CIAM Strategy & Engineering Lead

Optimum; Plano (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Optimum is seeking an experienced Manager of Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) to lead our enterprise identity practice. You will define and execute the strategy for our customer identity platform while overseeing day-to-day operations.

You will modernize authentication across the organization, establish scalable patterns (SSO, MFA, passwordless), and provide architecture guidance to product and engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 7+ years of experience in Identity & Access Management, cybersecurity, or a related field.
• 3+ years of experience leading or managing technical teams.
• Hands-on experience with CIAM platforms and modern identity standards (OAuth2, OIDC, SAML, SCIM, FIDO2/WebAuthn).
• Proven experience leading large-scale identity or authentication modernization initiatives.
• Ability to translate complex IAM concepts into clear guidance for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience operating high-availability systems, including SLO management and incident response.
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as SOX, SOC 2, and PCI-DSS.

Responsibilities

• Own and operate the enterprise customer identity platform, including IDP configuration, directory management, and user lifecycle (Joiner/Mover/Leaver) processes.
• Define and enforce identity standards across protocols such as OAuth2, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML, and SCIM.
• Design and maintain authentication policies, including adaptive and risk-based controls, to balance security and user experience.
• Oversee identity workflows for provisioning, de-provisioning, and orchestration across systems.
• Ensure platform reliability and performance, including service-level objectives (SLOs), incident response, and continuous improvement.
• Lead the enterprise transition from legacy authentication approaches to modern CIAM solutions.
• Establish scalable authentication patterns, including SSO, MFA, passwordless, and federated identity.
• Develop migration frameworks, playbooks, and reusable integration patterns for application teams.
• Track adoption progress, define KPIs, and communicate roadmap updates, risks, and outcomes to senior leadership.
• Evaluate emerging capabilities (e.g., passkeys, device trust) and align adoption with the enterprise security strategy.
• Serve as the primary IAM advisor to application development teams, guiding secure and scalable identity integrations.
• Provide architectural guidance on authentication flows, token management, and session design.
• Build developer enablement resources, including documentation, reference implementations, and onboarding support.
• Establish engagement models to promote self-service adoption.
• Partner with platform engineering, DevOps, and API teams to integrate identity into CI/CD pipelines and modern architectures.
• Ensure CIAM platform compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements (e.g., SOX, PCI-DSS, SOC 2) through embedded controls and audit readiness.
• Partner with Security, GRC, and SOC teams on identity risk management, including access reviews and threat detection.
• Define and monitor identity security signals and support SIEM integration.
• Oversee vulnerability management and security posture of identity systems and supporting services.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing IAM engineering team.
• Define team structure, roles, and capabilities aligned to enterprise identity strategy.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and psychological safety.
• Build strong cross-functional partnerships with Product, Security, Legal, Privacy, and Customer Experience teams.
• Manage vendor relationships and operating budget for CIAM platforms, tooling, and services.

Skills

Identity & Access Management

Security leadership

OAuth2/OIDC/SAML/SCIM

Incident response

Regulatory compliance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, or related field

Job description

Optimum is seeking an experienced Manager of Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) to lead our enterprise identity practice. You will define and execute the strategy for our customer identity platform while overseeing day-to-day operations.

You will modernize authentication across the organization, establish scalable patterns (SSO, MFA, passwordless), and provide architecture guidance to product and engineering teams.