Staff Software Engineer - Security Infrastructure

Plaid

🔍 Observed

$172K - $371K USD

United States First seen 3 weeks ago Last seen 5 hours, 57 minutes ago Lever

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Job Description

AI Summary

• Design and build security infrastructure systems at scale, including authorization platforms, zero trust architecture, cryptographic services, and AI guardrails across Plaid's fintech ecosystem • Lead technical architecture for complex cross-functional security projects serving thousands of developers and millions of consumers across 12,000+ financial institutions • Act as security subject matter expert embedded within engineering teams, consulting on secure product design and helping teams adopt security frameworks • Own production systems through on-call rotation, ensuring reliability and security of critical infrastructure that serves as the trust layer for the fintech ecosystem • Work on emerging security domains including agentic AI capabilities, next-generation authorization models, and zero trust controls to define industry standards

We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Washington D.C., London and Amsterdam.

At Plaid, security isn't a cost center or a compliance checklist—it is our product. We sit at the intersection of thousands of applications, thousands of financial institutions, and hundreds of millions of consumers. We are the trust layer for the fintech ecosystem. If we don't build secure systems, the ecosystem doesn't function.

You will join a team responsible for the secure backbone of Plaid. As we look toward 2026, you will have the opportunity to define industry standards in areas like:

Next-Generation Authorization: We are moving beyond simple RBAC. You will help build a unified, centralized Authorization Platform that enforces fine-grained permissions across all human and non-human identities.

Agentic Security Capabilities: Build AI agents and tooling to automate functions like vulnerability patching, secure code reviews, and anomaly detection.

Zero Trust Architecture: You will evolve our internal token services and identity gateways to enforce rigorous Zero Trust controls for every service, device, and user in our fleet.

AI Guardrails: As Plaid adopts GenAI, you will build the "guardrails" and paved roads that allow our engineers to use LLMs securely, preventing data leakage and model abuse before they happen.

Cryptographic Services: You will own and scale our internal Key Management Systems, the central services for encryption, signing, and key rotation that protect our most sensitive data.

Network Security: You will help us sandbox our sensitive workloads from the internet, preventing command-and-control and data exfiltration.

Responsibilities: Design & Code: Write high-quality, scalable code to enhance product security or support security functions. Architect: Lead the technical design of complex, cross-functional security systems. You will determine how we solve problems like "universal service-to-service authentication" or "global data encryption" at scale. Consult & Embed: Act as a security subject matter expert for other engineering teams. We embed within engineering teams to build and accelerate security features within our products and frameworks. Operate: Own your systems in production. We run an on-call rotation for the services we build, ensuring they meet the same high availability standards as our core products. Innovate: Contribute to the broader security industry. Whether it's open-sourcing our internal tools or contributing to major open-source security projects, we want you to help move the industry forward. Qualifications: Strong Software Engineering skills: You have 8+ years of experience building distributed systems, backend services, or infrastructure. You care about code quality, testing, and reliability. You are "security-curious": You understand the fundamentals of security (encryption, auth protocols like OIDC/OAuth, network security) and want to dive deeper. You ask "how can we design this so it can't be misused?" rather than just "is this bug fixed?" You think at a system-level: You can visualize complex dependencies and design solutions that work across dozens of microservices. You are a Partner: You can communicate complex security requirements to product managers and engineers with empathy and clarity.

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Job Information

Company:
Plaid
Location:
United States
Job Type:
Full-Time
Work Location:
Remote
Experience Level:
Executive
Source:
Lever
Status:
Active

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