Distinguished Engineer - Non Human & Agentic Identity

Socket.dev; Johnston (RI); On-site; USD 175,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Citizens in Johnston, RI seeks a Distinguished Engineer to lead Agentic Identity and Non Human Identity Security, shaping secure identity architectures and AI-enabled ecosystems at enterprise scale. The role partners across engineering, architecture, security, and product teams to define governance, authentication, and authorization models for AI agents, service accounts, workloads, and cloud native workloads.

This position requires leadership and deep IAM expertise.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands-on software engineering, platform engineering, identity engineering, or related technical experience.
• Deep expertise in IAM, CIAM, NHI, machine identity, workload identity, or related disciplines.
• Experience designing and implementing modern authentication and authorization architectures (OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, token-based security, API security frameworks).
• Experience securing machine identities, service accounts, workload identities, cloud-native platforms, APIs, and distributed application ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud architectures and identity challenges across hybrid, SaaS, and cloud-native environments.
• Experience developing software in Python and mastery of at least one additional modern programming language.
• AWS experience, including securing and managing sensitive assets and enterprise workloads.
• Bash and Linux experience.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines including Jenkins, CircleCI, GitHub Actions, or equivalent technologies.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, APIs, microservices, and cloud architecture patterns.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and influence senior engineering teams.
• Proven ability to communicate highly technical concepts to executive and business audiences.
• Strong problem solving, analytical, and strategic thinking skills.
• Understanding of data structures and algorithms including linked lists, arrays, dictionaries, maps, and object oriented design principles.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of identity security platforms at enterprise scale.
• Define enterprise standards for NHIs, agentic identities, and governance.
• Collaborate across engineering, architecture, security, and product teams.
• Advise leadership on strategy for AI agents and secure identity patterns.
• Mentor and influence senior engineers and teams.
• Communicate complex concepts clearly to executives and stakeholders.

Skills

Identity & Access Management

Machine identities

NHI (Non Human Identity)

OAuth 2.0 / OIDC

Cloud architectures

Python

AWS

Bash & Linux

CI/CD (Jenkins/CircleCI/GitHub Actions

Distributed systems

Leadership & mentoring

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's Degree in CS/Engineering/Security

Master's Degree (preferred)

Tools

Jenkins

CircleCI

GitHub Actions

Job description

Distinguished Engineer, Agentic Identity & Non Human Identity Security

Your role as Distinguished Engineer is to work with engineering teams and architecture to produce high quality technology solutions that enable Citizens' next generation identity, security, and AI capabilities. You will be given the autonomy to lead, design, and develop innovative solutions addressing some of the most complex challenges facing the banking industry as organizations evolve from human centric identity models toward AI driven, machine driven, and autonomous systems.

As a Distinguished Engineer, you will serve as a peer leader and technical visionary responsible for defining and advancing the enterprise strategy for Agentic Identity, Non Human Identities (NHIs), machine identity governance, and secure AI enabled ecosystems. You will partner across engineering, architecture, security, and product organizations to establish secure identity frameworks that support APIs, workloads, AI agents, service accounts, and emerging autonomous technologies at enterprise scale.

The breadth of Citizens operations ensures a diverse set of opportunities to shape the future of identity, security, and AI as the bank continues its transformation toward innovation and customer centric experiences.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Engineering Excellence

• Collaborate with engineering teams and architects to design innovative identity and security solutions that align with enterprise architecture principles and strategic business goals.
• Lead the design, development, and implementation of modern software platforms, services, and security capabilities that support enterprise scale digital transformation initiatives.
• Serve as a technical leader and trusted advisor across multiple engineering organizations, influencing strategic technology decisions and architectural direction.
• Infuse scalability, reliability, resiliency, maintainability, and security into distributed systems and service based architectures.
• Promote engineering excellence, innovation, and accountability through mentoring, technical leadership, and thought partnership.
• Communicate complex technical concepts effectively to engineers, architects, executives, and business stakeholders.

Agentic Identity & Non Human Identity Architecture

• Design and champion enterprise architectures for Non Human Identities (NHIs), including AI agents, service accounts, workload identities, machine identities, APIs, autonomous systems, and cloud native workloads.
• Define and implement identity security frameworks for AI agents, including authentication, authorization, secrets management, token governance, lifecycle management, and policy enforcement.
• Lead the development of secure identity architectures supporting agentic systems across cloud, SaaS, hybrid, and on premises environments.
• Establish enterprise standards for machine identity governance, workload identity management, credential security, and privileged access controls.
• Design secure authentication and authorization models supporting autonomous interactions between AI agents, applications, APIs, cloud services, and enterprise platforms.
• Architect solutions that support continuous authentication and continuous authorization across highly distributed digital ecosystems.
• Develop scalable identity strategies for machine to machine communications, API interactions, workload identities, service meshes, and microservices architectures.
• Define governance frameworks that ensure accountability, visibility, auditability, and compliance for AI agents and machine identities operating across the enterprise.
• Partner with engineering and architecture teams to secure emerging identity patterns associated with AI agents, autonomous workflows, and non human actors.

