Senior Director for Identity and Access Management

About the Job

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a foundational enterprise service that enables secure, seamless access to the University's systems, data, and digital experiences. IAM is one of IT's most critical enterprise service domains, enabling access for students, faculty, staff, researchers, alumni, and affiliates across the University system. The Senior Director of Identity & Access Management serves as the primary Change Agent for the IAM program by providing strategic vision, architectural leadership, and organizational direction for the University's enterprise IAM ecosystem.

This leader plays a critical role in enabling secure access for more than 100,000 users, supporting academic and research missions, and advancing the University's cybersecurity posture. The Senior Director ensures that IAM services are modern, resilient, user‑centered, and aligned with the University's long‑term digital strategy.

This position leads a multi‑disciplinary organization responsible for a broad portfolio of IAM services, including identity governance, access provisioning, authentication, directory services, lifecycle automation, privileged access management, RBAC/ABAC, access certification, delegated administration, service account governance, and API access management. The Senior Director also oversees the strategy and architecture for core IAM systems such as Active Directory, LDAP, SAML/OIDC platforms, MFA/conditional access engines, SCIM provisioning connectors, identity governance platforms, privileged access platforms, directory synchronization tools.

This position reports to the Vice President & Chief Information Officer and serves as a member of the University's IT's Leadership Team.

Work Modality:
Hybrid; candidates must be located near a University of Minnesota campus, or be open to relocation.

Responsibilities:

Leadership & Management

* Provide vision and inspired leadership for the IAM directorate responsible for enterprise IAM services.

* Develop and coach the IAM team, proactively driving workforce planning and development to build high‑performing, inclusive teams capable of supporting complex IAM technologies now and into the future.

* Oversee and provide strategic leadership and direction to the management team on job design, staffing, and skills forecasting, ensuring cross-functional alignment and organizational readiness for future IAM needs.

* Create a climate that supports team effectiveness, employee engagement, and alignment with University IT goals.

* Foster an inclusive environment and meaningfully support the University's commitment to equity and diversity.

Strategy & Architecture

* Direct the short and long‑term strategy for enterprise IAM services, including ensuring alignment with University and IT strategic objectives.

* Build a collaborative strategy with key partnerships from Academic Support Resources (ASR), Office of Human Resources (OHR), and Health Information Privacy & Compliance Office (HIPCO).

* Lead the architectural direction for IAM systems such as [systems ex. Azure AD/Microsoft Entra, Active Directory, LDAP, SAML/OIDC platforms, MFA/conditional access engines, SCIM provisioning connectors, identity governance platforms, privileged access platforms].

* Maintain a strategically aligned IAM service portfolio; evaluate emerging technologies and propose analysis‑based recommendations.

* Anticipate the implications of strategic decisions on resources, security posture, and institutional risk.

* In partnership with the University's CISO, advance the University's security posture by ensuring identity governance, authentication, and access control processes are tightly aligned with institutional risk, information security policy and compliance requirements, and strategic priorities.

Enterprise Collaboration & Influence

* Exhibit a high degree of influence with senior management and other groups to gain support for long-term IAM visions in a highly matrixed environment.

* Cultivate strong partnerships with distributed IT units, enterprise system owners, and key business process owners to ensure IAM services support institutional needs.

* Lead cross‑functional governance and…