Lead Engineer – Identity & Authentication (CIAM Focus)

New York (Hybrid preferred) | East Coast Remote Considere

This is not just another identity role.
This is a career-defining opportunity to lead the transformation of identity for a global platform serving 10M+ users across 100+ services.
You will be the first hire in this space, owning the architecture, vendor integration, and migration of a 10+ year legacy identity system into a modern, distributed microservices ecosystem.
You won’t just improve systems - you’ll rebuild identity at scale.

What you’ll be doing
Lead the end-to-end migration of identity from a monolithic system into a shared microservice platform
Own the integration of Auth0 (Okta) into a complex, large-scale production environment
Architect and deliver identity systems supporting B2C and B2B2C products at global scale
Design secure, resilient authentication flows (OAuth2, OIDC, MFA, passkeys, etc.)
Drive system design across 100+ microservices, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance
Partner with engineering leadership to define identity strategy and roadmap
Build and lead a new team from the ground up

Requirements:
We’re looking for someone who has truly operated at scale and led from the front:
Has led full identity vendor migrations (not just integrations) in large environments (~10M users, legacy systems)
Strong systems architect capable of designing distributed identity platforms and migration strategies
Deep experience in Customer Identity (CIAM) - not just workforce IAM
Comfortable working across identity vendors/APIs (Auth0/Okta a plus, not required)
Proven ability to extract identity from monoliths into microservices architectures
Has led or built teams, ideally as an early or first hire

If you want to solve one of the hardest problems in modern infrastructure — while shaping a team and platform used globally — we’d love to hear from you.
Show more Show less