What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Director, Engineering - Identity Security position at Harnham?
Senior Director, Engineering - Identity & Security
Location: Mountain View, CA (3 days/week onsite minimum)
Compensation: $250,000–$275,000 base bonus RSUs
About the Company
Harnham is partnering with a Fortune 500 leader in cybersecurity and digital trust, combining the scale of a global enterprise with the agility of a startup culture. The company protects hundreds of millions of users worldwide, boasts best-in-class retention, and maintains an unwavering commitment to innovation.
Its platform processes over half a million telemetry events per second, and following a major fintech acquisition in 2025, the organization has significantly expanded its footprint in New York City.
The Role
They are seeking a Senior Director, Licensing & Accounts Engineering to lead the transformation of mission-critical licensing and accounts platforms that power complex global product ecosystems. This is a highly influential leadership role focused on backend modernization, architectural simplification, and scalable platform design across multiple products and interfaces.
This leader will define the long-term technical roadmap for reusable licensing services, reduce system complexity across tightly coupled platforms, and drive modernization efforts across critical Java-based backend systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Own architecture and modernization strategy for licensing and accounts systems with a focus on identity, security and authentication
- Lead transformation of 7 critical Java backend components
- Simplify integrations across products, frontend systems, and legal/commercial constraints
- Design scalable, reusable licensing frameworks supporting multiple products and interfaces
- Set and drive the technical roadmap for licensing and accounts platforms
- Partner closely with Product Management and Architects on strategy and execution
Technical Leadership
- Provide deep backend expertise and architectural oversight
- Guide design decisions to reduce system coupling and improve platform reuse
- Lead integration strategy across multiple product lines
- Ensure systems remain resilient, scalable, and future-ready
Leadership & Influence
- Lead and scale a highly critical engineering organization of 20–25 engineers
- Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders
- Drive alignment across shared services and cross-functional teams
- Act as a change agent by challenging legacy systems and engineering practices
Day-to-Day Focus
- ~50% architecture and system design leadership
- ~30% roadmap ownership and cross-functional collaboration
- ~20% people leadership and mentoring
Key Initiatives in the First 6–12 Months
- Define and execute the modernization roadmap for licensing and accounts platforms
- Reduce system complexity and redundant touchpoints
- Establish scalable licensing models across multiple products
- Improve integration patterns and backend service design
- Strengthen collaboration between engineering, product, and architecture teams
- Elevate overall technical maturity and engineering standards
Ideal Candidate Profile
- 10 years of experience in senior engineering leadership roles
- Expertise in backend shared services platforms and large-scale system architecture
- History of owning engineering platforms for identity and access management (IAM), security and authentication at scale
- Experience modernizing legacy backend systems in mid-to-large product organizations
- Strong background in integration-heavy architectures across complex product ecosystems
- BS in Computer Science or related field required; advanced degree a plus
Must-Have Skills
- Deep Java backend systems expertise
- Strong system architecture and platform transformation experience
- Experience defining and driving technical roadmaps
- Proven ability to lead and influence teams of 20–25 engineers
- Strong integration design experience across multiple systems
- Ability to simplify highly complex technical domains
Nice-to-Have Skills
- Licensing and entitlement platform experience
- Experience building reusable entitlement frameworks
- Cloud modernization experience
- Exposure to regulated or legally constrained systems
Benefits
The compensation package includes a competitive base salary, bonus, RSUs, and a comprehensive benefits package.
How to Apply
Please register your interest by sending your CV via the Apply link on this page.
Key Terms
Software Engineering | Backend Platforms | Licensing | Entitlements | Distributed Systems | Architecture | Platform Modernization | Java | Shared Services | Integration | Product Engineering | Technical Leadership | Scalability | Cloud | Engineering Management | Consumer Platforms | B2C Platforms | Customer Platforms | Systems Design | Roadmap Strategy | Identity | Authentication | IAM | Security
Salary : $250,000 - $275,000