Senior Manager of Identity Access Management (IAM)

Optimize Search Group; Plano (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Optimize Search Group is seeking a Sr. Manager, Identity & Access Management (IAM) in Plano, TX. This contract-to-hire role leads the enterprise IAM program, including identity governance, access controls, and non-human identities.

You will partner with IT, HR, audits, and application owners to design scalable identity governance across workforce, cloud, and AI environments. The role emphasizes RBAC/ABAC modeling, privileged access management, and implementing standards for MFA, SSO, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• 7+ years in cybersecurity, identity or infrastructure security with 2+ years in IAM leadership.
• Experience maturing an enterprise IAM program.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the enterprise IAM strategy, roadmap and control framework.
• Mature IGA: identity lifecycle, access provisioning, entitlement governance and RBAC/ABAC modeling.
• Implement and govern Joiner/Mover/Leaver (JML) processes with HR and IT.
• Establish privileged access governance and least-privilege controls.
• Develop NHI security program covering service/app identities, secrets and workloads.
• Define authentication/authorization standards (MFA, SSO, federation).
• Drive IAM tech adoption across cloud, SaaS, on-prem, and apps.
• Onboard applications to centralized identity services and lifecycle management.
• Develop IAM metrics and KRIs to show risk reduction and program maturity.

Skills

Cybersecurity

Identity security

IAM leadership

SSO

MFA

Federation

Least privilege

NHI governance

PAM

AI identity governance

SAML/OIDC

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

SailPoint

Saviynt

Delinea

CyberArk

Job description

Job Title: Sr. Manager, Identity & Access Management (IAM)

Duration: Contract to Hire

Position Summary

The Sr. Manager Identity & Access Management (IAM), will lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of an enterprise Identity and Access Management program while helping drive the strategic and technical direction of the organization's cybersecurity program.

This is a hands-on technical management role responsible for establishing identity governance, access controls, privileged access, and identity security capabilities across the enterprise.

The role will lead the continued evolution of the identity program to address traditional workforce identities as well as non-human identities (NHI), service accounts, applications, APIs, automation, workloads, and AI agents.

The Sr. Manager will partner closely with Digital/IT, Infrastructure, Human Resources, application owners, Internal Audit, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to establish scalable identity governance and controls throughout the identity lifecycle.

This position will report to the Director of Cybersecurity and serve as a key member of the organization's cybersecurity leadership team.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the enterprise Identity and Access Management strategy, roadmap, standards, and control framework aligned with business and cybersecurity objectives.
• Build and mature the Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) program, including identity lifecycle management, access provisioning and deprovisioning, access certification, role management, entitlement governance, and segregation of duties.
• Establish and continuously improve Joiner, Mover, and Leaver (JML) processes in partnership with HR, IT, application owners, and business stakeholders.
• Develop Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and, where appropriate, Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) models to reduce excessive access and improve authorization consistency across enterprise systems.
• Establish governance for privileged access and partner with infrastructure, application, cloud, and security teams to ensure administrative and elevated access follows least-privilege, just-in-time access, approval, monitoring, and credential-protection requirements.
• Develop and implement a Non-Human Identity (NHI) security program covering service accounts, application identities, API credentials, certificates, secrets, automation accounts, workloads, and machine-to-machine identities.
• Establish lifecycle controls for NHIs, including ownership, inventory, provisioning, authentication, credential and secret management, rotation, monitoring, periodic certification, and decommissioning.
• Develop identity security controls supporting the organization's use and development of Artificial Intelligence, including governance of AI agents, service identities, machine identities, API access, delegated permissions, and agent-to-agent or agent-to-system interactions.
• Partner with AI governance, architecture, engineering, and application teams to ensure AI agents and autonomous systems operate under uniquely attributable identities with appropriately scoped permissions and defined human or business ownership.
• Establish controls designed to prevent AI systems and agents from obtaining excessive or persistent access to enterprise data, applications, infrastructure, and business processes.
• Define authentication and authorization standards across workforce, cloud, SaaS, applications, APIs, and AI environments, including requirements for phishing-resistant MFA, passwordless authentication, conditional access, federation, and Single Sign-On (SSO).
• Drive adoption and optimization of enterprise identity technologies and ensure IAM capabilities are appropriately integrated with cloud, SaaS, on-premises, and business applications.
• Partner with application and business owners to onboard applications into centralized identity services, SSO, lifecycle management, access governance, and periodic access certification.
• Establish and maintain enterprise standards for least privilege, access reviews, privileged access, service accounts, authentication, authorization, and identity lifecycle management.
• Develop identity security metrics and Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) demonstrating program maturity and risk reduction, including orphaned accounts, excessive privileges, privileged account coverage, access review completion, stale identities, NHI ownership, and identity lifecycle performance.
• Identify identity-related risks and control gaps and develop prioritized remediation plans in partnership with technology and business stakeholders.
• Support cybersecurity investigations and incident response involving compromised accounts, privileged identities, authentication events, service accounts, or other identity-related threats.
• Partner with Governance, Risk & Compliance and Internal Audit teams to provide evidence and demonstrate the effectiveness of identity controls supporting regulatory, audit, and compliance requirements.
• Manage IAM technology vendors and service providers, ensuring appropriate performance, security, integration, and alignment with the organization's IAM roadmap.
• Build a sustainable IAM operating model, including processes, governance, documentation, technology, and resource requirements necessary to mature the program.

Required Skills & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 7+ years of cybersecurity, identity, or infrastructure security experience, including at least 2 years leading an IAM, identity security, or related function.
• Demonstrated experience building or significantly maturing an enterprise IAM program.
• Strong experience with Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), including identity lifecycle management, access certification, entitlement governance, and role-based access controls.
• Experience implementing or managing enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), federation, conditional access, and modern authentication technologies.
• Working knowledge of privileged access management and least-privilege principles.
• Experience governing service accounts, application identities, secrets, certificates, APIs, or other non-human identities.
• Strong understanding of identity protocols and standards, including SAML, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SCIM, and related authentication and authorization technologies.
• Strong understanding of identity security across cloud, SaaS, and hybrid enterprise environments.
• Excellent program management, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to translate identity risk into business requirements.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience designing or implementing security controls for AI platforms, AI agents, autonomous systems, or machine identities.
• Experience with Microsoft Entra ID/Azure AD, including Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), and enterprise application integration.
• Experience with enterprise IGA and PAM platforms such as SailPoint, Saviynt, Delinea, CyberArk, or similar technologies.
• Experience developing NHI or machine identity governance programs, including secrets management and workload identity.
• Familiarity with identity security requirements in Operational Technology (OT/ICS) environments.
• Experience integrating IAM capabilities following mergers and acquisitions or across decentralized/global organizations.
• Experience with Zero Trust architecture and identity-centric security models.
• Certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CCSP, or vendor-specific identity certifications.
• Experience with NIST CSF, NIST SP 800-63, Zero Trust principles, and relevant identity and access management control frameworks.