Senior IAM Automation Engineer, Handshake
$176-220k
+ Equity
The career platform for Gen Z
Be an early applicant
The career platform for Gen Z
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$176-220k
+ Equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
To democratize access to opportunity and ensure any student can build a great career no matter who they know, where they live or what school they attend.
Role
Who you are
- 4–7+ years of hands-on IAM engineering, identity automation, or identity governance experience
- Strong scripting/automation skills in Python, Node.js, and REST-based integrations
- Experience with IAM platforms such as Okta, Google Workspace/GCP, Azure AD, or similar
- Deep understanding of identity protocols, token flows, SCIM, and distributed lifecycle orchestration
- Experience with Terraform or other infrastructure-as-code frameworks
- Ability to diagnose complex identity issues across SaaS, cloud, and distributed systems
- Strong understanding of DevOps practices, observability, and secure engineering principles
- Demonstrated ownership mindset across architecture, implementation, monitoring, and iterative improvement
Desirable
- Advanced experience with GCP IAM, Google Workspace IAM, AWS IAM, cross-account access patterns, and policy automation
- Experience with Okta Workflows, SailPoint/IGA, or Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions
- Experience designing scalable authorization models for high-growth or distributed organizations
- Certifications such as Okta Architect, Azure Identity Engineer, CISSP
- Prior experience in SaaS, high-growth, or distributed engineering environments
What the job involves
- Handshake is seeking a Senior IAM Automation Engineer to own the architecture, design, and implementation of our enterprise identity automation and governance ecosystem
- You’ll define the long-term IAM automation strategy, build resilient and scalable lifecycle workflows, and enable secure-by-default identity operations across SaaS, cloud, and internal platforms
- You’ll partner closely with Security, IT Engineering, People Operations, and Product/Platform Engineering to deliver highly automated, auditable, and reliable identity solutions
- Architect, build, and own automated onboarding, offboarding, and access-change workflows across Okta, Workday, SCIM, and event-driven systems
- Engineer integration layers between identity platforms and internal applications using Python, REST APIs, Webhooks, and Terraform
- Implement error-handling, reconciliation logic, telemetry, and monitoring to ensure reliability and determinism in identity lifecycle events
- Modernize existing provisioning logic and replace manual processes with scalable automation frameworks
- Develop tooling and pipelines enabling version-controlled, testable, observable IAM automation
- Act as a technical owner for Handshake’s IAM ecosystem, including Okta, Google Workspace, GCP, AWS IAM, and internal access systems
- Engineer and optimize authentication & authorization protocols (OIDC, OAuth2, SAML, JWT), fine-grained access policies, and scalable RBAC/ABAC models
- Build custom automation using Okta Workflows or API-driven orchestration
- Design SOC2-compliant access controls, approvals, attestations, and auditability mechanisms
- Build automated access certification systems with full data lineage
- Conduct identity-related incident forensics and implement preventative automation
- Provide cross-functional leadership, setting standards, best practices, and reference architectures for identity automation
- Serve as service owner for IAM automation platforms with accountability for uptime, consistency, and continuous improvement
Our take
The three founders of Handshake established their company in an attempt to eliminate inequality and make the student hiring landscape fairer. The Handshake platform acts as a LinkedIn for college students, pairing students from every walk of life with more than 650K employers, including the entire Fortune 500, which includes Google and Nike.
The graduate recruitment platform is open to any student with a valid @.edu email address, with more than 17M active users from thousands of colleges and universities. With a student-first philosophy, the company generates revenue from both universities and employers rather than students.
Valued at $3.5B, Handshake has gained traction in a competitive market, although it has strong competition from recruiting giants LinkedIn and Indeed. It stands out, however, by helping students build new relationships and skills, rather than simply making connections to people they already know.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
2% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Jan 2022
$200m
SERIES F
May 2021
$80m
SERIES E
Total funding: $434m
Company benefits
- Health Insurance: Comprehensive medical , dental, and vision coverage
- Fertility and family forming: Through a partnership, Handshake offers comprehensive family benefits, including infertility treatments and a $15K stipend, to its employees.
- LGTBQ+ coverage: All medical plans cover transgender services.
- Mental health: Discounts on a variety of wellness apps and an Employee Assistance Program with access to five free counseling sessions.
- Tax savings: Tax-advantaged benefits to save money on healthcare, dependent care, and other expenses.
- Learning & development: Employees are provided with an annual stipend to use towards professional development, career development workshops, manager trainings, and 1-on-1 coaching through external partnerships
- Community leader support: Employee Resource Group leaders are compensated with a quarterly bonus for the high-impact work the role requires
- Parental leave: Leaves of 16 weeks for birth-giving parents and 10 weeks for non-birth-giving parents; the policy applies to adoptions as well. Handshake also partners to provide one-on-one coaching on preparing for leave and coming back from leave
- Flexible time off: No accrued time off or waiting period to take vacation. Two paid flexible holiday days off to observe holidays that closely align with religious, cultural, and personal needs
- Sabbatical: Paid six-week sabbatical to recharge and reset beginning at six years of continuous, full-time employment, and every four years thereafter
- Volunteer time off: Two days off for social and civil activism, volunteer work, and/or any related activities, including attending and participating in protests
- Life & disability insurance: Essential benefits and automatic coverage with basic life insurance, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage.
- 401k match: Dollar-for-dollar match up to 1% of pay, with a max of $1,200 per year.
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Garrett Lord
(Co-Founder & CEO)Majored in Computer Science at Michigan Technological University. Interned at Palantir Technologies before co-founding Handshake in 2012.
Ben Christensen
(Co-Founder)Graduated from Michigan Technological University with a degree in Computer Networking & Systems Administration. Interned at Target and worked as a Developer at Up and Running Software. Was part of Arbor Networks' ASERT Security Research team.
Scott Ringwelski
(Co-Founder)Attained a degree in Computer Software Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Co-founded Handshake in 2012.
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