WHO WE ARE:
Zinnia is the leading technology platform for accelerating life and annuities growth. With innovative enterprise solutions and data insights, Zinnia simplifies the experience of buying, selling, and administering insurance products. All of which enables more people to protect their financial futures. Our success is driven by a commitment to three core values: be bold, team up, deliver value – and that we do. Zinnia has over $180 billion in assets under administration, serves 100+ carrier clients, 2500 distributors and partners, and over 2 million policyholders.
WHO YOU ARE:
Zinnia is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Enterprise API & CIAM team. Our Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) platform handles authentication and fine-grained authorization for carriers, distributors, agents, policyholders, and service integrations across Zinnia Live, Market Connect, and our TPA services. You’ll extend and scale this production platform by building new identity flows, evolving our authorization model, and helping product teams across Zinnia integrate securely. You’ll work closely with the CIAM tech lead, product management, and security and compliance partners in a regulated insurance environment.
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
- Build and evolve authentication flows, including workforce SSO federation (SAML/OIDC), passwordless login for agents and consumers, and machine-to-machine access for service integrations.
- Design and implement fine-grained authorization that combines role-, attribute-, and relationship-based access control (RBAC, ABAC, ReBAC) to scope access by carrier, product, distributor, hierarchy, and delegation.
- Build automated provisioning and lifecycle handling so access stays current as users are onboarded, transferred, given delegated access, or terminated.
- Design, document, and maintain the CIAM APIs that other Zinnia teams consume.
- Partner with product teams to onboard new applications onto our CIAM integration pattern.
- Own the quality and reliability of what you ship through automated testing, code review, observability, and on-call participation.
- Work with security and compliance teams to implement access controls, support audits, and keep every access decision logged and explainable.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- 6+ years of professional software development experience, including building and operating production services in the cloud (AWS preferred).
- Hands-on experience implementing OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML, including federation with external identity providers.
- Experience with a CIAM platform such as Auth0 (preferred), Okta, or PingOne.
- Experience designing authorization systems beyond basic roles, such as attribute- or relationship-based models.
- Strong backend skills in TypeScript/Node.js, or a comparable language, with solid fundamentals in API design, testing, and software design.
- Working knowledge of CI/CD, infrastructure as code, containers, and monitoring and alerting.
- Clear written and verbal communication, and the ability to work with engineers, product managers, and security partners across a distributed team.
- Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment.
BONUS POINTS:
- Experience with OpenFGA, Auth0 FGA, or other Zanzibar-style authorization systems.
- Experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka/Confluent), API gateways (Kong), MongoDB, Terraform, or Datadog.
- Background in insurance, financial services, or another regulated industry, especially agent and distributor hierarchies, licensing and appointments, or delegated access.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
Zinnia offers excellent career progression and competitive compensation. We offer great benefits, including health/dental insurance, parental leave, 401(k), incentive/bonus opportunity, tuition reimbursement, and so much more. We’re looking for the best and brightest innovators in the industry to join our team. At Zinnia, you collaborate with smart, creative professionals who are dedicated to delivering cutting-edge technologies, deeper data insights, and enhanced services to transform how insurance is done. Visit our website at www.zinnia.com for more information. Apply by completing the online application on the careers section of our website. We are an Equal Opportunity employer committed to a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability.
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Skills Required
- 6+ years of professional software development experience, including building and operating production cloud services
- Hands-on experience with OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML, including external identity provider federation
- Experience with a CIAM platform such as Auth0, Okta, or PingOne
- Experience designing authorization systems using attribute-based or relationship-based models
- Strong backend skills in TypeScript and Node.js, or a comparable language
- Strong API design, testing, and software design fundamentals
- Working knowledge of CI/CD, infrastructure as code, containers, monitoring, and alerting
- Clear written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to collaborate with engineers, product managers, and security partners across a distributed team
- Experience working in an Agile or Scrum environment
- Experience with OpenFGA, Auth0 FGA, or other Zanzibar-style authorization systems
- Experience with event-driven architectures such as Kafka or Confluent
- Experience with API gateways such as Kong
- Experience with MongoDB, Terraform, or Datadog
- Background in insurance, financial services, or another regulated industry
- Experience with agent and distributor hierarchies, licensing and appointments, or delegated access
Zinnia (zinnia.com) Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Zinnia (zinnia.com) and has not been reviewed or approved by Zinnia (zinnia.com).
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible or 'unlimited' PTO is described for many salaried roles, with additional volunteer time, holidays, and wellness days noted. Feedback suggests time off is broadly seen as a solid component of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is explicitly included in role descriptions, and anecdotes cite substantial leave durations. Feedback suggests family leave is a meaningful part of total rewards in the U.S. footprint.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) is standard with indications of company matching and, in some cases, profit sharing alongside bonus eligibility. Feedback suggests retirement programs contribute materially to overall compensation.
Zinnia (zinnia.com) Insights
What We Do
Zinnia is Where Complexity Ends and Simplicity Begins. By merging decades of industry expertise with advanced technology, Zinnia seeks to transform the life and annuity experience from end-to-end. We will empower our clients to innovate and launch products faster, to buy, sell, manage, and service products more effectively, and to better serve their customers.
