Workday’s Jen Schreiber: Securing the essence of identity

Jen Schreiber has always been fascinated by the question of identity: Who are you? Who am I? What is the essence of a person and their identity?

“I studied psychology in college, and always wondered about the essence of a person, especially in the digital world. The theme of identity, who people are, and who I am has shaped me throughout my life,” Schreiber said. In her career as a software engineer, she returned to the question of “Can I have control and domain over my digital self?”

Her pursuit of answers to these questions earned her recognition in the SC Magazine Women in IT Security program for 2025.

Schreiber actively participates in writing, editing, and contributing to digital identity open standards. Most recently, she co-authored the IETF's SCIM Profile for Security Event Tokens and contributed to the OpenID Foundation's Shared Signals Framework (SSF) specification. The core of this effort is to share security event information and enable faster cybersecurity response. Schreiber said, “When combined with our work in the OpenID Foundation’s IPSIE Working Group, the results could establish a fully secure and interoperable end-to-end flow for an enterprise: from initially provisioning a user and enabling Single Sign On, to instantly receiving an SSF signal, and finally, reliably revoking access in real-time.”

This year, Schreiber received the Vittorio Bertocci Award, which honors Vittorio Bertocci’s legacy by inspiring and supporting the next generation of identity experts shaping the foundation of digital identity.  The award and grant enabled her to participate in and work on open standards at the OAuth Security Workshop and Internet Identity Workshop. “Receiving that award was a real honor and I hope to be an inspiration to the next generation of women cybersecurity professionals,” she said.

Schreiber previously served as a network director for Women Who Code in Colorado, which boasted around 5,000 technologists. She mentored volunteers and fostered industry partnerships, creating a supportive environment that directly encouraged women's growth and sustained involvement in technology careers, including cybersecurity.  She led events like networking events, panels, mock interviews and workshops.

“Especially when we think about identity, the more people with varied backgrounds that come to the table, the more robust your solution will be. The identity community is doing innovative work, and it can be challenging sometimes. The relationships with people gives me the energy to keep going,” she said.

“Representation is so important,” Jen said. “I look back at the list of things that I have done: I spoke at this event or contributed to that standard and I use that as evidence to push myself to do more. I’m thankful for the great mentors and advocates that encourage me. I hope someone else can see me and say, ‘I can work on internet standards, I can propose a new standard, I can do this work.’” she said.

When asked about the trends or threats that would most shape the next five years of the industry, Schreiber identified agentic AI and its identity management within enterprises. Work has started in this area by groups such as the OpenID Foundation. “They're considering the impact of AI agents and how we keep things secure for users and for their data,” said Schreiber. “I believe that the standards work that I do can contribute to these efforts."