Senior Identity Security Architect

• This is a senior, design-authority role on the Build / Engineering team.
• Resource will define the target-state architecture for our privileged access, access management, directory, cloud identity, and identity governance platforms; set the standards and patterns the engineering teams build against; and guide deployment and migration across large, complex initiatives.
• Resource will operate with significant autonomy, influence technical direction across multiple work streams, and serve as the senior technical voice connecting strategy to delivery.
• This engagement is ideal for a seasoned identity architect who has led enterprise-scale identity modernization end to end from target-state design through production deployment.

• Define and own the target-state architecture and reference designs for the identity security platform across Beyond Trust (Password Safe, EPM, PRA), Microsoft Entra , Active Directory, and SailPoint IDN.
• Lead the architecture and deployment strategy for large-scale identity security modernization initiatives — privileged access transformation, identity governance modernization, cloud identity adoption, Active Directory and hybrid-identity modernization, and Zero Trust identity patterns.
• Establish architecture standards, design patterns, integration blueprints, and guardrails that the build/engineering teams implement against and serve as design authority through architecture and design reviews.
• Develop migration and deployment strategies — sequencing, cutover, rollback, and risk mitigation — for moving large user and system populations onto modern identity platforms with minimal disruption.
• Architect integrations across identity platforms, cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP), and enterprise/SaaS applications using APIs, federation, and provisioning standards (SAML, OAuth2/OIDC, SCIM, Kerberos, LDAP).
• Drive phishing-resistant authentication and least-privilege/PAM architecture across the enterprise.
• Partner with engineering leads, security architecture, platform/cloud teams, product, and program management to translate architecture into delivery roadmaps and executable work streams.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to build engineers; review designs and key implementations to ensure alignment to architecture and security requirements.
• Identify and document architectural risks, dependencies, and trade-offs; present recommendations and decisions to engineering and leadership audiences.
• Contribute to the security posture and control objectives of the modernization program, ensuring designs meet Nordstrom security, compliance, and data-handling requirements.
• Leverage AI tooling to accelerate architecture analysis, design documentation, and solution evaluation.

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, or equivalent education and experience.
• 15+ years of security or identity engineering experience, including significant experience as an identity/security architect on enterprise-scale environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale identity security modernization or transformation programs end to end

from target-state architecture through production deployment.

• Deep architecture-level expertise across two or more of the following, with strong working knowledge of the rest:
  Beyond Trust, Microsoft Entra , Active Directory, Okta, and SailPoint.
• Strong command of identity architecture fundamentals: authentication/authorization protocols (SAML, OAuth2/OIDC, SCIM, Kerberos, LDAP), federation, MFA and phishing-resistant authentication, RBAC/ABAC, least privilege, tiered administration, and Zero Trust identity.
• Proven experience designing integrations and migrations across hybrid and multi-cloud environments at scale.
• E…