Director of Identity & Access Management (IAM)

Information and Technology Services (ITS) at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is seeking a dynamic leader to join the ITS Support Services team.

The Director of Identity & Access Management (IAM) provides strategic and operational leadership for the University’s enterprise identity services. Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Support Services and Emerging Technology, this role directs how people and systems are authenticated and authorized across University services, ensuring security, reliability and a frictionless customer experience.

The Director leads a team of approximately 25 staff members, overseeing IAM as a 24x7 campus utility. This includes single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), identity lifecycle management, and the integration standards that enable applications to consume identity safely at scale.

Responsibilities*

1. Strategic Leadership & Vision

• Visionary Strategy: Create and communicate a secure IAM roadmap that supports academic and research goals while leveraging leading-edge technologies.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Build influential relationships with staff, faculty, and IT leaders to execute strategic priorities and reduce institutional risk.
• Innovation & Governance: Evaluate industry trends (automation, password less, etc.) to simplify the IAM environment. Represent the University on committees and with peer institutions to shape the future of identity in higher education.

1. Operational Excellence & Project Delivery

• Portfolio Oversight: Accountable for all planned initiatives and ongoing service improvements. Assume full responsibility for the performance and reliability of enterprise-wide IAM applications.
• Resource & Budget Management: Manage the IAM budget and develop staffing plans to ensure financial and operational objectives are met.
• Metrics & Quality: Establish rigorous parameters for monitoring work quality and performance metrics to proactively resolve systemic issues.
• Change Management: Lead large-scale organizational change, determining institutional readiness and developing enterprise-wide communication plans.

1. IAM Architecture, Lifecycle, and Provisioning

• Identity Architecture & Lifecycle: Lead end-to-end lifecycle design in partnership with authoritative sources (e.g., HR, student systems, sponsored affiliates) to ensure timely, accurate provisioning and deprovisioning.
• Access Enablement & Operations: Provide scalable patterns for access requests and approvals, group/entitlement management, and delegated administration so applications can adopt IAM consistently.
• Non-Human Identity: Establish practices for service accounts, API/workload identities, and secrets management.

1. People Leadership & Culture

• Team Leadership: Hire, coach, and retain a high-performing, diversely skilled team; set clear expectations and foster a culture of ownership and customer focus.
• Performance Management: Establish goals tied to measurable service outcomes and support individual growth and succession planning.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with security, infrastructure, and distributed IT teams to deliver unified outcomes.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in a related field (or equivalent combination of education and experience).
• IAM Experience: Minimum of 8 years of experience in enterprise-level IT, with a proven track record of successfully delivering identity solutions at scale utilizing industry-leading platforms (e.g., SailPoint, Microsoft Entra, Okta, etc.).
• Leadership: Minimum of 5 years successfully managing a diversely skilled team with a focus on strategic planning, resource scheduling, and supervisory responsibility.
• Technical Proficiency: * Demonstrated knowledge of modern identity protocols (e.g., OIDC, SAML, FIDO2) and complex application architectures.
• Familiarity with software development lifecycles (Agile/Iterative) and release management as they pertain to overseeing technical deployments.
• Communication: Exceptional ability to communicate technical strategy to non-technical audiences and influence senior-level management.

Modes of Work

Positions that are eligible for hybrid or mobile/remote work mode are at the discretion of the hiring department. Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the ., * Advancing the Mission: Navigates formal and informal structures to improve collaboration across University groups.

• Creative Problem Solving: Uses analysis and input from others to solve complex problems and assess long-term consequences.
• Flexibility & Adaptability: Proactively proposes change approaches while providing a stabilizing influence during transitions.

Competitive salary available based on qualifications, experience and education of the selected candidate.

ITS empowers U-M faculty, researchers, staff, and students through innovative technology solutions that support teaching, learning, research, and work. We are committed to delivering cohesive digital experiences and enabling university-wide transformation by:

• Elevating the customer experience through proactive, responsive, and high-quality service
• Ensuring IT security and privacy while fostering innovation in an open academic environment
• Enabling data-informed decision-making across the institution
• Delivering intuitive and scalable research computing solutions
• Building a world-class, reliable, and forward-looking technology infrastructure

We value professionals who are proactive, adaptable, and collaborative individuals who can navigate ambiguity, move with urgency, and contribute to both team success and long-term strategic initiatives.