Staff Software Engineer, Vanta for Government

Description

The company helps businesses earn and prove trust by monitoring and verifying security continuously, and it has a kind, talented team, many of whom have built successful careers without prior security experience.

This Staff Software Engineer role sets the technical foundation for the company's expansion into the public sector, designing the systems, patterns and architecture for compliance programs built for government vendors and agencies from the ground up.

The company for Government team builds an AI-powered platform for government vendors, federal agencies and State, Local, and Education (SLED) organizations. The goal is to make government compliance easier by automating much of the work across frameworks such as FedRAMP, CMMC and NIST, so organizations can strengthen their security posture and support mission-critical work with more confidence.

You will work directly with early design partners to shape new capabilities as you go. As the most senior engineer on the team, you will anchor the technical direction through a critical build phase, making architecture decisions, setting engineering patterns and leading multi-quarter initiatives that will shape how the company serves government customers at scale.

The company Engineering Blog covers more about the team's current work.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical strategy and architecture for the government product line, designing systems that adapt the core compliance platform to the needs of federal agencies, government vendors and SLED organizations.
• Lead the design and build of new product capabilities, including core compliance workflows the product does not yet offer, validating and refining them with early design partners as requirements change.
• Define reusable abstractions and platform patterns that keep technical debt in check as the team grows from its first government customers to a wider range of agencies and vendors.
• Work with adjacent engineering teams on shared infrastructure and tagging systems behind government compliance workflows, extending existing platform work rather than rebuilding it.
• Lead multi-quarter technical initiatives across engineering, product and go-to-market, turning vague early-stage requirements into durable, scalable solutions.
• Raise the technical bar for mid-level and senior engineers through mentorship, code review, setting engineering practices and making sound technical decisions.

Requirements

• 10+ years of deep backend engineering experience, including leading complex, multi-quarter technical initiatives in fast-paced, product-focused settings.
• Strong systems thinking and platform architecture skills. You design for reuse, scale and long-term maintainability, and think naturally in abstractions and patterns.
• Experience in highly regulated industries such as fintech or healthcare. FedRAMP or government experience is a plus but not required.
• Comfort working in early-stage, 0→1 environments where requirements change as you learn from customers and where technical choices have real business consequences.
• A strong product mindset: you know shipping matters, can set priorities against real deadlines, and balance technical rigor with speed of delivery.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence technical direction across engineering and to bridge technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• A proven record of mentoring and developing engineers and raising technical quality across a team while building a strong engineering culture.
• Openness to using AI to strengthen your work, with curiosity, a willingness to learn and sound judgment about applying AI responsibly to improve efficiency and impact.
• You must be authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship.

Conditions

US-based role, remote.

Industry-competitive salary and equity.

Benefits and perks are listed below.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected class.

Offices are in SF, NYC, London, Dublin, Tel Aviv and Sydney.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision coverage, with 100% of employee-only premiums covered for most medical plans.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave for all new parents.
• Family planning benefits.
• Health and wellness stipend.
• Remote workspace, internet and cellphone stipend.
• Commuter benefits for team members who report to the SF and NYC offices.
• Matching 401(k) contribution with immediate vesting.
• Flexible PTO policy, plus 80 hours of sick time.
• 11 company-paid holidays.
• Virtual team building, lunch and learns, and other company-wide events.