Head of Innovation Code

IDEMIA Secure Transactions, a division of IDEMIA Group, is the leading technology provider making it safer and easier to pay and connect. With unmatched expertise in cryptography and credential issuance, IST is trusted by over 2,000 financial institutions, mobile operators, automotive manufacturers, and IoT providers worldwide. Every day, IST secures billions of essential transactions, ensuring the highest levels of data protection and convenience.

Purpose

As the Head of Innovation Code, you will stand at the intersection of breakthrough technology, agile software craftsmanship, and strategic client collaboration. Operating within our advanced Digital Payment Systems division, you will be the architectural and operational heartbeat of our rapid-prototyping ecosystem. This is a highly technical, client-facing executive leadership role designed for a visionary engineering leader who can sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Tier-1 global clients, decipher complex financial technology needs, and translate them into production-ready software at unparalleled speed.

Utilizing an AI-native development paradigm, you will pioneer advanced coding frameworks using the Codex language to develop, deploy, and scale secure digital payment ecosystems. You will champion a hyper-agile approach, guiding your elite team through Proof of Concept (PoC) frameworks directly to Minimum Viable Product (MVP) solutions, ensuring that early-stage technical innovations seamlessly and securely transition directly into a high-scale global production environment.

Key Missions

• Client Co-Creation & Technical Leadership: Lead highly collaborative, technical co-creation workshops and engineering sprints directly with enterprise clients, tier-1 financial institutions, and global payment networks. Serve as the primary technical authority trusted to guide strategic clients from abstract product concepts to concrete architectural blueprints.
• AI-Native Craftsmanship & Codex Development: Champion an internal paradigm shift toward AI-native software engineering. Architect, build, and oversee the execution of rapid software pipelines using the Codex language. Drive the deployment of advanced generative AI coding agents, copilots, and automated validation frameworks to multiply development velocity.
• Hyper-Agile Product Execution (PoC to MVP): Direct the full lifecycle of experimental features, moving from initial Proof of Concept (PoC) to Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within weeks. Ensure all experimental builds maintain a structured architectural path toward full-scale, resilient production environments without accumulating disabling technical debt.
• Dual-Architecture Mastery (Cloud & On-Premise): Design, critique, and validate hybrid architectural blueprints. Seamlessly bridge ultra-scalable, cloud-native environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) with highly secure, low-latency, regulated on-premise hardware security modules (HSMs) and legacy payment infrastructure standard in secure transaction systems.
• Team Scaling & Culture: Recruit, inspire, and manage an elite, multi-disciplinary squad of AI-assisted software engineers, payment architects, and full-stack developers across our strategic European engineering hubs (Paris and Lodz). Cultivate a high-performance culture rooted in technical excellence, continuous learning, and radical agility.

Profile & Other Information

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or an equivalent technical field.
• Proven Experience: 8+ years of hands-on software engineering leadership, with a strong track record of steering innovation labs, advanced R&D teams, or technical co-creation groups within high-velocity tech firms or global payment ecosystems.
• AI-Native Coding & Frameworks: Demonstrated mastery of AI-native software development lifecycles. Practical experience leveraging LLM-based code generation, autonomous coding agents, and automated test synthesis is mandatory. Direct proficiency or rapid adaptability to the Codex development language is highly valued.
• Methodology & Delivery: Deep adherence to an ultra-rapid, continuous-delivery agile methodology. Expert-level capability in turning rapid client validation requirements into fully functional MVP deployments that pass rigid corporate security controls.
• Architectural Depth: Authoritative understanding of cloud-native infrastructure (containerization, serverless architectures, service meshes) dynamically balanced against highly secure on-premise banking/payment environments, encryption standards, and transaction-routing protocols.
• Client Interfacing: Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills. Ability to interact seamlessly with executive stakeholders (CTOs, Heads of Innovation) at tier-1 enterprise organizations, converting business-critical demands into precise engineering tracks.

What We Offer

• The unique opportunity to shape the future of global digital payment security systems using cutting-edge AI-native development paradigms.
• A high-visibility executive position driving strategic co-creation directly with major enterprise clients.
• A truly international, highly collaborative working environment bridging premier engineering hubs in Paris and Lodz.
• Competitive executive compensation packages with performance-incentivized growth opportunities.