Identity Access Program Manager

The Identity Fabric Program Manager will lead and be accountable for the end-to-end delivery of the Identity Fabric transformation, including vendor management and integration, migration from legacy systems, and implementation across a complex, hybrid IT landscape, within the regular business constraints of time, budget, and quality. The role requires coordination across security, architecture, procurement, and business stakeholders. This is a high-visibility, high-accountability role, operating with significant autonomy and direct engagement with senior leadership. The successful candidate will influence strategic direction, ensure delivery predictability, and drive measurable business outcomes — especially improved security posture and successful partner execution. Your responsibilities Program Leadership & End-to-End Delivery: - Own and lead the full lifecycle of a large-scale IT program: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/control, and closure. - Drive delivery of the Identity Fabric transformation, including: - Privileged Access Management (PAM): Migrate from the on-prem PAM system to CyberArk SaaS. Implement Just-In-Time (JIT) access with zero standing privileges across infrastructure, cloud, SaaS, and non-server environments. Transition PAM service support to an in-house team. - Identity Governance & Administration (IGA): Replace Nokia’s Identity Management System (NIMS, based on NetIQ) with a modern IGA platform. Automate role-based lifecycle management, entitlement governance, access certification, and user provisioning to 200+ applications. Manage the internal team’s transition from supporting NIMS to supporting IGA platform. - Access Management (AM): Extend Microsoft Entra ID as the enterprise-wide access layer — enforce password less, phishing-resistant authentication and risk-based adaptive access consistently across all M365 and connected workloads. - Identity Verification (IV): Deploy IV capabilities for contractor onboarding and selected employee use cases using Microsoft IDV partners. - Non-human identities: Establish governance controls for non-human identities (service accounts, RPA/automation identities, APIs, and AI agents). - Threat & analytics integration: Integrate the fabric with ITDR (Identity Threat Detection & Response) and Identity Analytics for continuous risk visibility and posture management. - Translate strategic objectives into a pragmatic execution roadmap with clear milestones, dependencies, and outcomes. - Ensure delivery within agreed scope, schedule, cost, and quality expectations. Large-Scale Transformation Execution: - Apply strong program governance and delivery discipline across complex, cross-functional environments. - Operate confidently with SAFe / Agile at scale, hybrid models, or Waterfall as needed to ensure execution success. - Establish and maintain an effective delivery rhythm, executive reporting, RAID management, and decision frameworks. - Lead through influence across architecture, security, infrastructure, end-user services, and business stakeholders. Executive Stakeholder Communication & Adoption: - Act as the primary program interface to executive stakeholders and senior governance forums. - Communicate complex topics with clarity using structured storytelling, decision-ready framing, and outcome-based reporting. - Drive stakeholder alignment on transformation roadmaps, investment decisions, trade-offs, and adoption strategy. - Ensure program benefits realization and business readiness through change/adoption planning. Financial, Vendor & Risk Management: - Own program financials (budgeting, forecasting, business case tracking), program resourcing, and vendor delivery performance. - Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks across delivery, security posture, vendor execution, and adoption. - Ensure effective collaboration and accountability with external partners, including SI delivery governance. Success Measures: - Migration milestones achieved on schedule (PAM, IGA, AM, IV workstreams) - Percentage of applications onboarded to IGA platform - PAM JIT / zero-standing-privilege coverage across in-scope environments - Password less, phishing-resistant authentication adoption across M365 and connected workloads - Audit and access-certification findings closed; improvement in security posture - Delivery within approved budget and partner/SI execution performance Your skills and experience - Strong understanding of Identity & Access Management domains, including Identity Governance (IGA), Privileged Access Management (PAM), Access Management (AM), and Identity Verification (IV). - Proven experience with large-scale identity transformations, including migration from legacy IAM systems to modern, integrated platforms. - Knowledge of non-human identity (NHI) and API-based access governance, including service accounts, RPA/automation identities, APIs, and emerging AI/agent access patterns. - Solid understanding of Zero Trust security principles and policy-based access control models. - Experience managing multi-vendor ecosystems, including system integrators and software providers, with strong commercial and delivery alignment capabilities. - Ability to lead complex, phased migrations with coexistence of legacy and target solutions. - Strong capability in program dependency management, especially where vendor decisions and procurement timelines define the critical path. - Experience aligning security, architecture, and delivery stakeholders to a unified operating model. - Ability to translate identity architecture and security controls into business outcomes (risk reduction, user productivity, compliance). Certifications / Methodologies: - SAFe certification (preferred / strong advantage) or equivalent. - PgMP, or equivalent program management certification (preferred / strong advantage). - Comfortable working across Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid delivery models. Nice-to-Have: - Experience working in telecom or large regulated environments. - Prior exposure to the Nokia IT landscape or comparable enterprise ecosystems. - Experience driving adoption, change management, and communications for security transformations. - Master’s degree or MBA an advantage, given the executive engagement and business-case ownership in this role.