VP, Authentication Services

Synchrony; Alpharetta (GA); On-site; USD 155,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Synchrony is seeking a seasoned VP of Authentication Services to lead the enterprise identity perimeter. You will own the workforce authentication strategy and architect scalable SSO/MFA/passwordless pipelines across critical applications in a Zero Trust framework.

You will direct a top-tier engineering org, set technical roadmaps for core authentication technologies, and ensure 24/7 availability with secure production patterns and governance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS/CE or STEM discipline.
• 10+ years enterprise IT engineering experience.
• 5+ years leading distributed engineering and infrastructure teams.
• 5 years designing, scaling Okta Identity Cloud solutions.
• Experience with SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), WS-Fed, and SCIM.

Responsibilities

• Own workforce authentication strategy and align with stakeholders.
• Define roadmaps for core authentication technologies (Okta, MFA, SSO).
• Lead 24/7 engineering/ops for high availability and incident response.
• Oversee application authentication and authorization integrations.
• Develop governance, risk, and cost/ROI analyses for auth services.

Skills

Leadership

Okta Expertise

SAML/OIDC

Security Architecture

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE or STEM

Tools

Okta Identity Cloud

Job description

Role Summary/Purpose:

Synchrony Identity and Access Management (IAM) is seeking a seasoned technical leader to spearhead our modern Authentication edge. Powered by adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA), continuous adaptive trust, and advanced Single Sign-On (SSO), th e s e services and platforms serve as the bedrock of our enterprise Zero Trust Architecture.

As the VP of Authentication Services, you will operate as the Principal Platform Owner and Systems Architect for Synchrony's workforce and B2B identity perimeters. In this role, you will direct an elite engineering organization tasked with architecting, scaling, and operating high throughput, high availability SSO, MFA, and passwordless pipelines. Serving as a premier technical thought leader, you will design distributed, fault-tolerant authentication topologies and availability across all mission-critical enterprise applications.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Product owner and thought leader that will own the workforce authentication strategy focused on security and user experience. Communicate and get buy-in on strategy to key stakeholder groups.
• Understand and implement leading authentication and authorization industry trends, proposing strategies to continually increase Synchrony's authentication security and user experience.
• Platform Ownership: Direct product management and technical roadmaps for core authentication technologies (Okta, YubiKeys, FIDO2/ WebAuthn , and Might y ID Authentication Services ) using Jira to build epics, features, and stories that optimize engineering velocity.
• Strategic Collaboration: Partner with the VP of Authentication & Security Services to build data driven business cases that justify, quantify, and prioritize high value product initiatives.
• Architecture & Design: Author secure production grade authentication patterns, zero-trust reference architectures, and cryptographic policy playbooks.
• Operational Leadership: Manage a 24/7 engineering and operations team ensuring high availability, system configuration management, incident response, and business continuity for mission-critical apps.
• App Integration: Oversee timely application authentication and authorization integrations while maintaining hands‑on technical knowledge of the underlying infrastructure.
• Governance & Risk: Enhance and enforce authentication policies, compliance standards, and risk metrics while conducting cost/ROI analysis.
• Relationship Management: Champion authentication services across the enterprise by advising cross-func tional business and technology teams on product capabilities.
• Develop and maintain value driven business relationships through effective needs analysis, program management, customer service and problem resolution .
• Champion authentication services by advising other business and technology teams on product capabilities.
• Understand and implement leading authentication and authorization industry trends, proposing strategies to continually increase Synchrony's authentication security and user experience .
• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science , Computer Engineering, or a technical STEM discipline.
• Alternative Education: High School Diploma / GED with 15+ years of enterprise IT engineering experience.
• Experience: Minimum 10 years of total enterprise IT engineering experience.
• Okta Specialization: Minimum 5 years of hands‑on experience designing, scaling, and operating Okta Identity Cloud solutions (including Okta Advanced Server Access, API Access Management, and Workflows).
• Leadership: Minimum 5 years of experience leading and scaling distributed, cross‑functional engineering and infrastructure operations teams.
• Protocol Mastery: Expert‑level mastery of identity and cryptographic protocols including SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), WS‑Fed, and SCIM provisioning.
• Ability and flexibility to travelfor business as required

Desired Characteristics:

• InfrastructureExpertise: Proven record of building and managing 24/7 enterprise‑scale authentication services and customer‑facing infrastructure.
• Agile Delivery: Experienceacting asa Scrum Product Owner within the Scaled Agile Framework ( SAFe ).
• Regulatory Compliance: WorkingknowledgeofNIST, FFIEC, andPCI authenticationstandards.
• ProjectExecution: Track recordof deploying complex, large‑scale projects across multiple business units andcontrolfunctions.
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The salary range for this position is 155,000.00 - 260,000.00 USD Annual and is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.

Actual compensation offered within the posted salary range will be based upon