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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Senior Staff Software Engineer - **Company:** Shield AI - **Location:** San Diego, CA, United States (Remote available) - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $143,300.0 - $266,130.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, C++ (Programming Language), Code Review, Distributed Systems, Fault Tolerance, Python (Programming Language), OAuth, OpenID, Public Key Infrastructure, Scrum Methodology, Role-Based Access Control, Prometheus, Service Discovery, Systems Architecture, Backend, Asynchronous Programming - **Published:** May 24, 2026 - **Apply:** https://arc.dev/remote-jobs/j/ddn-senior-staff-software-engineer-orohzcmyse ## About the Role * 12+ years of backend development experience, with deep proficiency in Go, C++, or Python, specifically within high-scale distributed systems. * Specialized Expertise in Access Control: In-depth knowledge of RBAC, ABAC, and Multi-Tenancy models within containerized or orchestrated environments. * Identity & Infrastructure Security: Practical experience with TLS/mTLS, PKI management, certificate lifecycles, and identity protocols such as OAuth2/OIDC. * Distributed Systems Foundations: Working knowledge of Consul, etcd, or other key/value stores used for service discovery and maintaining global cluster state. * Technical Diplomacy: The ability to bridge the gap between high-level security mandates and the practical performance requirements of a storage control plane. * Global Collaboration: Proven results working with geographically distributed teams, utilizing asynchronous communication (RFCs, design docs) to drive alignment. What you have achieved… * Systemic Domain Ownership: A history of taking full responsibility for a mission-critical domain, ensuring its long-term health, documentation, and scalability. * Experience Building Control Planes: Proven success in developing API servers, controllers, or management layers for storage or compute resources. * Knowledge Synthesis: A track record of collaborating with long-tenured experts to institutionalize tribal knowledge and turn it into robust, documented system architecture. * Observability & Hardening: Experience using Prometheus and OpenTelemetry to ensure that identity and control services are visible, performant, and resilient. * Design Thinking for Infrastructure: The ability to simplify complex user access challenges into elegant, developer-friendly CLI and API experiences. ## Description We are looking for a hands-on Senior Staff Software Engineer who will help design and build our Cluster management platform., * Lead the Access Control Domain: Act as the primary technical authority for user authentication, authorization, and identity logic within our Software Defined Storage solution. * Drive Architectural Continuity: Partner with senior leadership and domain experts to maintain and evolve our core infrastructure, ensuring a seamless transition of technical responsibilities. * Collaborate with Security Stakeholders: Work alongside our dedicated security team to implement best-in-class user access controls that meet compliance standards without compromising system speed. * Mentor and Document: Set the standard for technical excellence by providing expert code reviews, mentoring mid-level engineers, and creating high-fidelity documentation for our identity systems. * Full-Lifecycle Engineering: Participate in the Scrum model-from initial ideation and prototyping to testing and maintenance-ensuring high regression coverage for sensitive code paths. * Global Support: Contribute to our team on-call rotation, providing high-level expertise to support our global distributed footprint. Salary Range for this role: $143,300 - $266,130 DDN Join our dynamic and driven team, where engineering excellence is at the heart of everything we do. We seek individuals who love to challenge themselves and are fueled by curiosity. Here, you'll have the opportunity to work across various areas of the company, thanks to our flat organizational structure that encourages hands-on involvement and direct contributions to our mission. Leadership is earned by those who take initiative and consistently deliver outstanding results, both in their work ethic and deliverables, making strong prioritization skills essential. Additionally, we value strong communication skills in all our engineers and researchers, as they are crucial for the success of our teams and the company as a whole. Interview Process: After submitting your application, one of our recruiters will review your resume. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 30-minute interview during which a member of our team will ask some basic questions. If you clear the interview, you will enter the main process, which can consist of up to four interviews in total: * Coding assessment: Often in a language of your choice. * Systems design: Translate high-level requirements into a scalable, fault-tolerant service (depending on role). * Real-time problem-solving: Demonstrate practical skills in a live problem-solving session. * Meet and greet with the wider team. * Our goal is to finish the main process in 2-3 weeks at most. ## Related Videos - [Keeping applications secure by evolving OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100152-keeping-applications-secure-by-evolving-oauth-2-0-and-openid-connect) - [Shipping Faster with Less: Render on Cloud Hosting, AI Workloads, and the Future of DevOps](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1894-shipping-faster-with-less-render-on-cloud-hosting-ai-workloads-and-the-future-of-devops) - [Developing the Backend with Stefan Lingler, CTO at Shpock](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100360-developing-the-backend-with-stefan-lingler-cto-at-shpock) - [Get started with securing your cloud-native Java microservices applications](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/123-get-started-with-securing-your-cloud-native-java-microservices-applications) - [You can’t hack what you can’t see](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/41-you-can-t-hack-what-you-can-t-see) - [Nest.js - TypeScript in the backend can also be clean](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1033-nest-js-typescript-in-the-backend-can-also-be-clean) ## Related Articles - [The Best X (Twitter) Accounts for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/294-the-best-x-twitter-accounts-for-developers) - [Dev Digest 120 - Apple and peers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/455-dev-digest-120-apple-and-peers) - [Dev Digest 121 - AI goes offline](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/456-dev-digest-121-ai-goes-offline) - [Dev Digest 132 - Binging WADFlix?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/473-dev-digest-132-binging-wadflix) - [Navigating the AI Shift](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/629-navigating-the-ai-shift) - [Is Software Engineering Over-Saturated?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/418-is-software-engineering-over-saturated)