Director, NHI & AI Identity Engineering (Global Security)

Royal Bank of Canada•Toronto, ON

29d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of NHI & AI Identity Engineering leads the engineering and development of non-human identity (NHI) and AI identity capabilities across the Enterprise Identity and Access Management ecosystem. This role owns the engineering function and development environment for the capabilities that secure AI agents, service accounts, workloads, and other non-human consumers — managing how they authenticate, obtain secrets, and access resources across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments. Working in close partnership with the product owner, governance, Architecture, and support teams, this leader builds the identity foundation that makes enterprise AI and automation safe to adopt at scale. Non-human and AI identity is one of the fastest growing and most strategically critical identity domains. The volume of machine identities now far exceeds human identities, and the rise of AI agents introduces new classes of autonomous consumers that must be managed with the same rigor as people. This leader will build the engineering capabilities that bring AI and machine identity under enterprise control — delivering the platform, integrations, and automation that support the strategy set by the product owner and the controls defined by governance.

Requirements

10+ years in software/platform engineering, with 5+ years leading engineering teams; strong background in Identity and Access Management or adjacent security engineering domains
Hands-on engineering leadership experience with PAM, secrets management, or machine/workload identity platforms (CyberArk, HashiCorp Vault, SPIFFE/SPIRE, or equivalent)
Strong understanding of non-human identity concepts: service accounts, workload identity, ephemeral credentials, secret rotation, and attestation
Demonstrated experience with cloud-native identity patterns and workload identity at scale (Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GCP)
Demonstrated ability to manage, grow, and develop engineering teams composed primarily of senior individual contributors
Experience owning development environments and modern development lifecycle practices in an enterprise setting
Strong understanding of the banking/financial services regulatory landscape (FRB, Part 30, OSFI) and experience designing or operating identity platforms that meet regulatory and audit requirements
Proficiency in modern engineering practices: CI/CD, GitOps, Infrastructure-as-Code, automated testing
Proven ability to partner with product, governance, and operations functions in complex, matrixed environments

Nice To Haves

Background in cybersecurity, identity governance, or GRC
Experience securing AI / LLM workloads, agentic AI patterns, or MLOps pipelines
Knowledge of AI governance, model identity, and emerging standards for autonomous agent identity
Familiarity with Zero Trust Architecture and Just-In-Time Access models
Experience integrating identity controls with API gateways and policy engines
Track record of building and scaling an emerging identity engineering capability from early stage to enterprise adoption

Responsibilities

Own the engineering function and roadmap for Non-Human Identity (NHI) and AI identity capabilities, including the enterprise AI ID solution
Define engineering standards, architecture patterns, and development practices, drive excellence through automation, code quality, and observability for (NHI) and AI identity solution
Engineer core NHI and AI identity capabilities: registration, lifecycle, secrets management, access flows, credential issuance, and workload identity
Build integration patterns enabling AI agents and services to consume identity securely across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments
Drive integration with AI platforms, container platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and application teams
Build automation for onboarding, lifecycle management, and policy enforcement across the non-human identity estate
Establish reference patterns and accelerators that make secure non-human identity the default for enterprise teams
Support IAM framework implementation with monitoring, reporting, escalation, and security issue resolution
Partner with PAM, Authentication, Identity Data & Workflow, and Platform Enablement teams to ensure integrated identity capabilities
Support the governance team by engineering controls and capabilities to govern AI and machine identity, surface technical risks
Provide L3 escalation to operations and support teams
Partner with the product owner on strategy, roadmap prioritization, and vendor evaluations
Engage with Risk, Compliance, and Audit to ensure regulatory alignment
Recommend process improvements, cost-saving opportunities, and operational efficiency gains
Lead technical forums to foster team innovation
Build strong relationships with IAM managers, analysts, architects, sponsors, and technical staff
Represent NHI and AI identity engineering in leadership forums, architecture reviews, and executive updates
Communicate effectively—both written and oral—to all levels of Technology and Operations management
Lead a multi-disciplinary engineering team; manage span of control, career growth, and technical depth
Recruit, mentor, and develop high-performing talent with clear growth opportunities
Mentor senior engineers and emerging engineering leaders
Foster a culture that attracts, retains, and motivates diverse talent, drives performance excellence through feedback and reviews
Apply HR best practices to build capability and sustain high achievement
Model continuous self-development
Ensures that employees understand RBC vision; support and reinforce targeted behaviors that contribute to RBC goals
Provides focus and clarity in establishing individual goals, driving performance management, supporting career development, and rewarding strong performance
Leverages the value in unit, department, and enterprise-wide teams to develop better solutions and achieve a cross-enterprise mindset
Accepts and successfully executes change while supporting employees through the process and keeping them focused on business priorities
Monitors configuration and software delivery automation trends and best practices ensuring the unit’s strategies and execution are aligned appropriately