Senior Enterprise Architect, CIAM
Company: Zip
Location: Elkins Park
Posted on: February 17, 2026
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Job Description:
• Senior Enterprise Architect with deep expertise in Customer
Identity & Access Management design and implementation. •
Engineering leader who fosters collaboration, innovation, and
operational excellence through strategic leadership and continuous
improvement • Remote-first opportunity for US-based employees with
the option to work in-person out of our Manhattan office Start your
adventure with Zip Join Zip’s Enterprise Architecture organization
and help shape how millions of customers securely register,
authenticate, and interact with Zip’s products. We operate at a
significant scale, balancing customer experience, security, fraud
prevention, and regulatory obligations across a diverse and rapidly
evolving product ecosystem. We are seeking an accomplished Senior
Enterprise Architect to serve as the strategic authority for
Customer Identity and Access Management at Zip. This is an
architecture-first, consultative leadership role focused on
defining vision, principles, and target-state architectures rather
than day-to-day operational delivery. You will influence platform
direction, guide modernization initiatives, and act as a trusted
advisor to senior stakeholders while ensuring customer identity
remains a foundational, secure, and scalable digital capability.
Interesting problems you’ll get to solve CIAM Vision & Thought
Leadership • Define and own Zip’s long-term CIAM strategy and
architectural vision. • Establish customer identity as a
foundational digital capability that supports growth, trust, and
risk management. • Act as the internal subject matter expert on
CIAM trends, patterns, and emerging technologies. • Champion
modern, passwordless, and low-friction authentication approaches
including passkeys, biometrics, device binding, and adaptive
authentication. Architecture & Design Authority • Define
target-state CIAM architectures covering registration,
authentication, authorization, session management, consent, and
recovery. • Develop and maintain CIAM reference architectures,
design principles, and decision frameworks. • Provide architectural
guidance and design review for customer-facing identity
implementations. • Ensure CIAM designs integrate cleanly with
fraud, risk, data, and analytics capabilities for adaptive and
contextual trust decisions. Consultative Partnership • Serve as a
trusted advisor to Product, Engineering, Design, and Platform teams
on customer identity design decisions. • Influence product and
platform roadmaps to ensure identity experiences are consistent,
secure, and scalable. • Partner with Security to align CIAM designs
with enterprise risk posture, regulatory expectations, and control
requirements. • Collaborate with Fraud and Risk teams to
incorporate behavioral, device, and contextual signals into
authentication strategies. Governance & Alignment • Contribute to
and help shape identity governance forums spanning Security,
Enterprise Architecture, Product, Risk, and Engineering. • Define
shared CIAM standards, risk thresholds, and architectural
guardrails. • Ensure alignment between customer identity patterns
and broader enterprise identity principles. • Provide guidance on
ownership boundaries between CIAM platforms and workforce IAM
systems. Strategy, Maturity & Advisory • Define CIAM maturity
models and modernization roadmaps. • Advise leadership on strategic
investments in CIAM platforms, authentication technologies, and
identity infrastructure. • Monitor regulatory, privacy, and
industry developments impacting customer identity and
authentication. • Help leadership evaluate trade-offs between
security, user experience, fraud prevention, and operational
complexity. What you’ll bring to the team Educational Background: A
bachelors degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering. A
graduate degree is preferred. • Technical Leadership: Demonstrated
ability to lead technical initiatives, guide teams, and inspire
confidence. Proven track record of successfully leading large-scale
CIAM projects with a focus on performance, scalability, and
reliability. • Prior Experience and Expertise: 10 years of
experience in identity, security, and enterprise architecture, with
deep expertise in Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)
for large-scale, customer-facing platforms, including OAuth 2.0,
OpenID Connect, and SAML, and experience leading CIAM strategy,
architecture, and modernization initiatives leveraging passkeys,
biometrics, device trust, and adaptive MFA. • Mentorship:
Experience mentoring and guiding engineering teams. Strong ability
to foster a collaborative and high-performing engineering culture
through knowledge sharing, technical mentorship, and
cross-functional partnership. • Cross-Functional Collaboration:
Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with
the ability to influence and drive alignment across engineering,
product, and security teams on complex technical projects. • AI:
Experience driving adoption of AI-based development tools, and a
strong understanding of their potential and limitations. • TOGAF
certification, prior architecture experience and experience in
fintech are attributes of your profile that can set you apart from
other candidates. What you’ll get in return Zip is a place where
you’ll get out what you put in. The newness of our sector means we
need to move at pace and embrace change, and our promise to you
when you join the team is that you’ll feel empowered and trusted to
make big things happen quickly. We want you to feel welcome and as
though you have the support to be yourself, and care for yourself
at work. Because it’s important to us that you make the most of the
opportunities you’ll get to grow your skills and your career, and
be surrounded by smart, friendly people and leaders that have your
back. We think these are just some of the best things about being a
Zipster. We will also offer you: • Flexible working culture •
Incentive programs • Unlimited PTO • Generous paid parental leave •
Leading family support policies • Company-sponsored 401k match •
Learning and wellness subscription stipend • Beautiful Union Square
office with a casual dress code • Industry-leading,
employer-sponsored insurance for you and your dependents, with
several 100% Zip-covered choices available The annual base Pay
Range for this position is $190,000 - $200,000. This range reflects
our US national compensation (USN). Additional premium percentages
may apply based on our tiered premium strategy. Subject to those
same considerations, the total compensation package for this
position may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or
equity awards, in addition to a full range of medical, financial,
and/or other benefits. If hired, employees will be in an at-will
position and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary
(as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or
benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to
individual performance, Company or individual department/team
performance, and market factors.
Keywords: Zip, Plainfield , Senior Enterprise Architect, CIAM, IT / Software / Systems , Elkins Park, New Jersey
