Build and evolve AppFolio’s authorization platform to make secure access control scalable, reliable, and easy for other teams to adopt.

Design, build, and operate the authorization platform including roles, policies, and access checks used by other teams
Increase the speed and reliability of permission checks as request volume grows; define performance and availability goals
Develop interfaces, libraries, and tooling that help engineering teams add access control to features safely and quickly
Lead migration of older, difficult-to-maintain permissions logic into the modern authorization platform to reduce risk and complexity
Raise the technical bar through design reviews, practical code review, and clear written proposals that support strong decision-making
Mentor engineers and collaborate with product, security, and engineering to translate unclear access-control needs into simple, well-understood systems
Own end-to-end quality for authorization changes with automated testing, controlled rollouts using feature flags, and observability

Comfort working across the stack, including backend services and customer-facing interfaces; ability to pick up new languages and tools as needed
Ability to diagnose and improve performance and reliability in systems handling high request volumes
Drive toward root causes and reduction of unnecessary complexity instead of symptom patching
Experience with authorization, authentication, or other security-sensitive systems is a plus
Proactive, clear communication in writing and conversation; explain technical trade-offs to both engineers and non-engineers
Collaborate broadly across the org by giving and receiving feedback; focus on enabling others to do their best work
Prioritize team delivery over individual productivity
7+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating production systems
Fluency with AI coding agents, including experience with available agents and willingness to learn and use AI for building
Depth in one or more of the languages used: Ruby on Rails, Go, or React with TypeScript; or strong ability and desire to become effective quickly
Track record designing and owning non-trivial platform systems end-to-end

Base salary range: USD 138,400 - 190,300 per year
Actual base pay depends on factors including skills, education, and experience
Total Rewards may include additional benefits and bonuses/commissions based on role and employment type; regular full-time employees are eligible for benefits

Sr. Software Engineer - Platform Permissions

Job Description