Senior Software Engineer I

WHO WE ARE: Zinnia is the leading technology platform for accelerating life and annuities growth. With innovative enterprise solutions and data insights, Zinnia simplifies the experience of buying, selling, and administering insurance products. All of which enables more people to protect their financial futures. Our success is driven by a commitment to three core values: be bold, team up, deliver value – and that we do. Zinnia has over $180 billion in assets under administration, serves 100+ carrier clients, 2500 distributors and partners, and over 2 million policyholders.

WHO YOU ARE: Zinnia is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Enterprise API & CIAM team. Our Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) platform handles authentication and fine-grained authorization for carriers, distributors, agents, policyholders, and service integrations across Zinnia Live, Market Connect, and our TPA services. You’ll extend and scale this production platform by building new identity flows, evolving our authorization model, and helping product teams across Zinnia integrate securely. You’ll work closely with the CIAM tech lead, product management, and security and compliance partners in a regulated insurance environment. WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Build and evolve authentication flows, including workforce SSO federation (SAML/OIDC), passwordless login for agents and consumers, and machine-to-machine access for service integrations.
• Design and implement fine-grained authorization that combines role-, attribute-, and relationship-based access control (RBAC, ABAC, ReBAC) to scope access by carrier, product, distributor, hierarchy, and delegation.
• Build automated provisioning and lifecycle handling so access stays current as users are onboarded, transferred, given delegated access, or terminated.
• Design, document, and maintain the CIAM APIs that other Zinnia teams consume.
• Partner with product teams to onboard new applications onto our CIAM integration pattern.
• Own the quality and reliability of what you ship through automated testing, code review, observability, and on-call participation.
• Work with security and compliance teams to implement access controls, support audits, and keep every access decision logged and explainable.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• 6+ years of professional software development experience, including building and operating production services in the cloud (AWS preferred).
• Hands-on experience implementing OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML, including federation with external identity providers.
• Experience with a CIAM platform such as Auth0 (preferred), Okta, or PingOne.
• Experience designing authorization systems beyond basic roles, such as attribute- or relationship-based models.
• Strong backend skills in TypeScript/Node.js, or a comparable language, with solid fundamentals in API design, testing, and software design.
• Working knowledge of CI/CD, infrastructure as code, containers, and monitoring and alerting.
• Clear written and verbal communication, and the ability to work with engineers, product managers, and security partners across a distributed team.
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment.

BONUS POINTS:

• Experience with OpenFGA, Auth0 FGA, or other Zanzibar-style authorization systems.
• Experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka/Confluent), API gateways (Kong), MongoDB, Terraform, or Datadog.
• Background in insurance, financial services, or another regulated industry, especially agent and distributor hierarchies, licensing and appointments, or delegated access.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU? Zinnia offers excellent career progression and competitive compensation. We offer great benefits, including health/dental insurance, parental leave, 401(k), incentive/bonus opportunity, tuition reimbursement, and so much more. We’re looking for the best and brightest innovators in the industry to join our team. At Zinnia, you collaborate with smart, creative professionals who are dedicated to delivering cutting-edge technologies, deeper data insights, and enhanced services to transform how insurance is done. Visit our website at www.zinnia.com for more information. Apply by completing the online application on the careers section of our website. We are an Equal Opportunity employer committed to a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability. Notice for California residents: Information about how we collect and use your personal information can be found here #LI-JW1