Director, Customer Identity and Access Management

Job Description
Role Description

The Director, Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) and Data Access Governance(DAG) role is critical for the organization and their primary focus will be on securing customer data and streamlining access for millions of customers, ensuring regulatory compliance and enhancing the digital experience for our customers. They will be responsible for creating a strategy and roadmap for their portfolio of CIAM and DAG products/services and delivering on that roadmap. You will develop a team of skilled CIAM & DAG professionals, collaborate with stakeholders across the organization, drive adoption and deliver a secure, modern and efficient CIAM and DAG service.

Our Ideal candidate will have strong technical background and hands-on experience with CIAM and DAG technologies, strong leadership and collaboration skills. You have experience in designing and operating CIAM and DAG technologies as products/ecosystems with continuous service improvement mindset. You have not only led strategies/product roadmaps for such CIAM and DAG technologies but also championed adoption. You have a strategic perspective and operate as a senior leader that influences business and company strategy.

What You will do:

• Oversee the product/technology roadmaps, including solution architecture, design, and implementation of multiple CIAM and DAG products for e.g. Okta, Ping, Microsoft B2C, Forgerock, Varonis, Netwrix, etc.

• Lead a cross-functional team to design, build and operate solutions to meet business requirements.

• Collaborate with stakeholders in Privacy, Data Governance and Security to drive Data Standards, Data Access policies, procedures and drive initiatives to safeguard data from unauthorized access

• Ensure the security and privacy of customer data by implementation strong authentication and data access controls

• Ensure compliance with data protection regulations (e.g. GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, B-13, Law 25, etc.)

• Maintain a deep understanding of authentication protocols and act as Subject Matter Expert to stakeholders

• Drive innovation by promoting a culture of technology innovation and by rapidly prototyping new and emerging technologies

• Collaborate closely with multiple teams including vendors to deliver product/technology improvements and common reusable components

• Drive service/platform automation and engineering improvements that will accelerate delivery, increase quality, and reduce maintenance and change fail rates.

• Successfully define and implement operational engineering discipline

• Ensure service/platform instrumentation is in place for proactive monitoring, observability and responsive incident triage and resolution

• Implement and maintain platform automation and engineering best practices, standards, and guidelines

• Drive a high-performance culture for staff and promote positive culture change within the organization

• Build strong and trusted relationships with internal and external partners

• Manage risk and compliance in accordance with Canadian and Global standards. Ensure alignment/adherence to enterprise technology standards, vendor management standards, and risk standards.  

• Focus on continuous learning and professional development

• Drive an agile mindset within the team that measures progress over perfection

• Hold yourself and your team accountable to contribute to the overall digital modernization of the organization

• Ensure solutions are enhanced, secured, and upgraded to evolve the product roadmaps

• Ensure effective and efficient use of financial and people resources 

• Identify and invest in opportunities (processes, training, systems) to enhance individual and team effectiveness 

• Recruit, Develop and Retain top talent, ensuring team's continued growth and success

What you'll bring:

• Post-secondary degree/diploma in business or computer science or an equivalent combination of training and experience

• 10+ years experience in Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) and 4+ years experience in Data Security domains with at least 3+ years in leadership role

• Strong knowledge of CIAM principles, customer data security and regulatory requirements in the financial industry

• Solid background in engineering and operating CIAM and DAG solutions

• Solid experience with implementing capabilities to manage access to unstructured data in various Cloud providers such as Azure, AWS, GCP, O365 and on-prem fileshares

• Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with SSO/MFA, SAML, .OAuth, WS-FED, OIDC, Kerberos, LDAP, NTLM, FIDO, etc.

• Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with implementing Data discovery, data classification, data access certifications, data access policies/violations, DSPM capabilities in a complex organization

• In-depth knowledge of data governance frameworks, best practices, and industry standards.

• Strong understanding of data privacy and protection regulations.

• Experience with implementing data access processes and authorization frameworks to ensure appropriate access to sensitive and confidential data.

• Experience with conducting proactive regular assessments to identify and address data access vulnerabilities.

• Track record for leading IAM transformational initiatives in sophisticated environments

• Experience with providing tailored user experience for various Customer Personas, their corresponding customer journeys and Authentication/MFA flows.

• Experience with driving frictionless, omni-channel and secure digital experiences for customers

• Strong hands-on experience with implementing CIAM use cases around registration, enrollment, login, SSO/MFA, Authorization, Delegated Administration

• Knowledge and exposure to latest use cases around Digital fraud, adaptive MFA, authorization, identity proofing, passwordless authentication, etc.

• Strong presentation, communication and written skills and experience with interfacing with various committees, stakeholders and executives are required.

• Strong consulting skills and ability to create a win - win outcome.

• Experience with developing and implementing Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for IAM service offerings.

• Ability to adapt to a fast-moving technology landscape and keep pace with latest thinking and new technologies.

• Track record of building and effectively managing large and diverse teams and putting the appropriate processes and infrastructure in place to drive growth

• Demonstrate ability to formulate high level strategy, then convert it into a tactical plan and execute on that plan

• Proven experience as a business-focused, credible leader in a large fast growing technology company

• Drives results and changes processes to improve performance; creates a culture of accountability

• Has a bias to action

• Ability to use knowledge of industry, business, and systems to solve business problems

• Solid understanding of delivery enablement techniques such as automated testing and automated deployments

• Ability to pivot and quickly change direction in response to changing priorities

• Experience coaching and mentoring technical practitioners

• Strong communication, collaboration and relationship building skills

• Proven ability to develop and maintain collaborative business relationships

• Experience working in financial services industry will be an asset

• Relevant security certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, CISM, Cloud certifications, etc. will be an asset.

What will set you apart:

• You have a unique balance of technical and leadership skills with an entrepreneurial mindset

• Proven experience in engineering & operating above IAM technologies.

• Experience in product ownership, agile and Dev/Ops methodologies

• You demonstrate approachability, innovation and thought leadership

• You are a systems thinker, an effective communicator, and can find balance when to be tactical vs strategic

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