Engineering Director – Authentication, Identity Verification & Biometrics

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, develop engineering leaders, and champion AI-powered engineering and developer productivity.

You will work closely with Product, QA, Security, and Pre-Sales, and represent Engineering in strategic customer and executive discussions.

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, architecture, security, code quality, and delivery.

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

• Provide strategic guidance across authentication, biometric identity verification, MFA, digital identity, cryptography, digital onboarding, and secure identity platforms.

• Mentor and grow engineering managers, technical leads, and high-performing individual contributors.

Delivery & Stakeholders

• Ensure secure, scalable, 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, technical due diligence, and government tenders.

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

ABOUT YOU

Required

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, including significant engineering or technical leadership experience.

• Experience leading and developing engineering teams, ideally across multiple teams, technical leads, or engineering managers.

• Experience managing a substantial engineering organization; experience with 30+ engineers is highly desirable.

• Strong background in software architecture, engineering delivery, and technical strategy.

• Professional experience in one or more of:

  • Authentication / MFA

  • Identity and Access Management (IAM)

  • Identity Verification (IDV)

  • Biometrics / facial recognition / face matching

  • Cybersecurity

  • Digital identity

  • Secure mobile technologies or SDKs

  • Secure payments or financial security

  • Fraud, risk, or related security technologies

• Demonstrated ability to translate business and product requirements into technical strategy and execution.

• Strong people leadership skills, including hiring, coaching, performance management, organizational development, and succession planning.

• Experience working cross-functionally with Product, Security, QA, and other stakeholders.

• Experience with distributed or cross-border engineering teams is highly desirable.

• Fluent in English and Chinese.

• Based in Taiwan or willing to relocate to Taiwan.

Identity & Security Expertise

You do not need to be an expert in every area below. We are particularly interested in candidates with strong depth in one or more relevant areas and the ability to lead across the broader identity and authentication domain.

Experience with any of the following is highly valued:

• Biometric authentication, identity verification, facial recognition, face matching, or liveness detection.

• MFA and passwordless authentication.

• Secure mobile authentication and SDKs.

• OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect or FIDO2 / WebAuthn.

• Cryptography, PKI, key management, or secure identity architecture.

• Digital onboarding, KYC / KYB, or fraud prevention.

• Identity platforms and IAM.

• Verifiable credentials, digital identity wallets, or selective disclosure.

• Relevant biometric or digital identity standards.

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience with ISO/IEC 30106, ISO/IEC 19794, or related biometric standards.

• PCI-DSS, ISO/IEC 27001, or other regulated security/compliance experience.

• PSD2/PSD3, risk-based authentication, or financial services experience.

• Experience with government, national identity, border security, or other mission-critical customers.

• Experience with government tenders, technical due diligence, or enterprise pre-sales.

• Experience leading engineering organizations through growth, transformation, or organizational change.

• Experience introducing AI-assisted software development, coding agents, or developer productivity platforms.

WHO YOU ARE

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

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

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

• Structured, proactive, and comfortable operating in a complex international environment.

• Passionate about developing people and building high-performing engineering organizations.

• Comfortable working across technical domains and quickly developing sufficient depth in new areas.

• Curious about emerging technologies, particularly AI-powered engineering and digital identity.

• Pragmatic while maintaining high standards for security, reliability, and quality.

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.

• Lead and 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.

• Work with an international organization combining the stability and heritage of the TOPPAN Group with the agility of a growing digital solutions business.

LOCATION

This role is based in Taiwan and works closely with international engineering and business teams.

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.