Graph, a structured and queryable record of identity inspections that serves as the foundational data set for every access decision across federal, state, healthcare, and consumer platforms. In this role, you will set the standard for correctness and reliability in a system where errors have real-world identity and access consequences for millions of users. You will drive complex cross-team initiatives that span the identity and authentication platform, ensuring architectural integrity and alignment with strict federal standards. You will own the evolution of the trust data model and the API contracts that downstream teams depend on, shaping how trust is represented and consumed across the ecosystem. As a technical anchor, you will raise the bar for engineering quality, security, and operational excellence while mentoring senior and mid-level engineers through design discussions and implementation guidance. You will work closely with product, security, and operations partners to translate identity and compliance requirements into robust, scalable service capabilities.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and own the technical vision and architecture for the Trust Service, including the Trust Graph data model, query and write patterns, and operational characteristics at scale.

Lead the design and stewardship of REST API contracts and the inspection data model to ensure correctness, stability, and safe evolution for downstream identity workflows and access decisions.

Establish and enforce standards for code quality, system design, and engineering best practices across the Trust Service team.

Mentor senior and mid-level engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and technical guidance to elevate overall team capability.

Drive cross-team initiatives that span the identity and authentication platform, aligning technical implementation with product and compliance requirements.

Own the evolution and governance of the trust data model, ensuring it accurately reflects verification outcomes and supports reliable access decisions.

Implement and maintain observability, monitoring, and alerting strategies to ensure service reliability, performance, and debuggability in production.

Collaborate with security and operations partners to identify and mitigate risks, ensuring the service meets federal standards and industry best practices for identity and access management.

Evaluate and introduce new technologies and architectural patterns to improve scalability, maintainability, and developer experience of the Trust Service.

Partner with product teams to translate identity verification requirements into robust service capabilities that support diverse use cases across government and commercial markets.

Contribute to disaster recovery and continuity strategies to ensure the trust service remains available and consistent under failure conditions.

Participate in on-call rotations to support production incidents and lead root cause analysis efforts for complex service issues.

Engage with the broader ID.me engineering community to share practices, improve tooling, and promote platform thinking across identity services.

Represent the Trust Service in cross-functional discussions, ensuring that architectural decisions reflect long-term platform goals and regulatory constraints.

Champion the adoption of secure development practices and infrastructure controls that protect the integrity of identity trust data.

Requirements

Must be a U.S. citizen or national or have permanent authorization to work in the United States now and in the future.

Must be able to sign a U.S. Department of Defense Security Clearance Form 85 to obtain a Public Trust Position or be able to obtain a Public Trust Position in order to be considered for employment.

Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust Position for the duration of employment.

Must be legally authorized to work in the United States and not require sponsorship for permanent residency (green card) at the time of hire.

Must have at least five years of experience designing and implementing backend systems at scale.

Must have demonstrated experience owning and evolving complex data models and API contracts in a production environment.

Must have strong proficiency in at least one modern programming language such as Java, Go, Python, or Node.js.

Must have experience building and operating reliable, low-latency services in cloud or on-premise environments.

Must have a solid understanding of distributed systems concepts, including consistency, observability, and resilience patterns.

Must have experience working with relational databases and query optimization in high-throughput systems.

Must have strong written and verbal communication skills to articulate technical tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Must be comfortable working in a fast-paced, iterative environment with evolving requirements and priorities.

Must be able to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams including product, security, and operations.

Must be willing to participate in on-call rotations and support production incidents as needed.

Must be able to pass a background check and meet ID.me's security and compliance requirements.