Modern Identity & Access Management

• Design and implement identity solutions leveraging OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), token based security, API authorization frameworks, and modern identity standards.
• Establish secure identity patterns for cloud native applications, distributed systems, APIs, microservices, and SaaS platforms.
• Strengthen enterprise identity controls through least privilege access, workload identity governance, privileged access management, credential management, and authorization policy design.
• Drive innovation in identity security to address evolving risks associated with machine identities, AI systems, non human accounts, and autonomous technologies.

Risk Management & Security Strategy

• Identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with credential compromise, excessive privileges, unmanaged machine identities, orphaned service accounts, and unauthorized agent activity.
• Collaborate with governance, risk, compliance, and security teams to align identity strategies with regulatory requirements and enterprise risk objectives.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, industry trends, and market developments related to identity, AI, machine identity governance, and autonomous systems.
• Influence long term enterprise strategy for identity security, agentic identity, and next generation access management capabilities.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands on software engineering, platform engineering, identity engineering, security engineering, or related technical experience.
• Deep expertise in Identity and Access Management (IAM), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM), Non Human Identity (NHI), machine identity, workload identity, privileged access management, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated expertise designing and implementing modern authentication and authorization architectures using OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), token based security models, and API security frameworks.
• Experience securing machine identities, service accounts, workload identities, cloud native platforms, APIs, and distributed application ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud architectures and identity challenges across hybrid, SaaS, and cloud native environments.
• Experience developing software in Python and mastery of at least one additional modern programming language.
• AWS experience, including securing and managing sensitive assets and enterprise workloads.
• Bash and Linux experience.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines including Jenkins, CircleCI, GitHub Actions, or equivalent technologies.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, APIs, microservices, and cloud architecture patterns.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and influence senior engineering teams.
• Proven ability to communicate highly technical concepts to executive and business audiences.
• Strong problem solving, analytical, and strategic thinking skills.
• Understanding of data structures and algorithms including linked lists, arrays, dictionaries, maps, and object oriented design principles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing identity solutions for AI agents, autonomous systems, machine identities, and emerging agentic technologies.
• Experience within financial services, fintech, cloud, cybersecurity, or highly regulated industries.
• Experience leading enterprise scale identity modernization or transformation programs.
• AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or identity related certifications.
• Recognized thought leadership through publications, conference presentations, patents, open source contributions, or industry participation.

Education and Certifications

Required

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Security, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

Preferred

• Master's Degree in a related field.
• Industry certifications in cloud architecture, security, IAM, CIAM, or identity governance.

Why This Role Matters

This role will help define how Citizens securely enables AI agents, machine identities, APIs, cloud workloads, and emerging non human actors across the enterprise. The Distinguished Engineer will play a critical leadership role in shaping the future of Agentic Identity, ensuring secure, scalable, and governed interactions between people, applications, AI systems, and autonomous technologies.

Compensation

The salary range for this position is $175,000 to $250,000 per year, plus an opportunity to earn additional incentive earnings. Actual pay is based on various factors including, but not limited to, the budget, work location, and relevant skills and experience.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, retirement plans, parental leave, flexible work arrangements, education reimbursement, wellness programs, and generous paid time off exceeding local requirements.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Citizens, its parent, subsidiaries, and related companies (Citizens) provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all colleagues and applicants for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, citizenship, physical or mental disability, perceived disability or history or record of a disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, genetic information, genetic characteristic, marital or domestic partner status, victim of domestic violence, family status/parenthood, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, pregnancy/childbirth/lactation, colleague’s or a dependent’s reproductive health decision making, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by federal, state and/or local laws. At Citizens, we are committed to fostering an inclusive culture that enables all colleagues to bring their best selves to work every day and everyone is expected to be treated with respect and professionalism. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, qualifications, performance and capability.

Job Applicant Data Privacy Policy

Background Check

Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the candidate successfully passing a background check, which may include initial credit, motor vehicle record, public record, prior employment verification, and criminal background checks. Results of the background check are individually reviewed based upon legal requirements imposed by our regulators and with consideration of the nature and gravity of the background history and the job offered. Any offer of employment will include further information.