Engineering Director – Authentication, IDV & Biometrics Security

ABOUT US

TOPPAN Security is the international security business of the TOPPAN Group, founded in Japan in 1900. We design and manufacture mission-critical identity and payment technologies for governments and organizations worldwide.

With manufacturing facilities across Europe and Asia, we serve clients in 50+ countries, securing national borders, protecting citizen identity, and enabling trusted digital services.

Our culture is built on Agility, Ownership, Resilience, and a Sense of Fun.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking an experienced Engineering Director to lead our Authentication, Identity Verification (IDV), and Biometrics engineering organization.

Reporting to the VP of Digital Solutions, you will lead approximately 40 engineering professionals across multiple teams and shape the technical strategy, architecture, organizational growth, and delivery excellence of our Digital Solutions business.

This is a strategic leadership role rather than a hands-on coding position. You will strengthen engineering governance and delivery discipline, drive long-term roadmap execution, and champion the use of AI-powered engineering and coding practices. You will work closely with Product, QA, Security, and Pre-Sales.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Engineering Strategy & Organization

• Define and execute the engineering strategy for Authentication, IDV, and Biometrics.

• Lead and develop an organization of approximately 40 engineers, including managers, technical leads, and individual contributors.

• Own organization design, workforce and succession planning, talent development, and engineering KPIs.

• Drive operational excellence, predictable delivery, technical governance, and continuous improvement.

• Partner with executive leadership on technology investments, capacity planning, and product strategy.

• Promote AI-powered engineering practices and developer productivity.

Technical & People Leadership

• Build a culture of ownership, autonomy, accountability, and innovation.

• Establish best practices for software development, code quality, architecture, and delivery.

• Translate business and product requirements into technical strategies and execution plans.

• Provide strategic guidance on biometric authentication, MFA, cryptography, digital onboarding, KYC, and KYB.

• Mentor and grow engineering leaders and high-performing teams.

Delivery & Stakeholders

• Ensure secure and reliable delivery of SDKs, APIs, platforms, and backend services.

• Align engineering with product roadmaps, security requirements, and customer commitments.

• Collaborate with Product, Security, QA, and Pre-Sales to meet enterprise and government requirements.

• Represent engineering in strategic customer engagements, executive discussions, government tenders, and technical due diligence.

• Balance business objectives, customer needs, and engineering priorities.

ABOUT YOU

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years in engineering leadership.

• Experience leading teams delivering authentication, security, identity verification, or biometric solutions.

• Deep expertise in authentication, biometric identity verification, facial recognition/face matching, cryptography, digital onboarding, and secure mobile SDKs.

• Familiarity with FIDO2/WebAuthn, ISO/IEC 30106/19794, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and OIDC4VC.

• Experience leading engineering organizations of approximately 30-50+ professionals, including through engineering managers, team leads, and senior technical contributors.

• Fluent in English and Chinese.

NICE TO HAVE

• PCI-DSS, ISO/IEC 27001, or regulated payment experience.

• Knowledge of PSD2/PSD3, risk-based authentication, or financial compliance.

• Experience with verifiable credentials, identity wallets, or selective disclosure.

• Experience with cross-border teams and government tenders.

WHO YOU ARE

• A trusted, accountable leader who inspires through clarity and autonomy rather than micromanagement.

• An effective communicator with engineers, architects, product leaders, customers, and executives.

• Able to balance long-term architectural vision with delivery objectives.

• Structured and proactive, with a strong ability to align business, product, and engineering priorities.

• Passionate about developing people and building high-performing, innovative teams.

WHY JOIN US

• Lead engineering for mission-critical identity systems operating at national and enterprise scale.

• Shape the future of biometric security, digital identity, and authentication.

• Grow a talented global engineering organization through its next stage of scale and maturity.

• Work on solutions impacting citizen identity, border security, digital onboarding, and trusted digital services worldwide.

TOPPAN Security is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, age, colour, religion, national origin, veteran status, or disability.