Sr. Standards Engineer

Summary / Objective

is building the accountability infrastructure for autonomous AI. Our mission is simple: make durable identity part of the Internet's architecture for AI. That only happens when standards bodies adopt it, governments reference it, developers build with it, and enterprises deploy it.

This is a technical role. The person in this seat needs to walk in as a peer, not a guest. You can hold your own in a working group session, argue a position on a mailing list, and come back with an accurate read of what actually happened in the room.

Our specifications are authored by our CTO, and he cannot be everywhere. This role is being created so that our technical position is represented consistently in the rooms he cannot attend. You will start as his delegate. Within two years, the goal is that you are authoring drafts of your own.

This is a growth seat. We are hiring for trajectory, not for a finished resume.

This role reports to CTO, Innovation Labs.

• Internet standards. Represent our technical position in working groups our CTO cannot attend. Track the drafts adjacent to ours, follow the list traffic, and flag what matters before it becomes a problem
• Specification work. Revise our drafts, respond to review comments, and build the supporting material that gets a draft through a process rather than stalled in one
• Implementation and proof. Build the reference implementations, interop tests, and demos that make a specification credible. Arguments land better with running code
• Relationships. Build durable technical credibility with the individuals who shape these communities. Standards bodies run on people who show up consistently over years
• Growth into authorship. Take the pen on secondary drafts as you earn standing in the community
• Actively models and promotes Identity Digital's core values through day-to-day interactions, behaviors, and decision-making
• Other duties as assigned

• Within six months, you are a recognized second voice for our work in at least one community
• You attend sessions for our CTO and prepare read-outs
• Review comments on our drafts get substantive responses on time
• Working implementations exist for the claims our specifications make
• By year two, you are authoring

• 5 to 8 years of hands-on protocol or infrastructure engineering. Existing participation in a standards community, working group, or major open source project is a strong signal, whether or not you have authored anything
• Working knowledge in identity infrastructure, including technologies such as OAuth, OpenID Connect, PKI, DNS, Verifiable Credentials, or similar protocols
• Demonstrated ability to write clearly under scrutiny. Technical mailing lists are unforgiving and your writing is the job
• The composure to hold a technical position in a room of people more senior than you, and the judgment to know when to concede
• Comfort moving between engineers, open source communities, and the occasional enterprise or government technical audience
• Comfort operating as a delegate. Someone else owns the position you are carrying, and you represent it faithfully before you get to shape it
• A bias toward sustained, multi-year contribution over transactional relationship building. Consensus takes as long as it takes. Your drafts, responses, and implementations do not: those move on our clock, not the working group's
• Ability to travel as needed
• Ability to work across time zones as part of a global organization as needed

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times

• Remote within the US from any of the following states: AZ, CA, CO, DE, MD, MA, MO, NJ, NV, NY, NC, OR, OK, PA, SC, TX, UT, VA, and WA

The U.S. base salary range for this full-time position is $160,000 - $190,000 (flexibility based on experience) plus benefits as described below. In addition, the successful candidate will be eligible to receive other compensation from time to time in the form of discretionary and/or nondiscretionary bonuses and long-term incentive plan. Actual compensation will be influenced by a candidate's qualifications, internal employee equity considerations, and location.

We will not ask for information about a candidate's current or past compensation for purposes of developing an offer of employment.

US team members (and their spouses, domestic partners, and/or dependent children) are covered by generously subsidized medical,…