Principal Engineer - IAM Directory Services

This role will provide you the opportunity to lead key activities to progress your career. These responsibilities include some of the following:

• Lead assigned workstreams from definition through delivery.
• Act as subject matter expert for the capability and advise stakeholders across GSK.
• Mentor colleagues and review their technical or analytical work.
• Own the technical design and build of assigned components end to end.
• Work with business partners across IT and OT to advise on secure integration practices, embedding zero standing privileges as the guiding ethos through least-privilege access, just-in-time elevation and the removal of persistent, privileged access wherever practicable.
• Set engineering standards for the team and review code and configuration against them.
• Develop and maintain secure applications, services and automation using C#, .NET, PowerShell and APIs, applying software engineering, testing, source-control and deployment standards.
• Own the design, health and security of GSK's directory estate across Active Directory and Entra ID.
• Manage directory synchronisation, identity data flow and attribute consistency across the estate.
• Design, engineer and support Linux authentication and privileged access, including identity mapping, policy enforcement and troubleshooting.
• Harden the directory estate, including tiering, privileged group control and legacy protocol reduction.
• Own the governance of directory delegation rights, including detailed analysis of effective permissions, detection of excessive or unintended access, clear reporting, risk-based remediation and validation that changes have achieved the intended control outcome.
• Manage domain, forest and tenant architecture, including trusts and migration activity.
• Operate directory monitoring, backup and recovery, and prove recovery works.
• Support directory-related incident response and forensics.
• Maintain directory standards, schema governance and integration patterns.

• Degree in a relevant discipline, or related experience.
• Demonstrated experience in Active Directory and Entra ID engineering.
• Practical experience integrating Linux platforms with enterprise directory services through Centrify or an equivalent Linux authentication product.
• Working knowledge of directory synchronisation and identity data management.
• Application development and automation experience using C#, .NET, PowerShell and APIs.
• Experience with source code lifecycle management solutions such as Git.
• Practical experience with directory hardening and recovery. Experience with AD tiering, privileged access hardening and legacy protocol reduction.
• Detailed understanding of directory delegation models, access control entries, inheritance and effective permissions, with experience producing permissions reports and remediating inappropriate or excessive delegated rights.
• Strong practical experience in the relevant cyber security domain.
• Proven experience leading workstreams and delivering high-quality outcomes.
• Ability to act as a subject matter expert and advise stakeholders confidently.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Deep hands-on experience with Centrify or comparable products for Linux authentication, authorisation and privileged access at enterprise scale.
• Experience designing delegated administration models and using directory permissions analysis to identify, prioritise, remediate and evidence control of excessive rights.
• Scripting skill in PowerShell.
• Strong C#/.NET engineering capability and experience building maintainable automation, integrations, reporting solutions and operational tooling.
• Experience with directory migration or consolidation programmes.
• Relevant certification such as CISSP, SC-300, Microsoft identity and access certifications.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, life sciences or another highly regulated industry
• Typical tools and technologies include Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Entra Connect, LDAP, PowerShell, and directory monitoring and recovery tools.

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Skills

Account Lifecycle Management, Active Directory (AD), Active Directory Security, Authentication Server Software, Authentication Systems, Automation Technology, Certificate Management, Cloud Based Services, Computer Programming, Configuration Management (CM), Database Management, Directory Services, Identity Access Management (IAM), Identity Lifecycle Management, Information Technology (IT) Risk Management, Infrastructure Security, Microsoft Entra ID Security, Privileged Access Management (PAM), Security Controls, System Monitors, Technical Communication, Troubleshooting