Backend Engineer
New York, NY (Remote/Hybrid) /
Engineering /
Full-time
Who we are:
Sora is a platform for individuals to cryptographically prove their identities online in a more secure, privacy-preserving, and inclusive way. We’re a seed-stage startup out of Stanford and are backed by some of the original investors in Facebook, Stripe, and Airbnb, among many other category-defining companies.
The opportunity:
$200B is lost to ecommerce fraud annually. Three million Americans have their worlds turned upside down by identity theft every year. Our goal is to eliminate antiquated secret-based authentication such as passwords and social security numbers—which causes much of this fraud—and become a universal digital identity credential, modernizing verification on the internet.
Sora is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building a diverse community inclusive of those with every background and perspective. We strongly encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply—as an identity company, a wide range of perspectives is crucial to achieving our mission.
What we value:
- Integrity: we want to do this the right way, building a company that can serve as a model for others and constantly reviewing our impact
- Honesty and open communication: we have a feedback culture that prioritizes helping everyone improve
- Intention: being thoughtful, methodical, and always keeping in mind our North Star of building a 10x better paradigm for online identity
- Positivity: work should be fun; we build each other up and always back each other
- Humility: we are cognizant of the unknown unknowns; we’re smart and driven, but prioritize listening and learning to achieve our vision
What you’ll do:
- Design and develop core functionality for our API product
- Invent and implement new ways of verifying identities online
- Incorporate feedback from our clients and users into server-driven user interfaces
- Own deployment pipelines
- Build and maintain monitoring systems to detect problems early
- Contribute to open-source projects that support the broader community
Who you are:
- BS in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience
- Experience building significant projects in Python
- Knowledge of web security principles, attacks (XSS, CSRF, etc), and how to defend against them
- Experience with GCP (or AWS) and Docker
- Basic understanding of modern asymmetric cryptography
- Ability to write clear and concise documentation of code and API endpoints
- Ability to communicate effectively and incorporate feedback quickly
If you could see yourself at Sora but don’t check every box, apply anyway!
Our tech stack:
- Python/FastAPI backend
- React/iOS/Android frontend
- Docker and Google Cloud Platform for containerization and infrastructure management
What working with us will look like:
- Competitive compensation with a significant equity grant; unlimited PTO and flexibility
- Health, vision, and dental insurance; 401(k) with match
- Lots of free food and a weekly happy hour!
- Valued input in every conversation and every room
- Scrappy, go-getter environment: we don’t have chefs or nap pods, but we’re passionate about making our vision reality