IAM Engineering Director

Western Alliance Bancorporation; Phoenix (AZ); On-site; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salaries

Ownership stake in the company

Medical and dental insurance

401k matching program

Tuition assistance program

Employee volunteer program

Wellness program

Job summary

Western Alliance Bancorporation seeks an IAM Engineering Director to lead strategy, delivery, and operations of enterprise IAM services. You will shape roadmaps, modernize platforms, and enforce Zero Trust across workforce, privileged, and cloud identities.

You’ll partner across security, infrastructure, architecture, compliance, and business teams, driving improvements in reliability, risk reduction, and user experience while managing budgets and vendor relationships.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of related experience or similar field.
• Bachelor's degree in related field required.
• Previous leadership experience required.
• Knowledge of banking and financial services regulatory obligations preferred.
• Experience as a developer in Identity Governance platforms.
• Knowledge of engineering and/or software development methodologies.
• Experience managing multiple large technology teams and KPIs.
• Ability to analyze data and communicate findings effectively.
• Strong spoken and written communication skills.
• Travel up to 25% may be required.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise IAM engineering across lifecycle management, access governance, MFA, and SSO.
• Own and execute a multi-year IAM roadmap aligned to cyber strategy and regulatory obligations.
• Modernize IAM platforms and operating models across hybrid, cloud, SaaS, and on-premises environments.
• Drive Zero Trust, least privilege, policy-based access, and strong authentication.
• Provide strategic direction for IAM technologies and platforms (SailPoint, CyberArk, Entra, AWS IAM).
• Partner with security, infrastructure, architecture, risk, and legal teams to embed IAM controls.
• Establish engineering standards, KPIs, SLAs, and audit-ready procedures.
• Oversee production support, incident response, and vulnerability remediation.
• Lead and develop matrixed teams of IAM engineers, architects, and owners.
• Manage IAM budgets, vendor relationships, and delivery commitments.

Skills

Leadership experience

Strategic thinking

Communication skills

Budget management

Project management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

SailPoint

CyberArk

Microsoft Entra

AWS IAM

Job description

Job Title:

IAM Engineering Director

Location:

Block 23

What you'll do:

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) Engineering Director will lead the strategy, delivery, and operational excellence of all enterprise IAM engineering capabilities. This role is responsible for secure, scalable, and resilient identity services across workforce, privileged, application, cloud, and machine identities. The director will shape the IAM roadmap, modernize identity platforms, strengthen Zero Trust and least-privilege access controls, and partner across information security, infrastructure, architecture, risk, compliance, audit, business, and vendor teams to deliver secure access with streamlined user experience.

• Lead enterprise IAM engineering across identity lifecycle management, access management, identity governance and administration, privileged access management, directory services, authentication, authorization, federation, SSO, MFA, and related access controls.
• Own and execute a multi-year IAM roadmap aligned to cyber strategy, regulatory obligations, risk reduction, operational resilience, business enablement, and user experience goals.
• Modernize IAM platforms, integrations, and operating models across hybrid, cloud, SaaS, and on-premises environments, ensuring services are secure, scalable, auditable, and reliable.
• Drive adoption of Zero Trust, least privilege, segregation of duties, role-based access, policy-based access, and strong authentication across workforce, privileged, service, application, and machine identities.
• Provide strategic direction for IAM technologies and platforms, with preferred experience in SailPoint, CyberArk, Microsoft Entra, Directories, AWS Identity and Access Management, directory services, federation, and cloud identity integrations.
• Partner with cybersecurity, infrastructure, application engineering, architecture, risk, compliance, audit, legal, business, and third-party providers to embed IAM controls into technology solutions and business processes.
• Establish IAM engineering standards, architecture patterns, KPIs, controls, service levels, documentation, and operational procedures to improve reliability, reduce risk, and support audit readiness.
• Oversee production support, incident response, root-cause analysis, vulnerability remediation, service health, and continuous improvement for IAM platforms and services.
• Lead, coach, and develop matrixed teams of IAM engineers, architects, product owners, and technology professionals while fostering accountability, technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Manage IAM budgets, vendor relationships, resource plans, business cases, delivery commitments, and operating plans to ensure effective execution of strategic priorities.

What you'll need:

• 12+ years of related experience or similar field.
• Bachelor's degree in related field required.
• Previous leadership experience required.
• Intermediate to advanced knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.
• Intermediate to advanced knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards and practices.
• Previous experience as a developer in Identity Governance platforms.
• Knowledge of engineering and/or software development methodologies.
• Advanced to expert experience in managing multiple large technology teams (Application Engineering Support and Delivery, Infrastructure Engineering Support and Delivery, Architecture, or Project Management) while working on complex solutions and products with additional responsibility for the execution of KPIs and timelines.
• Advanced to expert experience building and delivering on strategic IT solutions with proven ability to analyze a variety of data and summarize findings in applicable reports or other communication mediums. Utilize data to identify areas of improvement and opportunities for growth by collaborating with business and tech leads.
• Advanced speaking and writing communication skills.
• May require up to 25% travel.

Benefits you’ll love:

• We offer all the important things you’d want - like competitive salaries, an ownership stake in the company, medical and dental insurance, time off, a great 401k matching program, tuition assistance program, an employee volunteer program, and a wellness program. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to bolster your business knowledge, learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances, giving you invaluable hands-on experience to help grow your career!

About the company:

Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation. Serving clients nationwide, Western Alliance Bank includes six legacy bank brands - Alliance Association Bank, Alliance Bank of Arizona, Bank of Nevada, Bridge Bank, First Independent Bank and Torrey Pines Bank - that remain part of the company's heritage, as well as AmeriHome Mortgage, a Western Alliance Bank Company.

Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to equal employment and will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, sex, color, religion, age, nation origin, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or genetic information. Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process and/or need an alternative method of applying, please email [e-mail] or call 602-386-2488. When contacting us, please provide your contact information and state the nature of your accessibility issue. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests that involve a reasonable accommodation in the application process.

Western Alliance Bancorporation