IAM Cloud Security Architect (GCP)

GCS Recruitment; Bolsterstone; On-site; GBP 119,925 - 184,500; Full time

Job summary

GCS Recruitment is leading a multi-year IAM transformation for a major financial services organisation, driving modern identity platforms and security controls.

The Solution Architect will define target-state IAM architectures, translate regulatory requirements into scalable designs, and guide delivery teams across cloud-native environments across the enterprise.

Qualifications

• Experience in enterprise IAM architectures across large organisations.
• Knowledge of cloud-native identity platforms and security principles.
• Ability to translate requirements into enterprise-grade IAM designs.

Responsibilities

• Produce HLDs and LLDs for identity capabilities.
• Define end-to-end solution architectures across domains.
• Translate requirements into technical solutions.
• Develop architecture patterns and reference designs.
• Define integration patterns between identity platforms and cloud services.
• Design cloud-native identity solutions in containerised environments.
• Define authentication, authorisation, federation, and access control architectures.
• Develop Zero Trust security architectures.
• Design API security and service-to-service authentication frameworks.
• Develop event-driven integration patterns and PDP/PEP designs.
• Define PKI, secrets management, and cryptographic integration patterns.
• Ensure high availability, resilience, and DR capabilities.
• Produce ADRs and technical design documentation.
• Mentor engineers and participate in governance processes.

Skills

IAM

GCP

Authentication

Authorization

Identity Federation

IGA

PAM

Non-Human Identity

Workload Identity

OAuth 2.0

OIDC

SAML

SCIM

Zero Trust

Kubernetes

Cloud-Native

Microservices

API Security

PKI

Certificate Management

Secrets Management

Policy-as-Code

OPA/Cedar

Event-Driven Architecture

PDP/PEP

Job description

Job Title: Solution Architect
Job Type: Contract
Job Location: Sheffield
Mandatory Skills: IAM, GCP

Overview
A leading global financial services organisation is undertaking a major multi-year Identity & Access Management (IAM) transformation programme to modernise and enhance identity services across a complex international technology landscape.
The programme will redefine how identities are managed across the enterprise, spanning workforce, privileged, machine, agent, and workload identities. As part of this transformation, a number of next-generation identity capabilities and platforms will be designed and implemented using modern cloud-native technologies and security principles.
We are seeking an experienced Solution Architect / Design Engineer to provide technical leadership across the programme, define target-state architectures, and ensure the successful delivery of secure, scalable, resilient, and supportable identity solutions.
The successful candidate will work closely with architects, engineering teams, security stakeholders, and technology partners to translate business, security, and regulatory requirements into enterprise-grade IAM solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Produce High-Level Designs (HLDs) and Low-Level Designs (LLDs) for identity capabilities.
• Define end-to-end solution architectures across business, application, data, security, and infrastructure domains.
• Translate business, security, operational, and regulatory requirements into technical solutions.
• Develop architecture patterns, standards, and reference designs.
• Define integration patterns between identity platforms, applications, infrastructure, and cloud services.
• Design cloud-native identity solutions within containerised and cloud environments.
• Define authentication, authorisation, federation, and access control architectures.
• Design and support Human Identity, Agent Identity, and Workload Identity capabilities.
• Develop Zero Trust security architectures and trust boundary models.
• Design API security, service-to-service authentication, and workload authentication frameworks.
• Develop event-driven integration patterns using messaging and asynchronous processing technologies.
• Design Policy Decision Point (PDP) and Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) architectures using Policy-as-Code principles.
• Define PKI, certificate lifecycle management, secrets management, and cryptographic integration patterns.
• Design highly available, resilient, and disaster recovery capable solutions.
• Ensure solutions meet security, performance, scalability, resilience, and operational requirements.
• Produce architecture decision records (ADRs) and technical design documentation.
• Participate in Architecture Reviews, Design Authorities, and governance processes.
• Conduct technical assurance and solution reviews across internal and third-party deliveries.
• Identify risks, assumptions, issues, constraints, and dependencies across programme workstreams.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture teams to ensure alignment to strategic target-state architecture.
• Support engineering teams throughout implementation, testing, and production readiness activities.
• Mentor engineers and promote architecture and engineering best practices.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and identity solutions against programme requirements.
• Support roadmap planning and future-state architecture development.

Essential Experience & Skills

• Identity & Access Management
• Enterprise Identity & Access Management (IAM)
• Authentication and Authorisation
• Identity Federation
• Identity Governance & Administration (IGA)
• Privileged Access Management (PAM)
• Non-Human Identity Management
• Workload and Service Identity
• Identity Standards & Protocols
• OAuth 2.0
• OpenID Connect (OIDC)
• SAML
• SCIM
• Security Architecture
• Zero Trust Architecture
• Security Architecture and Security Controls
• API Security
• Service-to-Service Authentication
• Secrets Management
• PKI and Certificate Management
• Cloud & Platform Technologies
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Kubernetes
• Cloud-Native Architecture
• Microservices
• Container Platforms
• Service Mesh Concepts
• Modern Architecture
• Event-Driven Architecture
• Messaging and Asynchronous Processing
• Policy-as-Code
• OPA (Open Policy Agent) and/or Cedar
• PDP / PEP Design Patterns
• Delivery & Governance
• Enterprise Solution Architecture
• Architecture Governance
• Risk Management
• Technical Leadership
• Stakeholder Management
• Architecture Review Boards
• Technical Design Assurance

Desirable Experience

• Financial Services or other highly regulated environments.
• Large-scale transformation programmes.
• Identity modernisation initiatives.
• Cloud security and platform engineering.
• DevSecOps and CI/CD practices.
• Machine Identity and Agent Identity frameworks.
• Experience working across global, distributed delivery teams.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will be an experienced Solution Architect with strong Identity & Access Management expertise and a proven track record delivering complex security and identity solutions within enterprise-scale environments. They will be comfortable operating across strategy, architecture, governance, and technical delivery while influencing senior stakeholders and driving architectural decisions across multiple workstreams.

GCS is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.