Senior Director, IAM & Cloud Governance

DDN; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

DDN is seeking an experienced IAM leader in Santa Clara, CA to own and advance the identity governance program across strategy, controls, and compliance. You will drive certification, role lifecycles, and privileged access, while guiding SOX readiness and audit readiness initiatives.

Responsibilities include architecting a scalable IAM platform, managing cloud and on-prem environments, and aligning with business priorities.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in information technology, with an emphasis on identity and access management, including 5+ years leading IAM teams at the manager, director, or higher level.
• Proven experience owning enterprise IAM strategy, including capital and operating budgets.
• Deep hands-on expertise across all aspects of a comprehensive IAM program.
• Experience managing hybrid environments that span on-premises or colocation infrastructure and at least one major cloud platform, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Deep knowledge of SOX compliance and a proven track record of building readiness programs that deliver successful outcomes.
• Experience with access automation, configuration management, and modern operations practices.
• Track record of building, leading, and retaining high-performing technical teams.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States.

Responsibilities

• Own the identity governance strategy, operating model, and control standards; lead access certification, role lifecycle, and segregation-of-duties programs with clear accountability for control coverage, exception handling, and decision ownership.
• Develop the roadmap for SOX readiness and execute the plan to prepare the company for successful audit performance.
• Architect and deploy a comprehensive IAM technology platform to automate access orchestration, manage privileged access, establish appropriate guardrails for enterprise AI, monitor and manage machine identities, and own a robust IdP/MFA platform.
• Establish governance forums and escalation paths to resolve policy exceptions, toxic access combinations, and role-design conflicts.
• Chair the IT architecture review board, assessing technology design, cost, capabilities, and third-party risk management.
• Manage all public-cloud master accounts and subscriptions; monitor, assess, and optimize cost, least-privilege access, and access automation.
• Direct workflow, analytics, and reporting to surface access risk, measure control effectiveness, and prioritize remediation based on exposure.
• Manage risk exceptions and compensating controls when legacy systems, acquired businesses, or operational constraints prevent immediate compliance.
• Lead the evaluation and modernization of the identity governance platform, processes, and data quality to improve scalability, automation, and evidence integrity.
• Lead identity governance for M&A activities, managing environments where acquired technologies do not yet meet enterprise standards.

Skills

Identity & access management

Security governance

IAM strategy

Hybrid cloud experience

SOX compliance

Team leadership

Tools

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Job description

Roles and Responsibilities

• Own the identity governance strategy, operating model, and control standards; lead access certification, role lifecycle, and segregation-of-duties programs with clear accountability for control coverage, exception handling, and decision ownership.

• Develop the roadmap for SOX readiness and execute the plan to prepare the company for successful audit performance.

• Architect and deploy a comprehensive IAM technology platform to automate access orchestration, manage privileged access, establish appropriate guardrails for enterprise AI, monitor and manage machine identities, and own a robust IdP/MFA platform.

• Establish governance forums and escalation paths to resolve policy exceptions, toxic access combinations, and role-design conflicts.

• Chair the IT architecture review board, assessing technology design, cost, capabilities, and third-party risk management.

• Manage all public-cloud master accounts and subscriptions; monitor, assess, and optimize cost, least-privilege access, and access automation.

• Direct workflow, analytics, and reporting to surface access risk, measure control effectiveness, and prioritize remediation based on exposure.

• Manage risk exceptions and compensating controls when legacy systems, acquired businesses, or operational constraints prevent immediate compliance.

• Lead the evaluation and modernization of the identity governance platform, processes, and data quality to improve scalability, automation, and evidence integrity.

• Lead identity governance for M&A activities, managing environments where acquired technologies do not yet meet enterprise standards.

Job Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in information technology, with an emphasis on identity and access management, including 5+ years leading IAM teams at the manager, director, or higher level.

• Proven experience owning enterprise IAM strategy, including capital and operating budgets.

• Deep hands‑on expertise across all aspects of a comprehensive IAM program.

• Experience managing hybrid environments that span on-premises or colocation infrastructure and at least one major cloud platform, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.

• Deep knowledge of SOX compliance and a proven track record of building readiness programs that deliver successful outcomes.

• Experience with access automation, configuration management, and modern operations practices.

• Track record of building, leading, and retaining high‑performing technical teams.

• Legally authorized to work in the United States.