Staff Software Engineer (Identity and Access, Identity Squads)

• The Identity and Access team at Grafana manages all aspects of authentication and authorization, working across both our open-source and proprietary codebases
• The Identity squad, within the team, owns the authentication layer — the protocols and flows that determine how every Grafana user proves who they are
• We are completely redesigning Grafana’s authentication at the edge — a rare opportunity to shape the technical direction of authentication infrastructure at scale, with a direct impact on millions of users every day
• Our code paths sit in the critical hot paths across Grafana’s services, making every millisecond of performance essential
• As a Staff Engineer, you will be central to defining how we evolve these systems
• As a Staff Engineer on the Identity squad, you will set the technical direction for our authentication systems and lead the most complex initiatives from conception through delivery
• You will collaborate closely with engineering leadership, product management, and cross-functional partners to define how Grafana authenticates millions of users every day
• Approximately 55% of your time will be dedicated to backend development (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 our edge authentication redesign
• Lead the design and implementation of large-scale, multi-quarter initiatives in the critical path of user interaction, spanning multiple services and teams
• Mentor and develop senior engineers, providing technical guidance, design feedback, and support for their professional growth
• Serve as a technical authority for identity protocols at Grafana, driving alignment on how we implement and evolve OAuth, OIDC, SAML, LDAP, and SCIM across the organization
• Drive cross-team technical alignment on authentication standards, patterns, and best practices across Grafana’s engineering organization
• Represent Grafana Labs at meetups and conferences, and contribute to the broader identity and authentication community
• As we are remote-first and our engineering organization is largely remote, we provide guidance and meet regularly using video calls, so an independent attitude and strong communication skills are essential

Benefits

• Vacation: Balance is key. Our team enjoys 30 days of paid vacation each year on top of national holidays, parental leave, and sick leave. We also take a breather on a number of Grafana Shutdown Days each year
• Healthcare: We’re proud to provide health coverage or stipends for our colleagues in the US, UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore, and India
• Retirement planning: There’s no time like the present to start saving for your future. We make employer contributions into the pension pots of our team members in the US, UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany
• Professional development: On top of a $1,500 annual learning and development stipend, Grafanistas have thousands of on-demand courses at their fingertips to help them grow professionally. Want to attend a conference or training? Go ahead. Just pass on what you learned
• Work location: Vast majority of our roles are fully remote, focused on hiring the best talent and allowing you to perform from the comfort of your home. If you fancy a change of scene, we’ll also reimburse you up to $175 a month for a personal co-working space
• Choice of tech: There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the tech required to do your job. Choose the laptop and accessories you need when you join us, and we’ll refresh them every three years
• Mindfulness: When you join the team, you can sign up for a complimentary subscription to Headspace to take advantage of the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. Our wellbeing resource group also organize sessions run by fellow Grafanistas or external trainers
• Global Employee Assistance Program: We offer all team members a 100% confidential support service with 24/7 365 access to professionally qualified counsellors and specialists
• Paid parental leave: Grafana offers paid parental leave to all eligible new parents. This offers Grafanistas time to bond with and care for their children in the first year after birth or adoption- 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
• Demonstrated ability to define technical direction and drive architectural decisions independently, with impact that extends beyond your immediate team
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; able to clearly convey complex technical decisions to diverse audiences, including engineering leadership and non-technical stakeholders
• Proven track record of leading and delivering complex, multi-quarter initiatives that span multiple teams or systems
• Ability to mentor and develop senior engineers, elevating the technical quality and capabilities of those around you
• Extensive experience building and operating low-latency, high-throughput services in distributed, multi-tenant environments
• Deep, proven expertise in distributed systems engineering with Go, with a track record of owning and delivering large-scale production systems end-to-end
• Strong understanding of SLOs, SLIs, error budgets, and how to design systems that balance reliability, security, and product velocity
• 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)