Senior Manager, Identity & Access Management – Global Operations

Vanguard; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health and wellness care

Work-life balance

Investment in future

Job summary

Vanguard in Charlotte, NC is seeking a Senior Manager, IAM Global Operations to lead the evolution of IAM services across its workforce. This role aims to transform IAM operations from manual execution to an automated, scalable model that upholds security and compliance.

The ideal candidate will partner closely with engineering and cybersecurity teams, foster high-performing global teams, and embed IAM seamlessly in enterprise workflows. This is a high-visibility role with a direct impact on business enablement at Vanguard.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in IAM, cybersecurity, or technology operations with leadership experience.
• Experience in automation-led operational transformation.
• Strong communication skills for complex operational concepts.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the global IAM operations strategy.
• Drive automation across IAM operational processes.
• Oversee incident and service management processes.

Skills

IAM operations expertise

Automation-driven transformation

Leadership and influence skills

Understanding of control frameworks

Education

8+ years in IAM or cybersecurity

Tools

API-driven operations

DevOps/SRE concepts

Job description

Identity & Access Management (IAM) is seeking a strategic operations leader to serve as Senior Manager, IAM Global Operations, responsible for shaping how IAM services are delivered at global scale across the Vanguard workforce. This role focuses on redefining IAM operations—moving from reactive, ticket driven execution to an automated, resilient, intelligence driven global operating model that strengthens security, compliance, and business enablement. Reporting to the Global Head of IAM Operations, this leader will own the end to end IAM operational ecosystem driving consistency, reliability, and continuous improvement. You will lead and develop high performing global teams, partner closely with engineering, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders, and help define the future of IAM operations at Vanguard. The ideal candidate is a strategic, outcome oriented leader who thrives in complex, highly regulated environments and brings a strong engineering and operational mindset to scaling automation and reducing friction. This role carries a dual mandate: ensuring IAM operations run smoothly, reliably, and compliantly day to day, while evolving the operating model for the future. Success looks like IAM operations where automation is the default, manual work is the exception, and services are predictable, measurable, and trusted at enterprise scale—delivering a simplified, reliable experience for our Vanguard workforce.

Our crew are our greatest resource – by joining our team you will build collaborative long‑term relationships and enjoy a suite of benefits that includes comprehensive health and wellness care, work‑life balance, and an investment in your future at its core.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Operating Model Transformation

• Define and execute the global IAM operations strategy and target operating model, aligned to Zero Trust principles and Vanguard’s enterprise risk posture.
• Transform IAM operations from manual and reactive to automated, predictive, and scalable, with clear SLAs, KPIs, and operational health metrics.
• Build and lead a globally distributed operations organization, fostering accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Serve as a visible IAM operations leader in executive, risk, and governance forums—articulating outcomes, risks, and operational maturity.

Operational Excellence & Automation

• Drive aggressive automation across IAM operational processes, including access provisioning, de‑provisioning, lifecycle events, certifications, and exception handling.
• Reduce operational friction and cycle times by eliminating toil, standardizing workflows, and integrating IAM into upstream and downstream technology platforms.
• Partner with IAM engineering teams to ensure operability is designed in, not bolted on—shifting left on reliability, monitoring, and remediation.
• Champion Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and ITSM best practices within IAM operations.

Global Delivery & Service Ownership

• Oversee incident, problem, change, and service management processes for IAM platforms and services ensuring high availability and resilience in partnership with engineering.
• Lead root cause analysis for operational issues and ensure systemic fixes—not workarounds.
• Drive consistency across regional teams while respecting local regulatory, audit, and business requirements.

Cross Functional‑Partnership

• Partner closely with cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, application, and business teams to embed IAM seamlessly into enterprise workflows.
• Collaborate with compliance, audit, and risk partners to ensure IAM operations meet regulatory and control expectations.
• Act as a key liaison between IAM strategy, engineering, and operations, ensuring execution matches intent.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• IAM or Operations Expertise
  • Experience operating IAM services at enterprise scale, including:
  • Identity lifecycle management
  • Access provisioning and certifications
  • Directory services and authentication platforms
  • Privileged and non‑privileged access operations
  • Understanding control frameworks, operational risk, and audit readiness.
• Automation & Modern Operations
  • Proven success driving automation‑led operational transformation in complex environments.
  • Familiarity with DevOps/SRE concepts, infrastructure as code, and API‑driven operations.
• Leadership & Influence
  • Demonstrated success leading multiregional‑teams, with strong coaching and talent development skills.
  • Ability to communicate complex operational concepts clearly to executives, engineers, and business partners.
  • Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence without authority.
• Preferred Qualifications
  • 8+ years in IAM, cybersecurity, technology or enterprise technology operations, with 4–6 years in leadership roles.
  • Track record of leading large‑scale operational or service transformation initiatives.

Why This Role Is Compelling

• Opportunity to define the future of IAM operations at Vanguard.
• High visibility role with direct impact on security, client trust, and business enablement.
• Ability to build something enduring—not just run what exists today.
• Work alongside senior leaders across cybersecurity and technology on mission critical‑ initiatives.

Special Factors

• Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.