Principal IAM Engineer

What's the role?

As a Principal IAM Engineer , you will be the senior technical authority for our identity services. This exciting position involves designing, implementing, and governing enterprise-wide IAM capabilities across workforce, partner, and customer identities. You’ll blend hands-on engineering with architecture and leadership, driving the modernization of authentication, authorization, identity lifecycle, and privileged access controls across our cloud and on-prem environments.

• Design Ownership: Lead the end-to-end technical design of IAM services, ensuring they are secure, scalable, and highly available.
• Integration Leadership: Spearhead IAM integrations for SaaS, on-prem, and AWS cloud platforms, including federation (SAML, OIDC, OAuth), MFA, and Passwordless capabilities.
• Issue Resolution: Serve as the primary escalation point for complex IAM engineering issues; perform root-cause analysis and drive long-term remediation.
• Collaboration: Partner with security architecture, infrastructure, application, and HR/IT teams to align IAM solutions with enterprise security strategy and business objectives.
• Standards Definition: Define IAM engineering standards, patterns, and reference architectures; guide engineers in implementing secure onboarding patterns.
• Modernization Initiatives: Lead efforts to modernize IAM practices and technologies.
• Audit Contributions: Assist in audits, risk assessments, and regulatory reviews by providing technical evidence and designing compensating controls.
• Mentorship: Mentor and coach IAM engineers and analysts, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

• 10+ years of experience in information security or infrastructure engineering, with at least 5 years of hands-on experience with core IAM platforms.
• Deep expertise with the majority of our IAM stack.
• Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Entra  Active Directory, and extensive experience implementing federation protocols (SAML, OIDC, OAuth2).
• Proven track record in designing and implementing IAM solutions in hybrid multi-cloud environments.
• Experience with secrets management solutions.
• Proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language (e.g., Power Shell, Python, Java).
• Excellent communication skills to translate complex technical concepts for diverse stakeholders.
• Exceptional sense of ownership and ability to work with limited requirements.
• Experience leading large-scale IAM programs and mentoring teams.
• Demonstrated ability to balance security, usability, and operational efficiency.

Pay Range:

Start: $

End: $

We believe in fairness and transparency. Final salaries are based on various factors, including skills, experience, and location. Geographic-specific pay structures may apply in certain areas.

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At Northwestern Mutual, we welcome and encourage diversity in our workforce. We are committed to creating an environment where every employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, and focus on exceeding business and personal objectives.

We’re excited about the potential you bring to Northwestern Mutual. Here, you can grow your career while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and a culture of belonging.

• Concierge service
• Employee resource groups