Security Architect

Sabenza IT & Recruitment; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Sabenza IT & Recruitment is seeking a Senior Security Architect to own the end-to-end security design of a large-scale mobile banking platform (iOS, Android, web, APIs). You will define trust, ensure regulatory compliance, and lead security across the development lifecycle.

You will architect authentication, biometrics, device-bound keys, OAuth/OpenID, PKCE, and Zero Trust patterns; coordinate with cloud, backend, and DevSecOps teams to embed security by design.

Qualifications

• Strong hands‑on security design for mobile apps, APIs, and cloud.
• Experience delivering secure authentication and device-bound keys.
• Ability to translate risks into pragmatic controls and guardrails.
• Knowledge of Zero Trust, OAuth2/OpenID, PKCE, and secret management.
• Regulatory compliance and privacy considerations in fintech.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end security architecture for the mobile banking platform.
• Define security across mobile, APIs, cloud, and DevSecOps pipelines.
• Lead threat modelling for onboarding, payments, and user journeys.
• Embed Security-by-Design into architecture documents and release gates.
• Define secure token storage, key vaults, and cryptographic management.

Skills

Mobile security

Authentication

Identity & access

Cryptography

API security

Fraud risk

DevSecOps

Cloud security

Threat modelling

AI security

Security architecture

Job description

Senior Security Architect — Mobile Banking Platforms

Customer-facing digital banking · Security-by-design · Mobile, API, Cloud, Identity, Fraud & DevSecOps

Millions of people open a banking app and expect it to just work. Fast. Simple. Safe. That last part is not a slogan. It is the architecture.

This role owns the security design of a large-scale, customer-facing mobile banking platform — iOS, Android, web, APIs, identity, cloud, payments, and the pipelines that ship change every sprint.

You are the person who decides how trust is built into the product before a line of code hits production.

Role Purpose

The Senior Security Architect is accountable for the end-to-end security architecture of a large-scale, customer-facing mobile banking platform. The role defines, governs, and continuously evolves security across mobile applications, APIs, identity platforms, cloud infrastructure, backend services, shared platform capabilities, and DevSecOps delivery pipelines.

This role acts as the security design authority across platform teams and delivery squads, ensuring the mobile banking platform achieves world-class standards for customer trust, cyber resilience, regulatory compliance, privacy, fraud resistance, and secure customer experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end security architecture for a large-scale, customer-facing mobile banking platform.
• Define and govern security across mobile apps, APIs, identity platforms, cloud infrastructure, backend services, shared platforms, and DevSecOps pipelines.
• Architect strong customer authentication using PIN, biometrics, device-bound cryptographic keys, risk context, and transaction-level authorization.
• Design PIN-based authentication models where PINs unlock cryptographic keys and are never stored or transmitted.
• Define biometric-first authentication using Face ID, Touch ID, and platform biometrics through secure enclave and hardware-backed mechanisms.
• Govern secure use of mobile keystores and secure enclaves, including iOS Secure Enclave and Android Hardware Keystore.
• Ensure biometrics are used only for local cryptographic key release and never treated as raw credentials.
• Define integration with enterprise key vaults and HSMs for signing, encryption, certificate handling, and key lifecycle management.
• Own OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, PKCE, secure token storage, token rotation, and device-bound session models for mobile and web channels.
• Define API, Backend-for-Frontend, and service security patterns aligned to Zero Trust principles.
• Lead threat modelling across onboarding, authentication, payments, card management, account servicing, and other sensitive customer journeys.
• Translate threats into architecture patterns, security controls, non-functional requirements, and architecture decision records.
• Embed Security-by-Design into HLDs, LLDs, architecture decision records, release governance, and delivery assurance forums.
• Define DevSecOps guardrails including SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, secrets management, container scanning, IaC security, and secure release gates.
  

Requirements

• Mobile security
• Authentication
• Identity and access
• Cryptography
• API and platform security
• Fraud and risk
• DevSecOps
• Cloud and infrastructure
• Threat and assurance
• AI security
• Senior-level security architecture experience in digital banking, payments, fintech, financial services, or other regulated customer-facing digital platforms.
• Strong hands‑on understanding of mobile security, API security, identity, cryptography, cloud security, DevSecOps, platform security, fraud controls, and operational resilience.
• Ability to translate business risks and threat scenarios into pragmatic architecture decisions, technical controls, delivery guardrails, and measurable non-functional requirements