Senior IAM Leader: Authentication & Directory Services in City of Westminster

An exciting opportunity is available to join this group for a senior experienced leader with a technical background in Identity & Access Management. They will lead the team and provide the technical capability to support the execution of critical IAM processes across MUFG. This will include platform operations, supporting and maintaining the overall service health, managing vendors and driving the product direct and strategic delivery. The team handles day‑to‑day management of all Identity & Access Management needs of the business. There will need to be close co‑ordination with the other teams including HR, IT Risk, Compliance and Infrastructure Teams. All technical documentation and platform standards must be kept up to date and technical direction, and strategy must be developed and enhanced as required.

Responsibilities

• Own and run end‑to‑end IAM operations to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable identity services across workforce and non‑human identities.
• Lead on IAM service delivery, automation and self‑service.
• Own day‑to‑day IAM operations across identity lifecycle (joiner‑mover‑leaver), access requests and access fulfillment workflows.
• Run ITSM‑aligned operations: incident, problem, change, request, and knowledge management with clear escalation paths and on‑call readiness.
• Own operational communications: status updates, planned maintenance notices, user‑impact messaging, and post‑incident reviews with measurable corrective actions.
• Oversee operational stability and administration for IAM platforms and dependencies (examples: SSO/MFA platforms, directories, IGA administration, ITSM workflows, HR source‑of‑truth, APIs/connectors).
• Lead audit and compliance execution for access controls: evidence collection, recertification operational execution, control testing support, remediation tracking, and sustained audit readiness.
• Establish an automation‑first operating model targeting removal of repetitive manual tasks and reduction of ticket volume across IAM workflows.
• Expand end‑user self‑service capabilities (request catalog, automated approvals, MFA recovery flows, identity and access status checks) to reduce Service Desk dependency.
• Implement a continuous improvement loop: analyze top ticket drivers, remove root causes, standardize processes, improve knowledge, and automate recurring issues.
• Own operational risk posture for IAM services including access outages, mis‑provisioning, privileged drift, toxic combinations and non‑human identity sprawl.
• Ensure strong monitoring, alerting, and telemetry for IAM services and integrations, and partner with SecOps where needed (SIEM, logging, anomaly detection).
• Drive reduction in repeat incidents through disciplined root cause analysis, prevention, and engineering partnership.
• Build strong partnerships across Security, Infrastructure, HR, application owners, and enterprise service management teams.

The successful candidate will be an experienced leader who can quickly familiarise themselves with the processes and procedures of the bank to support and oversee day‑to‑day platform and operational management. They will provide the team with coaching and mentoring on best practice in IAM and articulate complex technical matters in plain English to earn the support of senior management stakeholders and those technically less experienced. The role requires an excellent team player; a self‑starter with a motivation and desire to seek out & deliver improvements and a drive to build the team and promote future platform opportunities for approval and funding. Experience of managing personnel both onshore and offshore is essential. Candidates applying for this role must demonstrate senior leadership and management skills, with around 10 years of experience, and have in‑depth knowledge of Identity & Access Management through a recognised qualification or proven experience.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in IAM, security operations, or identity platform operations, with 5+ years leading teams and service delivery.
• Proven experience operating IAM services at enterprise scale (large user populations, many applications, multi‑region environments).
• Strong ITSM and operational management experience: incident/problem/change/request, SLAs/SLOs, metrics, and service health reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to manage third‑party SI partners and/or managed services with measurable outcomes (scorecards, SLAs, escalations, coverage models).
• Track record delivering automation and self‑service using workflows, APIs, and orchestration with tangible reductions in manual effort and ticket volume.
• Experience supporting audits and compliance requirements related to access controls (SOX, SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI, or similar), including evidence production and remediation.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, including leading major incidents and delivering executive‑level updates.
• High ownership and operational rigor with a strong bias for action and measurable outcomes.
• Structured problem‑solving and disciplined root‑cause analysis with prevention mindset.
• Clear communicator under pressure with strong executive presence.
• Ability to balance reliability, security, and user experience while driving standardisation.
• Talent builder who creates leaders and scales operating models globally.
• Strong prioritisation and roadmap discipline across run, improve, and transform workstreams.
• Experience implementing privileged access operational controls, including emergency access, time‑bound access, and privileged session support coordination.
• Experience operating in complex environments (multiple directories/tenants, M&A integrations, directory consolidation, app migrations).
• Familiarity with Zero Trust principles and identity‑centric security patterns.
• Experience applying AI agents or AI‑assisted support in IT or security operations with strong governance and auditability.
• A sound understanding of Identity and Access Management processes and controls including external audit and SOX requirements.
• Experience with critical production server support, application upgrades and project lifecycle/SDLC processes.
• Good knowledge of control frameworks such as NIST, CRI, DORA, SOX.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of Privileged Access Management principles, process and tools.
• Exposure to cloud identity patterns (AWS, Azure, GCP) and CI/CD access models.
• Financial Services experience a bonus.
• Experience with financial regulations, compliance and standards.
• Experience supporting a global organisation (10,000+ users).
• Advanced hands‑on experience with RSA Governance & Lifecycle.
• Identity Access Management on public cloud such as AWS, GCP, Azure.
• Network concepts and understanding of networking devices.

Education

• Educated to degree level.
• CISSP, CISM, or equivalent professional qualifications desirable.
• Proven experience with running and managing leading IAM platforms (Saviynt, Sailpoint, Entra ID, AD, etc.).
• Strong IAM domain knowledge: JML, authorisation, lifecycle management, RBAC/ABAC concepts, and access governance fundamentals.
• Strong understanding of Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), including RBAC and entitlement management.
• Experience with application onboarding and integration through AD/Entra, REST/SCIM, DB, SAP and other connector frameworks as well as disconnected application integration patterns for application access governance.
• Experience with integration into authoritative sources in HR and other, including Workday.
• Experience in creation of self‑service IAM forms, process automation and integration with ITSM tools such as ServiceNow.
• Experience with integration methodologies and tools (Informatica, Azure API Gateway, Mulesoft, etc.).
• Proficiency in database technologies (preferably Oracle), LDAP, Active Directory, and scripting languages such as SQL, Java, PowerShell, or Python.

Personal Requirements

• Excellent communication skills.
• Results driven, with a strong sense of accountability.
• A proactive, motivated approach.
• The ability to operate with urgency and prioritise work accordingly.
• Strong decision‑making skills, the ability to demonstrate sound judgement.
• A structured and logical approach to work.
• Strong problem‑solving skills.
• A creative and innovative approach to work.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• The ability to manage large workloads and tight deadlines.
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• A calm approach, with the ability to perform well in a pressurised environment.
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills.

Desirable

• A proactive, motivated approach, self‑managing.
• Going above and beyond core duties of the role.