Description
Pfizer's Identity Security and Access Management (ISAM) organization designs, implements, and operates a centralized, modern, and scalable identity security ecosystem that protects digital assets, improves end-user experiences, and supports global regulatory requirements.
The Director, Authentication and Directory Services, provides global leadership, vision, and strategic direction for Pfizer's enterprise authentication and directory capabilities.
Role Responsibilities
- Strategy, Vision & Portfolio Ownership: Define and execute the global strategy and multi-year roadmap for Authentication and Directory Services.
- People & Organizational Leadership: Lead and develop a globally distributed organization of senior managers, managers, engineers, product owners, and partner resources.
- Service, Product & Financial Accountability: Own end-to-end service performance, demand, capacity, lifecycle, budget, vendor commitments, and value realization across the authentication and directory portfolio.
- Architecture, Standards & Modernization: Provide executive and technical governance for enterprise architecture, engineering standards, and reusable patterns across Active Directory, Entra ID and cloud directories, federation, single sign-on, multi-factor and passwordless authentication, identity synchronization, Group Policy, DNS dependencies, and hybrid identity.
- Cybersecurity, Risk & Compliance: Ensure authentication and directory controls align with Pfizer policies, applicable regulatory requirements, and recognized security practices.
- Operational Resilience & Incident Leadership: Ensure highly available global services with effective monitoring, disaster recovery, capacity management, service continuity, change governance, and 24x7 support.
- Transformation & Delivery: Direct complex global programs such as directory modernization, domain controller upgrades, cloud migration of authentication services, passwordless adoption, and simplification or retirement of custom platforms.
- Enterprise Partnership & Executive Communication: Partner with Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, End User Computing, Application Development, Manufacturing, Business Integration, Compliance, Audit, and business stakeholders.
- Vendor & Ecosystem Management: Set the strategy for technology partners and managed service providers, including Microsoft and Ping Identity.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, cybersecurity, engineering, or a related discipline.
- 8+ years of experience in identity and access management, cybersecurity, infrastructure, or enterprise technology, including substantial leadership responsibility for global authentication and/or directory services.
- Demonstrated experience leading people managers and multidisciplinary engineering and operations teams in a large, complex enterprise environment.
- Strong technical depth across enterprise directory and authentication technologies, including Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, LDAP/LDAPS, directory schema and replication, Group Policy, DNS, hybrid identity, SAML, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, federation, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and passwordless authentication.
- Experience owning strategy, architecture, engineering, operations, and reliability for business-critical identity services supporting more than 100k+ users and 4k+ global applications.
- Proven ability to lead modernization programs, manage technology and service providers, prioritize investments, and deliver measurable improvements in resilience, security, user experience, and cost.
- Experience directing major incident response, problem management, vulnerability remediation, disaster recovery, and operational risk reduction for high-availability services.
- Understanding of applicable security, privacy, and regulated-industry requirements, including Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), GxP, NIST-aligned controls, and global privacy obligations.
- Ability to communicate complex technical, security, financial, and operational issues to executive and non-technical stakeholders and to influence decisions across organizational boundaries.
- Willingness to remain technically engaged in critical architecture, risk, and incident decisions while leading primarily through managers and senior technical staff.
- Demonstrated experience in an agile work environment possessing qualities such as a collaborative mindset, adaptability to change, and a proactive problem-solving approach.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree in a relevant discipline.
- Leadership experience in the pharmaceutical, life sciences, or another highly regulated global industry.
- Deep experience with Microsoft AD/Entra, Ping Federate, Ping One, Keyfactor, and PKI platforms.
- Relevant security, identity, cloud, architecture, or service-management certifications.
- Experience modernizing legacy directory infrastructure and federation platforms.