Senior Identity and Access Management (IAM) Manager

The Senior IAM Manager position is a hands-on operational leadership role that manages the Identity and Access Management function for the firm. The IAM Manager leads a team responsible for routine operations, engineering, and governance across provisioning, access reviews, single sign-on (SSO), directory services, multi-factor authentication (MFA), privileged access, and related integrations. This role interprets business issues and client needs, anticipates and identifies solutions that improve service and quality, and develops plans that align team priorities with operational objectives. This Senior IAM Manager manages the budget for the IAM area, allocates resources accordingly, and applies in-depth IAM expertise to improve effectiveness and provide guidance to employees. The role resolves operational problems that impact the effectiveness of the IAM function, drives continuous improvement, and promotes a cooperative environment by explaining complex topics in clear terms and obtaining agreement. The role includes managing performance through goal setting, ongoing assessment, and coaching to meet service-level objectives and business timelines.

Job Description

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Manage a team of IAM professionals focused on day-to-day operations and short-term objectives, including user lifecycle (joiner/mover/leaver), role and group management, access certifications, SSO integrations, MFA administration, and privileged access workflows.
• Translate business and client requirements into plans and team sprints; develop plans and coordinate resources to meet operational objectives, deadlines, and SLAs.
• Manage the budget for the IAM area; allocate resources accordingly; track team activities against cost, license consumption, and service objectives; create forecasts and identify optimization opportunities.
• Maintain and enforce IAM standards, policies, and runbooks; ensure consistent execution of defined processes and timely updates to configuration and process documentation.
• Resolve operational IAM problems and day-to-day incidents that impact the effectiveness of the IAM function using defined processes and tools; identify patterns and implement improvements; escalate non-routine or high-risk issues to senior leadership as appropriate.
• Partner with application owners, HR, IT operations, security operations, and compliance teams to anticipate and interpret client needs, clarify requirements, negotiate realistic timelines, and obtain agreement on IAM solutions and access controls to improve service and quality.
• Support engineering and automation of workflows (e.g., provisioning, deprovisioning, approvals, access requests) in collaboration with platform owners, applying best practices within the IAM toolset to improve effectiveness.
• Coordinate periodic access reviews and certifications with business owners; track remediation to closure and produce evidence for audits.
• Contribute to IAM metrics and reporting (service health, SLA attainment, access review status, onboarding throughput); communicate status, risks, and mitigation plans to stakeholders.
• Participate in change and project management processes; represent IAM in application onboarding, integration, and change reviews; ensure pre-production validation and post-change monitoring.
• Act as a first-line point of contact for incident response and SOC on IAM-related events; ensure timely triage, documentation, and communication; support root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Support compliance with internal controls and regulatory frameworks (e.g., SOX, SOC 2, ISO 27001, privacy obligations) by implementing control activities and liaising with auditors under guidance from senior leaders.
• Manage performance through goal setting, clear task assignments, expectations, ongoing assessment, and coaching; conduct regular 1:1s, support skill development, and contribute to performance assessments.
• Promote a collaborative, productive team culture by explaining complex or sensitive issues in accessible terms, facilitating agreement among stakeholders, and reinforcing accountability to commitments.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 5–8 years of experience in cybersecurity or IT, with at least 3–5 years dedicated to IAM across heterogeneous environments.
• 1–3 years of people leadership or team lead experience managing day-to-day work, prioritization, and coaching.
• In-depth, hands-on expertise with IAM platforms and workstreams (e.g., identity governance and administration, SSO/federation, MFA, directory services, privileged access management), and the ability to solve problems within this domain using defined processes and tools.
• Strong client service orientation with the ability to anticipate and interpret business requirements and access needs, identify solutions, and improve service and quality.
• Demonstrated ability to develop operational plans, coordinate resources, and meet deadlines and SLAs while managing the budget for own area and allocating resources accordingly.
• Effective communicator who can explain complex IAM topics to non-technical audiences, obtain agreement among stakeholders, and promote a cooperative environment.
• Proven experience executing access reviews, enforcing least-privilege, and maintaining evidence for audits and compliance requirements.
• Familiarity with common security and compliance frameworks (e.g., SOX, SOC 2, ISO 27001) and identity-related risk controls.
• Experience with change management, incident response processes, and service management (e.g., ITIL, ticketing systems) in a production environment.
• Practical scripting or automation experience (e.g., PowerShell, Python) and API-based integrations is a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in Information Security, Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent experience; relevant certifications (e.g., CIAM, CISSP, CISM, Microsoft/AWS identity) preferred.

Additional Job Description

Location(s)

Philadelphia

Time Type

Full time

Dechert LLP is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination. The Firm prohibits unlawful discrimination in any term or condition of employment against any employee or applicant for employment because of the individual’s race, color, creed, religion, sex, age, marital status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, membership or service in the armed forces, or any other characteristic protected by law.