Principal Software Engineer- Account Authentication — San Francisco

Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators. At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there. A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone. Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators. At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there. A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone. WHY SAFETY? At Roblox, we strive to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and the Safety organization’s mission is to become the leader in civil immersive online communities. We systematically detect, remove, and prevent problematic accounts, content and behavior, and we make Roblox accounts secure and free from compromise. We cover a broad area of the tech spectrum, including machine learning, classifiers for 3D models, experimentation, automation, detection workflows, and AI-powered text filters. Aligned and partnering with product teams, we use this toolbelt to discover new opportunities, influence and shape the product roadmap and prioritization, build safety products, and measure the impact on our community of users and developers. In doing so, we keep Roblox safe, civil, and inclusive, and we foster positive relationships between people around the world. WHY Account Authentication We provide the gateway for users having access to millions of experiences and the broader Roblox community. Nearly every feature on the platform assumes that the user is who they say they are. The role of the Account Authentication pod is to provide that assurance at sign-up, login, account recovery and elsewhere. You Will: • Set the multi-year client technical vision and system architecture for Account Authentication across all Roblox platforms (Web, Mobile, Desktop, Console, VR/AR). Past examples of this team’s contributions include: • Supporting platform expansion onto consoles like Xbox and Playstation. • Providing mechanisms for users to go entirely passwordless from sign-up while still having recoverable accounts. • Implementing service accounts to support testing (and potentially NPCs) by 3P agents. • Partner with product management, security, and core client infrastructure teams to architect product-focused client-side authentication engine capabilities, session resilience, and protocol integrations. • Drive end-to-end client systems engineering across low-level client codebases (C++, Lua, native iOS/Android, platform SDKs) and underlying services supporting real-time authentication product flows. • Drive client architecture standards, client performance optimization, network efficiency, and cross-platform technical consistency for hundreds of millions of daily active users. You Have: • Client Systems Architecture & Product Leadership: Technical mastery in client-side systems engineering (C++, Rust, Lua, iOS/Android native runtimes, or cross-platform engine architectures) coupled with a strong track record of driving core growth and product strategy through authentication experiences. • Growth-Driven Client Infrastructure & Performance: Proven expertise architecting seamless client-side authentication flows that eliminate user friction, optimize app startup latency, and directly accelerate user acquisition, retention, and conversion across diverse platforms. • Secure Product & Auth Protocols: Deep domain knowledge of client-side security architecture, passkeys/WebAuthn, device attestation, and smooth protocol integration that balances robust security with effortless user onboarding. • Strategic Product Architecture: Experience defining end-to-end client engine capabilities and middleware that power product growth initiatives across heterogeneous platforms (Mobile, Desktop, Console, Embedded/VR). • Educational Background: BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience in client systems architecture. You Are: • Principal Client Systems & Product Leader (15+ years): Deep background leading and architecting client systems infrastructure and strategic product initiatives at massive scale to power core user growth. • Growth-Focused Product Strategist: Passionate about leveraging authentication as a catalyst for growth, focusing on user onboarding efficiency, startup performance, and seamless access across hardware ecosystems. • Performance & Telemetry Driven: Expert in client profiling, low-level tracing, client metric collection, and data-driven optimization of client system behavior and user product flows. • Cross-Functional Technical Catalyst: A collaborative engineering authority who bridges client runtime engineering, platform security, network infrastructure, and product teams to ship resilient core architecture. • Client AI & Runtime Pioneer: Passionate about embedding client-side AI/ML runtimes, intelligent device security, and context-aware system capabilities directly into client software. For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on this page . Annual Salary Range $295,250 — $345,040 USD Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted). Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process. For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.