Manager, Identity Governance Operations

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 119,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America seeks a hands-on Team Lead for Identity Governance Operations in New York. You will lead the IGA team, oversee lifecycle governance, access reviews, SoD, and provisioning controls, and drive improvements with automation and analytics.

Three days per week on-site at Guardian locations (NY, PA, or NJ) with a focus on enterprise governance, regulatory readiness, and stakeholder collaboration across digital technology and business units.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of IAM/IGA, cybersecurity, or related tech/security functions.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Security, Information Technology, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• People leadership experience, including performance management, prioritization, and development of employees, contractors, or vendor resources.
• Strong experience with identity lifecycle management, access certifications, RBAC, SoD, provisioning/deprovisioning, and access governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead develops the IGA team, including performance management, workload prioritization, career development, cross-training, and accountability for results.
• Manage employees and outsourced resources, ensuring delivery against established KPIs, KRIs, controls, and operational expectations.
• Oversee core IGA processes including Joiner/Mover/Leaver, access entitlement reviews, SoD, RBAC, entitlement governance, provisioning/deprovisioning controls, and monitoring of unauthorized/native access changes.
• Provide IGA/IAM enterprise controls, audit evidence, regulatory requirements, documentation, and remediation activities.
• Drive continuous improvement through automation, process simplification, and improved user experience.
• Proactively identify risks, control gaps, and suggest opportunities to address them.
• Partner and support business and technology teams to establish governance requirements for non-human identities, service identities, AI agents, and emerging AI capabilities.
• Support vendor evaluations, RFP/RFI activities, proof-of-concepts, and strategic IGA initiatives.

Skills

IAM/IGA experience

People leadership

Identity lifecycle management

Access certifications

RBAC

SoD

Provisioning/deprovisioning

Operational controls & audits

Regulatory compliance

SLAs

Analytical skills

Stakeholder management

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Info Sec/IT

Tools

SailPoint

CyberArk

Microsoft Entra ID

Okta

Job description

Position Overview

Position Overview The Team Lead, Identity Governance Operations is a hands-on people leader responsible for operations within the Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) team - ensuring work is performed timely and accurately, meeting control responsibilities. This role oversees identity lifecycle governance, access certifications, Segregation of Duties (SoD), provisioning controls, role and entitlement governance, operational reporting/analytics. They will work closely with other peers in identity and access management, as well as others across digital technology and business.

Here’s What You’ll Do

Lead develops the IGA team, including performance management, workload prioritization, career development, cross-training, and accountability for results. Manage employees and outsourced resources, ensuring delivery against established KPIs, KRIs, controls, and operational expectations. Oversee core IGA processes including Joiner/Mover/Leaver, access entitlement reviews, SoD, RBAC, entitlement governance, provisioning/deprovisioning controls, and monitoring of unauthorized/native access changes. Provide IGA/IAM enterprise controls, audit evidence, regulatory requirements, documentation, and remediation activities. Drive continuous improvement through automation, process simplification, and improved user experience. Proactively identify risks, control gaps, and suggest opportunities to address them. Partner and support business and technology teams to establish governance requirements for non-human identities, service identities, AI agents, and emerging AI capabilities. Support vendor evaluations, RFP/RFI activities, proof-of-concepts, and strategic IGA initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in IAM, IGA, cybersecurity, or related technology/security functions.


• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Security, Information Technology, or related field, or equivalent experience.


• People leadership experience, including performance management, prioritization, and development of employees, contractors, or vendor resources.


• Strong experience with identity lifecycle management, access certifications, RBAC, SoD, provisioning/deprovisioning, and access governance.


• Experience with IAM/IGA technologies such as SailPoint, CyberArk, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or similar platforms.


• Experience with operational controls, audit readiness, regulatory requirements, and risk-based access governance.


• Experience managing service level agreements


• Strong analytical, problem-solving, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills.


• Action-oriented - ability to collaborate and work across teams to address needs Accountable and self-starter

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading enterprise IAM/IGA operations and blended employee/vendor teams.


• Experience with RFP/RFI activities, vendor evaluations, POCs, and technology implementations.


• Experience with hybrid identity environments across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS platforms.


• Familiarity with AI identity governance, AI agents, non-human identities, machine identities, and MCP.


• Experience in regulated environments (e.g., NYDFS, MAR, SOX, SOC 2, or similar)


• Certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CRISC, or IAM/IGA platform certifications a plus


• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical, business, stakeholders.

Location

Three days a week at a Guardian location in New York, NY, Bethlehem PA or Holmdel, NJ

Salary Range

Salary Range: $118,980.00 - $195,465.00 The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for the primary location of the position. The salary for this position ultimately will be determined based on the education, experience, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate. In addition to salary, this role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

Our Promise

At Guardian, you’ll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals. Through skill-building, leadership development and philanthropic opportunities, we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career, surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards. Inspire Well-Being As part of Guardian’s Purpose – to inspire well-being – we are committed to offering contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues. Explore our company benefits at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits. Benefits apply to full-time eligible employees. Interns are not eligible for most Company benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, marital status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

Accommodations

Guardian is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [e-mail]. Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian, refer to the Guardian Careers site.

Visa Sponsorship

Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment-based visas (e.g., such as an H-1B). In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.

Notice Regarding Guardian’s Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

As part of Guardian’s job application process, Guardian may use artificial intelligence tools ("AI Tools") to automate the sorting and filtering of information provided by applicants as part of its preliminary screening. This preliminary screening may be used to help identify applicant materials and resumes relative to their indication that the applicant meets the requirements for the specific job for which they are applying, as specified in the listing posted on Guardian’s jobs website (Careers at Guardian at https://www.guardianlife.com/careers). At Guardian, we do not use AI Tools to substantially assist or replace human judgment or discretionary decision making in our hiring process. All hiring decisions will be made by Guardian colleagues. Please be aware that if you apply for a specific position with Guardian, you will have the choice of opting out of Guardian’s use of AI Tools during the job application process. If you would like to request an alternative process that does not utilize AI Tools or would like to request a reasonable accommodation, within ten business days of your position application, you must email your request to [e-mail], making sure to provide your name and job requisition identification number. Guardian will retain your applicant materials and resume and all information therefrom in accordance with Guardian’s document retention policy, a copy of which you may request via [e-mail]. Additionally, at applicable times, Guardian will make public the most recent bias audit results for such AI tools, which may be found here.

Current Guardian Colleagues

Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday. Every day, Guardian helps our 29 million customers realize their dreams through a range of insurance and financial products and services. Our Purpose, to inspire well-being, guides our dedication to the colleagues, consumers, and communities we serve. We know that people count, and we go above and beyond to prepare them for the life they want to live, focusing on their overall well-being — mind, body, and wallet. As one of the largest mutual insurance companies, we put our customers first. Behind every bright future is a GuardianTM. Learn more about Guardian at guardianlife.com.

Visa Sponsorship: Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment-based visas (e.g., such as an H-1B). In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.