Lead Identity Specialist in Sheffield

We are seeking an experienced Lead Identity Specialist to drive the design, deployment and governance of Microsoft Entra solutions across the enterprise. This role combines deep technical expertise with strategic consulting skills. The Lead will act as the subject matter expert for Microsoft Entra, Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM), Privileged Identity Management (PIM) and Microsoft Defender for Identity or similar tools while managing Application Owners, Business stakeholders, Security Architects and guiding application security and infrastructure teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead enterprise-wide architecture and deployment of Microsoft Entra including Entra ID, Conditional Access, Identity Protection, PIM, CIEM and Governance.
• Manage and mentor Technical Account Managers (TAMs) ensuring service excellence and alignment with IAM strategy.
• Act as SME and consultant for application infrastructure and security teams integrating with Entra ID and related IAM services.
• Define and execute IAM strategy in alignment with Zero Trust security principles.
• Provide consulting-level guidance on IAM adoption, migration from legacy platforms and application onboarding.
• Define, integrate and drive proactive use of Identity threat detection capability for threat detection and identity-based risk management.
• Partner with security leadership to ensure compliance with audit, regulatory and governance requirements.
• Serve as enterprise escalation point for Entra identity-related issues and lead root cause analysis for critical incidents.
• Establish technical standards, governance policies and best practices for Entra and multi-cloud IAM usage (AWS IAM, GCP IAM).
• Collaborate with Microsoft engineering/product teams and provide roadmap feedback.
• Mentor Level 3 engineers ensuring knowledge growth across the IAM function.
• Liase with infrastructure, O365 and SOC teams to ensure security of Entra and fine-tune configurations.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Expert knowledge of Microsoft Entra architecture and deployments including Identity Protection, Conditional Access, PIM, CIEM and Governance.
• Strong experience with hybrid identity, on-prem Active Directory, AD FS, Azure AD Connect.
• Proficiency with Identity threat detection tools and integration with broader security ecosystems.
• Deep understanding of authentication protocols (SAML, OAuth, OpenID Connect, Kerberos, LDAP).
• Familiarity with AWS IAM and GCP IAM as part of multi-cloud IAM strategy.
• Proven ability to translate technical capabilities into business-focused IAM strategies.
• Strong understanding of B2B and B2C and experience creating patterns and implementation across large organisations.
• Very strong hands-on experience in managing workload and non-human identities automation in a hybrid environment.
• Strong knowledge and experience in performing security assessments and configuration reviews for Entra.
• Demonstrated leadership in managing technical teams (TAMs, senior engineers).
• Strong consulting, stakeholder engagement and cross-functional communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Microsoft certifications (SC100, SC300, AZ500) or equivalent.
• 12 years of IAM experience including large-scale deployments and enterprise consulting.
• Experience with IAM modernization and migration from legacy identity platforms.
• Prior experience presenting IAM strategy and architecture to senior leadership.