Note: This is a role-play first person review told from my point of view.
So… what’s a “digital ID” job anyway?
Think of it like this: you help people prove who they are online—fast and safe. Some days you fight fraud. Some days you fix logins. Some days you build flows that let a nurse or a driver get into an app without a headache. If you prefer the polished blog-style walkthrough of the same story, you can peek at the role-play review on openidbook.com.
In plain words:
- KYC/IDV: You check IDs for new users. You look at selfies, licenses, passports.
- IAM: You manage sign-ins for staff. You set up single sign-on and multi-factor.
- Risk/Product: You design the steps. You balance “easy for good folks” and “hard for fraud.”
Fun side note: some gigs have you vetting age-restricted creators on photo-heavy platforms. If you want to understand the kind of content that mandates strict 18+ checks, take a scroll through this curated gallery of Instagram nudes—it offers real-world examples that highlight why airtight age and identity screening is non-negotiable. Another corner of the adult-content economy is escort-listing boards, where identity proofing cuts down on impersonation and client fraud; Kyle’s behind-the-scenes breakdown of how Listcrawler handles profiles and verifications over at Listcrawler Kyle offers a candid peek into those workflows and the lessons a fraud-fighter can borrow for mainstream apps.
That’s the core. Now, real stories.
Real Job #1: Identity Verification Specialist at a fintech marketplace
My tools: Onfido, Persona, Veriff, a bit of SQL, Slack, Jira.
- The day a sports star went live: Our app got slammed. Selfies lagged. People got mad. I opened a “war room” in Slack. We tweaked liveness rules in Onfido so glare passed if the doc chip scan was clean. Queue time went from 15 minutes to 4. Complaints dropped. I slept like a rock.
- The “blurry selfie” night shift: APAC users kept failing at 2 a.m. Their rooms were dim. We added a tiny tip screen: “Stand near a window. Hold still. Count 3-2-1.” Pass rate jumped. Simple stuff helps.
- One weird edge case: A local ID type had a new layout. Our template flag freaked out. I tagged our vendor. They shipped a model update in two days. We cleared the backlog by Friday.
For a ground-level user perspective on the very same selfie-and-liveness hurdles, check out this no-fluff report on trying biometric digital ID in real life.
What I liked: fast feedback, real impact. What bugged me: false rejects hurt. Telling a real person “sorry, try again” never feels great.
Real Job #2: IAM Analyst at a hospital system
My tools: Okta, Azure AD, Duo, YubiKey, SailPoint, some PowerShell.
- Nurse gloves vs. phones: Push MFA failed in surgery. Phones were a no-go. We piloted FIDO2 security keys (YubiKey) on shared workstations. Tap, sign in, done. Password reset tickets fell by about 40% in three months.
- The “Friday at 4 p.m.” outage: A SAML cert expired. Logins broke for the lab team. I swapped in the new cert, updated metadata, and set auto-reminders 30 days early. Pain taught me better habits.
- Audit season: We ran access reviews in SailPoint. Who has what? Who should lose it? Boring, yes. But it kept us clean for ISO checks. The coffee helped.
What I liked: clear wins, safer staff. What bugged me: legacy VPNs. Sticky and slow. And change windows at 2 a.m.
Real Job #3: Product Manager for ID at a gig app
My tools: Auth0, Stripe Identity, Trulioo, Datadog, Looker.
- Tax season spike: Fraud rings tested us hard. We added risk-based “step-up” checks. Low risk? Quick selfie. High risk? Selfie + NFC chip read on the passport. Good users passed faster. Fraud got bored.
- A/B test on doc tips: We wrote friendlier copy. “Hold your ID like a Polaroid. Edges in frame.” Pass rate rose by 8%. Words matter.
- Passkeys trial: We added passkeys for staff sign-in. Bye, weak passwords. Support tickets dropped. People loved “just use your face or phone.”
What I liked: shaping the flow, listening to users. What bugged me: vendor limits. Sometimes you wait for a feature that should’ve shipped last year.
Tools I actually used and would use again
- IAM: Okta, Azure AD, Duo, YubiKey, PingID
- IDV/KYC: Onfido, Persona, Veriff, Jumio, Trulioo, Stripe Identity, ID.me, Yoti
- Glue stuff: Jira, Slack, Datadog, Looker, basic SQL, PowerShell
Each tool has quirks. Okta’s workflows saved me hours. Onfido’s liveness was strong, but lighting still tripped folks. Duo was simple for most users, yet not great with gloves. Trade-offs everywhere.
States are also rolling out their own wallet-style credentials and the field reports are piling up—good reading if you want regional flavor. An early adopter raved about the airport flow in Arizona’s digital ID, while a Chicago friend wrestling with Illinois’s ILogin rollout had a bumpier ride, and a buddy in Columbus says Ohio’s version finally scans at the local DMV kiosk. Down south, first-hand looks at both Arkansas’ mobile ID and Georgia’s digital license show the same theme: setup friction up front, convenience later. And if you’re skiing out west, the word is that Utah’s digital ID taps right into the tap-to-pay readers already sprinkled around Salt Lake City.
A day in the life (real pace, not glam)
- 9:00: Check dashboards. Any spikes in fails or lockouts?
- 10:00: Standup. What broke? What’s next?
- 11:00: Tune rules. Update allowlists. Write a tiny script.
- 1:00: Lunch. Scroll memes. Sip tea.
- 2:00: Talk to support. Why are drivers stuck on step three?
- 3:00: Vendor call. Roadmap chat. Nudge them, kindly.
- 4:00: Test a new flow. Break it. Fix it. Test again.
Some days it’s quiet. Some days it’s sirens.
The good, the bad, the “meh”
What I love:
- Real help for real people
- Clean wins from small tweaks
- Puzzle vibes—spot the pattern, stop the fraud
What bugs me:
- Night updates and odd hours
- False rejects (they sting)
- Old systems that refuse to retire
Who will enjoy it:
- You like rules and people both
- You don’t panic when dashboards blink red
- You can say “OIDC” and then explain it in plain words
Pay, straight talk
This shifts by city and level, but here’s what I’ve seen:
- ID Verification Specialist/Analyst: around $55k–$90k
- IAM Analyst/Engineer: around $85k–$140k
- Product Manager (ID): around $110k–$170k
Contract gigs can pay more per hour, but no perks. Choose what fits your life.
How I’d break in today
- Learn the basics: SSO, MFA, SAML, OIDC, passkeys
- Try free tiers: Okta developer tenant; Auth0 rules; a test passkey on your phone
- Get a starter cert: CompTIA Security+ or Okta Associate; Microsoft SC-300 if you like Azure
- Build a tiny demo: SSO into a sample app, add MFA, write a short “how I did it”
- Talk to support teams: They know where users struggle. That’s gold for interviews.
Bonus resource: For a government-level perspective, skim the U.S. federal Digital Identity Playbook—a concise checklist of dos and don’ts to keep in your back pocket before that first interview.
For an approachable deep dive into how OpenID Connect works in the real world, I always point friends to the excellent online guide at [openidbook