Active Directory Specialist in Reading

Work Model: Hybrid – 2 days per week in office

Contract Duration: 12 Months

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and drive Active Directory security remediation activities across complex enterprise environments.
• Perform Active Directory administration and governance at Domain Admin and Enterprise Admin levels.
• Identify, assess, prioritise, and remediate identity-related vulnerabilities, security misconfigurations, and privilege escalation risks.
• Review, harden, and secure Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS), authentication mechanisms, and delegation models.
• Manage and govern privileged access controls, service accounts, administrative groups, permissions, and access pathways.
• Coordinate remediation activities across infrastructure, security, server, database, application, and support teams.
• Plan, execute, and govern production changes while ensuring effective change, risk, and operational management processes are followed.
• Produce detailed technical documentation, remediation evidence, governance reports, and executive-level status updates.
• Support enterprise initiatives focused on identity security improvement, cyber resilience, compliance, and security governance.
• Conduct root-cause investigations and provide recommendations for resolving complex identity, authentication, and access management issues.
• Provide escalation and remediation support during agreed out-of-hours periods where required.

Required Skills

• Proven hands-on experience administering and securing Active Directory within large-scale enterprise environments.
• Strong expertise in Active Directory security remediation, security hardening, and privilege reduction programmes.
• Deep understanding of Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) and certificate-based authentication security.
• Strong knowledge of Kerberos authentication, delegation models, SPNs, and service account security.
• Experience reviewing and remediating AD permissions, ACLs, privileged groups, and administrative access paths.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Identity & Access Management (IAM) technologies and security principles.
• Experience with Privileged Access Management (PAM) and least-privilege security models.
• Experience delivering security remediation activities within live production environments, including change and risk management.
• Experience producing remediation plans, technical reports, governance documentation, and executive updates.
• Experience with Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and hybrid identity environments.
• Knowledge of CyberArk, BeyondTrust, Delinea, or other PAM platforms.
• Exposure to Microsoft Defender for Identity and identity threat detection technologies.
• Experience implementing Tiered Administration, ESAE (Red Forest), or similar privileged access security models.
• Understanding of Microsoft Security Baselines, CIS Controls, and Active Directory security best practices.
• Experience using tools such as PingCastle, BloodHound, Purple Knight, or similar Active Directory security assessment solutions.
• Experience supporting large-scale security transformation or remediation programmes.
• Knowledge of SQL Server security, authentication, and privileged access governance.
• Relevant certifications including: - Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate, Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate, CISSP, CISM, Or equivalent security certifications.
• Experience working within regulated environments with strong governance, audit, compliance, and risk management requirements.