Senior Active Directory Specialist (Architect)

Network Contracting; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading IT service provider in Johannesburg is seeking a Senior Active Directory Specialist for a 6-month contract. This role involves designing the Active Directory environment, developing IAM policies, and ensuring security best practices. The ideal candidate has over 10 years of experience in AD management, a Bachelor's degree in IT, and skills in PowerShell and Azure AD.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience managing and administering Active Directory in enterprise environments.
• Experience with Azure AD, ADFS, and identity federation.
• Strong understanding of AD security hardening, MFA, PKI, and LDAP.

Responsibilities

• Design the AD infrastructure, including domain controllers, DNS, DHCP, and Group Policy.
• Develop IAM policies, procedures, and controls.
• Maintain detailed documentation of AD architecture, policies, and procedures.

Skills

Active Directory Management

Windows Server

DNS Management

Group Policy Administration

PowerShell Scripting

Troubleshooting

Analytical Skills

Communication Skills

Education

Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field

Tools

PowerShell

IAM tools (Okta, CyberArk)

Azure AD

ADFS

Job description

Job Description

The Senior Active Directory Specialist is responsible for the Global design of the OT Active Directory (AD) environment for a 6 months contract period, ensuring optimal performance, security, and availability. This role plays a critical part in designing appropriate identity and access, enforcing security best practices, and supporting enterprise-wide authentication and directory services.

Key Responsibilities

Active Directory Administration

• Design the AD infrastructure, including domain controllers, DNS, DHCP, and Group Policy
• Suggest processes to Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize AD to ensure stability and performance

Identity & Access Management (IAM)

• Develop IAM policies, procedures, and controls
• Design mechanisms and suggest procedures for user provisioning, de-provisioning, and access control in alignment with security policies (Design)

Security & Compliance

• Design AD security best practices, inline with current practices including MFA, security baselines, and privileged access management
• Suggest processes to conduct security audits, patching, and vulnerability assessments.

Disaster Recovery & Backup

• Design AD disaster recovery and business continuity plans
• Design backup and recovery tests to ensure data integrity and availability

Scripting & Automation

• Suggest PowerShell scripts to automate AD tasks such as account management and reporting
• Suggest automated monitoring and alerting solutions for AD performance and security

Collaboration & Support

• Work with IT teams to plan integration of AD with cloud services (e.g., Azure AD, Office 365)
• Provide expert-level support for AD-related incidents and service requests

Documentation & Reporting

• Maintain detailed documentation of AD architecture, policies, and procedures

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field
• 10+ years of experience managing and administering Active Directory in enterprise environments
• Expertise in Windows Server, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, and PowerShell scripting
• Experience with Azure AD, ADFS, and identity federation
• Strong understanding of AD security hardening, MFA, PKI, and LDAP
• Familiarity with IAM tools such as Okta, CyberArk, or similar
• Excellent troubleshooting, analytical, and communication skills

Preferred Certifications

• Microsoft Certified : Identity and Access Administrator Associate
• Microsoft Certified : Server Infrastructure (Must Have)
• Microsoft Certified : Cloud Platform and Infrastructure (Must Have)
• Microsoft Certified : Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate
• CompTIA Security+ or CISSP (Advantageous)
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals or Azure Administrator Associate