Assistant Director (IAM)

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Assistant Director of IAM to lead and mature our Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) capabilities. You will work as a leader responsible for strategy, delivery, and operations of our enterprise IGA program—driving lifecycle automation (joiner/mover/leaver), access requests and certifications, role/entitlement management, Segregation of Duties (SoD), and application onboarding at scale. The ideal candidate combines hands-on expertise with IGA technologies (e.g., SailPoint IdentityIQ/IdentityNow, Saviynt) and proven leadership in building high-performing teams, influencing stakeholders, and delivering measurable business outcomes.

What You'll be doing

• Define and execute the multi-year IAM/IGA strategy aligned to business priorities, risk reduction, and regulatory compliance.
• Own the end-to-end IGA program: identity lifecycle management, access requests/approvals, birthright access, access certifications, SoD policy and mitigation, and role mining/modeling (RBAC/ABAC).
• Accountable for a full range of manager responsibilities including communication, coaching, mentoring and staff development, performance management, salary administration and staffing decisions.
• Participant in functional management to ensure optimum effectiveness and quality by managing adherence to strategies, goals, budgets, operating policies and procedures as an NM frontline manager. Alignment of roles and responsibilities in decision making.
• Accountable for translating the departmental strategy to IAM security operational objectives including both systems and processes. Drives for results through others to include:
• Integrating and designing measurement systems, targets and specific initiatives in support of the various strategies

What You'll Bring to the Role

• 6-8 years of professional experience
• Hands-on experience implementing and operating enterprise IGA platforms such as SailPoint IdentityIQ
• Proven delivery of automated lifecycle management, access requests/certifications, SoD, and role engineering at scale.
• Certification in security space desired (CISSP, CCSP, etc).
• Proven people management skills to include human relations and interpersonal skills necessary to manage a group of people.
• Proven ability to build effective teams committed to organizational goals;
• Ability to influence others through a combination of active listening, asserting own ideas and persuading others
• Proven analytical abilities especially in decision making and problem solving
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and the ability to handle ambiguity
• Proven ability to cultivate relationships and counsel key business partners within all levels of the organization
• Experience preferred with Agile methodologies/DevOps environment.
• Strong stakeholder management skills.

What Sets you Apart:

• Directing teams and individuals to ensure business outcomes are achieved
• Identifying and cultivating relationships with key stakeholders representing a broad range of functions and levels in order to ensure alignment with departmental and enterprise business strategies
• Accountable for an effective and efficient business unit designed and maintained to support the business outcomes. Responsible for the integration of:
• Organization/department design and structure
• Workforce management (forecasting, obtaining, developing and assigning the right resources)
• Effective and efficient internal work flow and processes
• Information and knowledge flows throughout the business unit and out to the organization through both formal and informal exchanges
• Accountable for providing guidance and escalation avenues for the business unit based on understanding the business values, goals, work processes and work flows
• Responsible for counsel to the enterprise on interpreting and integrating IAM to support departmental and corporate strategies
• Accountable for evaluation, review and approval of risk assessment and risk management strategies and processes in order to establish a foundation for appropriately managing systems and data risks.

#LI-Hybrid

Compensation Range:

Pay Range - Start:

$140,000.00

Pay Range - End:

$260,000.00

Geographic Specific Pay Structure:

Structure 110:

Structure 115:

We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.

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Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer who welcomes and encourages diversity in the workforce. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.