AVP/VP, IAM Operations & Engineering

This role owns the day-to-day operational health and continued build-out of the organisation's Identity & Access Management function, spanning access provisioning, privileged access, identity governance and the underlying platforms that support them. It sits at the intersection of operations and engineering: the person in this seat is expected to keep identity services running securely and reliably, while also shaping how those services evolve as the organisation's IAM programme matures.

The mandate covers both the operational discipline of managing access at scale and the technical depth to influence how roles, entitlements and access models are designed. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone equally comfortable directing a team through an audit and getting into the detail of an entitlement model.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end access lifecycle processes, including onboarding, transfers and offboarding, ensuring these are executed accurately and on time
• Lead privileged access management operations, including bringing new systems under management, overseeing credential vaulting, session monitoring and break-glass procedures
• Provide operational and technical ownership of the organisation's privileged access and identity governance platforms
• Manage identity governance operations, including integration between HR systems and directory services, and administration of standard access provisioning tied to role or department
• Drive the ongoing expansion of applications under identity governance coverage as the programme matures
• Contribute to solution design for new applications and initiatives, including entitlement structures, role design and access models
• Scrutinise proposed role and entitlement designs to ensure they hold up against least-privilege principles
• Act as a lead point of contact for audit engagements, coordinating evidence gathering and remediation tracking
• Oversee round-the-clock support arrangements for identity platforms and manage the performance of any supporting vendors
• Promote good identity hygiene practices and help embed security awareness around access management across the organisation
• Own the operating model and forward roadmap for the IAM function, identifying where automation and process improvement can reduce risk and manual effort
• Manage the function's budget, including vendor contracts and licensing decisions
• Act as risk owner for identity platforms and services, ensuring risks are properly identified, tracked and escalated
• Ensure the function's practices hold up against relevant regulatory and internal audit expectations
• Provide regular reporting on operational health, risk posture and programme progress to senior stakeholders
• Contribute to resilience planning for identity platforms, including business continuity and recovery arrangements
• Set standards and governance frameworks for identity management across on-premises, cloud and SaaS environments
• Support team development through coaching, structured growth plans and succession planning

What You'll Bring

• Extensive experience in information technology, cybersecurity or identity and access management, with a significant portion of that time spent specifically across access management, privileged access, identity governance and lifecycle management
• Several years of experience leading teams, and managing vendors or managed service providers
• A track record of operating IAM functions within a regulated environment
• Experience driving transformation and automation within an identity function, not just maintaining existing state
• Solid grounding in core identity concepts, including joiner-mover-leaver processes, birthright access, role hierarchies, fine-grained entitlements, role-based and attribute-based access control, segregation of duties, and access certification
• Familiarity with machine and non-human identities, secrets management and privileged access management practices
• Hands-on experience with leading privileged access and identity governance platforms (for example, CyberArk and Saviynt), directory services and identity integrations
• Working knowledge of identity protocols such as SAML, OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SCIM
• Ability to contribute meaningfully to solution design, entitlement modelling and access governance work, not just operational execution
• Experience supporting internal and external audit activity related to identity controls
• Relevant certifications (such as CISSP, CISM, or vendor-specific credentials) are a plus

EA Licence: 16S8091

EA Reg No.: R1656500