Sr. Software Engineer – API & Auth Platform

About Betterment

Betterment is a leading, technology-driven financial services company that offers investing, savings and retirement solutions for retail investors and investment advisors as well as financial wellness solutions, including a 401(k) for small and medium-sized businesses. Our team is passionate about our mission, to empower people to build wealth with confidence and ease. We're headquartered in NYC and offer hybrid NY-based positions (four days/week in-office, with no required office days during the summer and winter holidays).

About the Role

The API & Auth Platform team enables product teams across Betterment to build and operate APIs quickly, enjoyably, and securely. As Sr Software Engineer, you will work with a team of senior/staff engineers stewarding our shared GraphQL API frameworks, authentication and access control systems, and internal tooling platform.

You will help build core pieces of the GraphQL API frameworks powering our customer-facing web and mobile applications, working closely with engineering leadership. You will also collaborate with operations, customer support, and compliance partners to ensure our internal APIs let teams operate Betterment systems with the rigor our customers and regulators expect.

As AI tooling reshapes how we build and operate our systems, you will have significant influence over how Betterment's APIs support AI agents and tooling safely in a regulated financial services environment.

This role is based out of our NYC office. Below we've reflected the base salary range for this position. Actual salaries may vary depending on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of Betterment’s total compensation package for employees.

• New York City: $170,000 - $195,000

This job may also be eligible for variable compensation in the form of a company incentive bonus.

A Day in the Life

• Work with a team of senior/staff engineers building the API, authentication, and internal tooling foundation that every Betterment team relies on.
• Help deliver the GraphQL API frameworks powering our customer-facing and internal apps, including agentic tooling for AI-native API development workflows.
• Contribute to Betterment's authentication and authorization systems, keeping them current with industry best practices.
• Build platform capabilities like secure, first-party MCP access to Betterment APIs - and the reliability, security, and developer experience work that makes them trustworthy.
• Embed with the product teams who build on your platform every day. Develop broad Betterment domain expertise in the process.
• Help make the standards that keep shared systems healthy visible and easy to meet, and help teams understand the "why" behind them.
• Participate in efficient, blameless incident response across your team and the teams building on the API platform. Invest in observability that serves both developers and internal tool users.
• Mentor junior engineers, sharing your experience to expand their impact and accelerate their growth.

What We’re Looking For

• A contributor capable of working in sensitive auth systems, working alongside senior and staff IC colleagues to shaping their technical direction.
• Experience building on or contributing to a shared API platform - ideally GraphQL - with an appreciation for the frameworks, conventions, and developer tooling that let product teams introduce new capabilities, support existing usage, and gracefully retire legacy functionality.
• Experience with modern authentication/authorization patterns (OAuth 2.0, OIDC, passkeys), with an appreciation for the importance of adoption, long-term support, and security testing.
• Experience operating systems in production that other engineering teams depend on, with an eye for observability, testing, and safe rollout.
• Comfort with the evolving AI landscape - using AI tooling in your own workflow and thinking clearly about how AI agents should access APIs safely.
• Fullstack development experience including GraphQL and one or more server-side languages (Ruby, Java, TypeScript, C#, Python, etc.)
• Experience collaborating across discipline and team boundaries.
• An open-minded approach when navigating the tension between moving fast, customer quality, and regulatory requirements.

Join a team built on these core values

We change lives

Be a part of a community of innovators working to transform financial outcomes for real people. Your work will make an impact, always laddering up to our mission; to empower people to build wealth with confidence and ease.

We set audacious goals

We set them for the company, our customers, and ourselves, and we won’t stop until we reach them. We don’t just show up; we give our all, then celebrate our wins.

We value all perspectives

When we collaborate, we're at our best. We believe diverse perspectives lead to better outcomes and strive to uphold our supportive and inclusive community.

We simplify financial services

We’re financial services pioneers, always finding new ways to improve, optimize, and enhance. Constant improvement is in our DNA.

 Our Commitment to Your Total Well-being:

• We offer a competitive suite of benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage; life and AD&D insurance; short- and long-term disability; infertility support and WPATH-aligned transgender health benefits; an Employee Assistance Program (EAP); transit benefits and FSA and HSA options
• Ownership: Equity for all employees, including new hire and refresher grants.
• Time: Flexible paid time off, paid parental leave, and a fully paid four-week sabbatical in your sixth year.
• Growth: Company-paid professional coaching for all employees.
• Wealth: Day-one 401(k) match plus matching on qualified student loan payments.

What happens next

We’ll take a few weeks to review all applications. If we’d like to spend more time with you, we’ll reach out to arrange next steps, which will include 3-4 sets of meetings with your future colleagues.

In the interview process, we’ll look to learn more about your skills, experiences, capabilities, and motivators. Many of our questions will be aimed at understanding how you might operate here at Betterment. Depending on the role, we may ask you to complete a case study exercise or technical assessments, as we want to collect a robust set of data points to better inform our decisions.

On average, it takes us around 3-5 weeks to make a hiring decision, depending on your availability and sense of urgency. As a best practice, we aim to interview at least 2-3 final round candidates before making a hiring decision. Please note that, as we usually receive an overwhelming number of  applications for open positions, we’re unable to offer individual feedback during the interview process. 

We recognize that interviewing for a new role is a big deal. We appreciate you considering Betterment as the next step in your career, and our Recruiting Team is here to support and advocate for you through the interview process!

Betterment is dedicated to providing accommodations to candidates upon request. If you need accommodations at any point throughout the interview process, please reach out to your recruiter. 

Please note that in any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Come join us! 

We’re an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. We strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants, or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex, gender (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current or prospective service in the uniformed services, predisposing genetic characteristic, domestic violence victim status, arrest records, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law.