About the role
About Strava Strava is the app for active people. With over 180 million athletes in more than 185 countries, it’s more than tracking workouts—it’s where people make progress together, from new habits to new personal bests. No matter your sport or how you track it, Strava’s got you covered. Find your crew, crush your goals, and make every effort count. Start your journey with Strava today. Our mission is simple: to motivate people to live their best active lives. We believe in the power of movement to connect and drive people forward. We’re looking for a Senior Server Engineer to join our Identity Engineering Team, the group responsible for how every athlete securely accesses their Strava experience. Identity at Strava is more than login screens, it’s the platform that ensures trust, security, and continuity across all our applications and surfaces. This is a backend platform engineering role within the broader engineering organization, not a traditional security or IAM specialist position. We're looking for engineers who love building reliable, scalable distributed systems and are excited to apply that craft to the identity domain. We follow a flexible hybrid model that translates to more than half of your time on-site in our San Francisco office — three days per week. What You’ll Do: Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services powering Strava's identity platform, including authentication, authorization, token lifecycle management, and account security. Partner with cross-functional teams (Product, Security, Trust & Safety, Legal, and Mobile/Web Engineering) to build identity foundations that enable safety, privacy, and growth. Drive technical excellence, contributing thoughtful architectural perspectives and shaping long-term identity strategies. Mentor and support fellow engineers, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and high-trust environment. Influence system design across teams and lead discussions around security, performance, and scalability What You’ll Bring to
the Team: You have 7+ years of professional software development experience or equivalent expertise in backend engineering. You are proficient in at least one of Strava's core backend languages (Ruby, Java, Scala, Python, or Go), or a readiness paired with the ability to learn rapidly. You have experience with relational (e.g., MySQL) and NoSQL (e.g., Redis, Cassandra) databases in production environments. You have a solid understanding of distributed systems and technologies like Kafka, Kubernetes, and Docker. You have experience working with or are excited to learn about authentication, authorization, identity protocols (OAuth 2.0, OIDC, WebAuthn), and account security systems. A collaborative spirit, someone who communicates clearly, lifts others up, and thrives in a team that values mentorship and learning. For information on