Head of Authentication Engineering

Head of Authentication Engineering About the Company Large financial services organization focused on enterprise authentication and security IndustryFinancial Services TypePrivately Held About the Role The Company is seeking a Head of Authentication Engineering to lead enterprise authentication capabilities across workforce systems, applications, APIs, and cloud environments. The role combines technical leadership with direct management of a distributed engineering team, including setting architecture, strategy, standards, and roadmaps. Responsibilities include designing and overseeing single sign-on, multifactor authentication, federation, passwordless access, and secure identity patterns for APIs, cloud workloads, and AI-enabled systems. The leader will also improve platform reliability and incident response, guide modernization efforts, and partner with cybersecurity, application engineering, and architecture teams. Candidates should have at least 12 years of experience in identity and access management, authentication, or a related security discipline, including five or more years managing engineering teams. Deep hands-on expertise in enterprise authentication architecture and implementation is required, along with strong knowledge of SAML, OAuth 2.0, OIDC, federation, SSO, MFA, and token and session security. Experience with passwordless authentication, API security, delegated authorization, PKI/mTLS, machine identities, and cloud or hybrid environments is also expected. A relevant bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience is required; experience in regulated industries and relevant security or cloud certifications are preferred. Functions Engineering