Senior Systems Engineer at University of Washington
Seattle, WA
$99,228–$161,244from the description
Jul 15, 2026
Seattle, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior engineering role within a university's central IT identity and access management team, focused on designing, building, and maintaining software systems that govern authentication, authorization, and access control. The bulk of the work involves backend development, integrating open-source and commercial tools, and keeping services operational. It suits experienced software engineers with a background in Python, SQL, DevOps practices, and an interest in IAM technologies.
Mid level · 4+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · Full-time
Advertised as Senior, but the requirements read as Mid.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 1,050 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 780–1,350
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $170,959 (middle half $135,720–$216,519). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role sits in an Information Security (IAM) division but its primary day-to-day work is software design, development, and deployment (50% of the role), making 15-1252 Software Developers the best fit; 15-1212 Information Security Analysts is the runner-up given the IAM/identity governance context.
The title says 'Senior' but the minimum experience gate is only 4+ years, which aligns more with a Mid-level engineer on a standard career ladder — the advertised and required seniority levels differ accordingly.
A Bachelor's degree is listed under Minimum Qualifications but the posting explicitly states 'equivalent education and/or experience may substitute,' so no hard degree requirement is recorded.
Backend language requirement lists Python, JavaScript, Bash, or similar — Python and C are separately called out as hard requirements; JavaScript/Bash are listed as examples of the broader backend language requirement.
Docker and Kubernetes appear together under Preferred Qualifications as cloud deployment tools; they are listed as separate preferred skills given they serve distinct functions, with each noted as an alternative to the other in that pairing.
Angular and React appear as alternatives under a single preferred JavaScript frameworks requirement.
Amazon SNS and SQS are listed together as a single preferred messaging-familiarity item; SNS is the primary with SQS as an alternative.
IAM-specific technologies (SAML, OIDC, InCommon, eduGAIN, eduPerson, ORCID) are all listed under Preferred Qualifications; only SAML and OIDC are named as distinct, widely-used technical standards and are captured; the others (InCommon, eduGAIN, eduPerson, ORCID) are niche federation/research-community identifiers with no broad labor-market signal and are omitted.
Position is hybrid (minimum 2 days in office in the Seattle area); remote=false is set accordingly.
Read the full posting
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