Sr. Software Engineer - Platform Permissions

AppFolio is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to strengthen its authorization platform, helping ensure customers’ data stays protected while access control stays reliable across AppFolio products. This is an onsite role in Atlanta, GA, focused on building secure systems that other teams can confidently build on.

In this role, you will design scalable access control that supports fast permission checks at high usage volumes, build the interfaces and tooling that make it easy to add access control to new features, and lead migrations from older permissions logic onto a modern platform. The Permissions team emphasizes shipping safely through automated testing, feature-flagged rollouts, and observability.

What you’ll do

• Design, build, and operate the authorization platform including roles, policies, and access checks used by other engineering teams
• Improve speed and reliability of permission checks, and set performance and availability goals to keep them fast as usage grows
• Build interfaces, libraries, and tooling so teams can add access control to features quickly and safely
• Lead migration of older, hard-to-maintain permissions logic to the modern authorization platform to reduce risk and complexity
• Raise the technical bar through design reviews, pragmatic code review, and clear written proposals
• Mentor engineers and partner with product, security, and engineering to turn ambiguous access-control needs into clear systems
• Own end-to-end quality by implementing automated testing, controlled rollouts with feature flags, and observability so authorization changes ship safely

What you bring

• Comfort working across the stack, including backend services and customer-facing interfaces, with the ability to pick up new languages and tools
• Ability to diagnose and improve performance and reliability in systems serving high request volumes
• A drive to find root causes and cut unnecessary complexity rather than patch symptoms
• Experience with authorization, authentication, or other security-sensitive systems is a plus
• Strong written and verbal communication, including explaining technical trade-offs to both engineers and non-engineers
• Collaboration mindset that prioritizes team delivery over individual productivity
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating production systems
• Fluency with AI coding agents, including understanding common concepts and willingness to learn and use AI for building
• Depth in at least one of: Ruby on Rails, Go, or React with TypeScript (or a strong desire and ability to ramp quickly)
• A track record of designing and owning non-trivial Platform systems end-to-end

Technologies you’ll work with

• Ruby on Rails
• Go
• React
• TypeScript
• AI coding agents
• Feature flags

Location

Find out more about our locations by visiting our site.

Compensation & Benefits

• The base salary that we reasonably expect to pay for this role is $138,400 - $190,300.
• The actual base salary will be determined by factors including skills, education, and experience.
• Base pay is one component of a Total Rewards package and does not include additional benefits or bonuses/commissions you may be eligible for based on your role and employment type.
• Regular full-time employees are eligible for benefits (see here).