Senior Engineer - Auth

Datum’s mission is to help 1k clouds thrive in the AI era by unlocking internet superpowers for every builder. We’re working in the open to bring the foundational capabilities that all the big guys use (private networking, peering, direct interconnection, etc) into the hands of builders and modern “alt clouds” — no network team required. One of Datum’s core values is to be connectors: of applications, services, networks, and people.

As such, this role (just like all roles at Datum) will work directly with users, customers, partners, and the broader community. Another key value is to be open by default, from how we license our code (AGPLv3) to how we communicate, engage with, and document our work. We believe this engenders trust from our customers and community, but also because open is the best way to build.

It's more secure, more operable, and even more enjoyable. Still interested? Read on!

The Role
We're seeking a senior/principal/staff level engineer focused on securely connecting 1k clouds together. Practically speaking, it means someone who wakes up every day thinking about federated authentication and authorization. Whether that's OAuth, SPIFFE, Authzed, Zitadel, k8s RBAC, or everything in between, the right candidate for this role can likely rattle off a few RFCs and has been dreaming of working on a system like this already.

You'll work extensively with distributed systems, vendor APIs, networking protocols, software-defined networking, and cloud-native infrastructure while solving complex orchestration challenges across multiple cloud providers and edge locations. This role combines a passion for security, open-source development, and building systems that other engineers love to use. If you're intrigued by what 1 billion networks would look like, talk to us!

What You'll Do
Control Plane Infrastructure & Architecture
Design, implement, and run Datum's core authentication and authorization stack

Build customer-facing solutions to help our alt-cloud ecosystem thrive

Scale the management, monitoring, and metering of every actor in our system, human or not

Partner with leadership to advance projects with key customers, partners, and suppliers

Distributed Systems & Performance
Design distributed solutions that scale from startup to hyperscale usage patterns

Implement intelligent traffic routing, load balancing, and failover

Build observability, monitoring, and diagnostic tools for complex environments

Optimize control plane performance for AI workloads and high-bandwidth applications with our network team

Open Source Leadership
Drive technical networking decisions in collaboration with our open-source community

Review and mentor contributions from external developers on networking components

Maintain high code quality standards and documentation for network APIs

Represent Datum at conferences and in technical working groups

Cloud-Native & AI Integration
Design networking solutions that integrate seamlessly with Kubernetes and AI patterns

Build network policies and security frameworks for multi-tenant cloud environments

Implement service mesh integration and east-west traffic optimization

Ensure compatibility with major cloud provider networking services (AWS, GCP, Azure)

About You
Authentication & Authorization
Strong working knowledge of OAuth in complex production environments with multiple IdPs, including social and commercial (AWS IAM, Azure Entra, GCP, Auth0, Okta, etc.)

Strong working knowledge of authorization (ABAC, RBAC, PBAC) and its ecosystem (Zanzibar, SpiceDB, OpenFGA, Cedar)

Experience with Workload Identity Federation and/or SPIFFE and opinions about where the puck is going

Distributed Systems & Infrastructure
5+ years of running large-scale production systems on Kubernetes or similar, with security as a first principle

Strong experience with distributed systems design, security, auth, consensus algorithms, async reconciliation, and fault tolerance

Enough familiarity with Kubernetes patterns and APIs that you can speak custom resources and admission controllers

Strong experience with infrastructure as code (Flux, Terraform, Pulumi) for provisioning

Familiarity with SRv6, edge computing, or modern network routing would be a huge plus

Open Source & Leadership
Track record of contributing to or maintaining networking-focused open-source projects

Experience mentoring engineers and driving technical decision-making in teams

Understanding of open-source governance, community building, and public development

Passion for building networking tools that other developers and operators love to use

Technology Stack
Languages: Go, Rust

Data: PostgreSQL, GraphQL, Elasticsearch, Meilisearch

Infrastructure: Kubernetes, Flux, Pulumi, Zitadel

Cloud Platforms: Cloudflare, AWS, GCP, Azure, multi-cloud networking

Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, network flow analysis

Development: GitHub, CI/CD, automated testing, network simulation

Open Source Commitment
This role involves significant public development work. You'll be:
Contributing to Datum's public networking repositories with transparent development

Engaging with the community through GitHub issues, RFCs, and technical discussions

Speaking at networking conferences and writing technical blog posts

Collaborating with external contributors, cloud providers, and other partners

Maintaining high standards for code quality, performance, and documentation

What Success Looks Like
Adoption and growth for Datum in the cloud-native and AI infrastructure communities

High-performance, reliable network connectivity across diverse cloud environments

Strong developer experience as evidenced by community contributions and feedback

Technical leadership recognized within the networking and distributed infra ecosystem

Scalable network architecture supporting the next generation of AI hyperscalers

We believe in openness, clarity, and collaboration. To learn more about how Datum aims to operate, please review our public handbook.