Sr. Staff Identity & Access Management Engineer

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze®, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Early Warning follows a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

The Sr. Staff Identity & Access Management (IAM) Engineer serves as a technical expert responsible for advancing the architecture, engineering, integration, and reliability of enterprise identity and access management capabilities. This role anticipates complex identity and security challenges and develops scalable solutions that strengthen access controls, improve operational resilience, and enable secure access across the organization.

This position provides technical leadership across complex IAM initiatives, influences standards and engineering practices, and partners with Security, Architecture, Technology, Risk, and business stakeholders to ensure identity solutions align with security requirements and business needs. The Sr. Staff Engineer operates with a high degree of independence, leads technically complex initiatives, and provides guidance and mentorship to other engineers.

Essential Functions

• Lead the architecture, design, engineering, integration, and continuous improvement of enterprise IAM solutions across cloud and on-premises environments.
• Serve as a technical expert for identity governance and administration, authentication, authorization, privileged access, directory services, and identity lifecycle management.
• Anticipate identity, security, operational, and regulatory challenges and recommend scalable improvements to IAM platforms, processes, and controls.
• Lead complex IAM engineering initiatives involving multiple systems, applications, technology teams, and stakeholders, managing technical dependencies and risks through implementation.
• Define and evolve IAM engineering standards, patterns, and technical practices that support secure and consistent implementation across the organization.
• Evaluate IAM architecture, configurations, integrations, and controls and identify opportunities to strengthen security, resiliency, scalability, automation, and operational effectiveness.
• Design and enhance identity lifecycle processes, including provisioning, deprovisioning, access certification, role and entitlement management, and privileged access.
• Engineer and optimize integrations between IAM platforms and enterprise applications, directories, cloud platforms, HR systems, and other authoritative sources.
• Develop automation and reusable engineering patterns to improve IAM delivery, reduce manual processes, and strengthen control consistency.
• Partner with Enterprise Architects, Security Architects, application teams, and other technology stakeholders to drive adoption of IAM standards and secure design practices.
• Provide technical leadership in troubleshooting highly complex IAM platform, integration, authentication, and access issues; lead root cause analysis and implementation of sustainable corrective actions.
• Provide technical expertise for security assessments, audits, control reviews, vulnerability management, and remediation activities involving IAM technologies.
• Evaluate emerging identity technologies, industry practices, and security capabilities and recommend adoption where they provide meaningful security, operational, or business value.
• Influence technical decisions across teams by communicating complex IAM concepts, risks, alternatives, and recommendations to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to engineers, promoting consistent engineering practices and developing IAM capabilities across the team.
• Maintain appropriate architecture, configuration, operational, and engineering documentation for IAM platforms and solutions.
• Participate in production support and escalation activities, including an on-call rotation as required.
• Support the company’s commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Typically has 12 years of experience or demonstrated portfolio consistent with experience required of the role, including significant experience engineering enterprise identity and access management solutions.
• Advanced expertise in IAM concepts and technologies, including identity lifecycle management, authentication, authorization, identity governance, privileged access, directory services, least-privilege access, and role-based access.
• Demonstrated experience designing, integrating, and supporting IAM solutions in complex enterprise cloud and/or on-premises environments.
• Experience leading technically complex IAM initiatives involving multiple applications, platforms, teams, or business functions.
• Strong understanding of modern authentication, federation, and provisioning technologies and protocols, such as SAML, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SCIM, and related standards.
• Experience with enterprise directory and identity services such as Active Directory and cloud-based identity platforms.
• Experience integrating IAM solutions with enterprise applications and authoritative data sources through APIs, connectors, scripting, or other integration technologies.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and solve complex technical problems requiring analysis across multiple systems, technologies, and sources of information.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical decisions, establish engineering practices, and communicate complex technical concepts to stakeholders across functions.
• Experience providing technical leadership, coaching, or mentorship to other engineers.
• Ability to work independently and provide technical direction in complex or ambiguous situations.
• Strong written and verbal communication, collaboration, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with enterprise Identity Governance and Administration platforms such as Saviynt, SailPoint, or comparable technologies.
• Experience with enterprise identity providers and authentication platforms such as Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, or comparable technologies.
• Experience with Privileged Access Management and Public Key Infrastructure technologies.
• Experience engineering identity solutions across AWS, Azure, or other cloud environments.
• Experience with automation and scripting technologies such as PowerShell, Python, or comparable languages.
• Experience working with REST APIs, JSON, XML, SQL, or related integration technologies.
• Experience implementing IAM capabilities within a highly regulated environment.
• Relevant IAM, cloud, or information security certifications.

The base pay scale for this position in:

Phoenix, AZ/ Chicago, IL in USD per year is: $160,000 - $200,000.

Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness

• Healthcare Coverage - Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.

• 401(k) Retirement Plan - Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.

• Paid Time Off - Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.

• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave

• Maven Family Planning - provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO muchmore! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team canshare more during the interview process!

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.

Early Warning Services LLC is a proud participant in E-Verify, a federal program to help ensure a legal and authorized workforce. As part of our hiring process, we electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires through E-Verify. For more information on your rights and responsibilities under E-Verify please visit Home | E-Verify.