Principal Authentication Engineer (IAM) — Vice President

Morgan Stanley • New York, NY

74d • $150,000 - $210,000

About The Position

We’re seeking someone to join our Authentication Engineering (IAM) team as a Principal Authentication Engineer in Cybersecurity (Identity & Access Management) to design, integrate, and operate standards-based authentication at global scale across hybrid environments—enabling secure, seamless access for our workforce and platforms. In the Technology division, we leverage innovation to build the connections and capabilities that power our Firm, enabling our clients and colleagues to redefine markets and shape the future of our communities. This is a Lead Cybersecurity Engineering position at Vice President level, which is part of the job family responsible for ensuring continuity and successful delivery of the firm's Modernization and Workforce Authentication. Since 1935, Morgan Stanley is known as a global leader in financial services, always evolving and innovating to better serve our clients and our communities in more than 40 countries around the world.

Requirements

• Hands-On Principal Engineer (not architect-only): design and implement—comfortable coding, configuring, integrating products, and shipping production outcomes.
• Deep authentication expertise: OIDC/OAuth2, SAML, SSO, FIDO2/WebAuthn, PKI (CA/RA, mTLS, cert lifecycle), API auth (JWT/mTLS), and Unix/Linux authentication at enterprise scale.
• IAM platforms & integration mastery: experience with HashiCorp Vault, HSMs, CyberArk, SailPoint, Entra ID, Ping Identity, IDM/LDAP, and RCBI—covering policy design, integration, automation, and migrations.
• Resiliency and Automation at Scale: proven experience operating IAM/auth services across large, globally distributed environments with multi-region HA/DR, performance tuning, IaC (Terraform), config management (Ansible/Puppet/Chef), CI/CD, observability; strong Shell plus Python/Go.
• Security & compliance acumen: threat modeling, least privilege, PAM, secrets management, policy-as-code, and auditability for human and non-human identities (including agentic systems).
• Systems integrator mindset: ability to customize and stitch vendor products and open standards into cohesive, well-documented solutions and APIs.
• Team enablement & communication: skill in decomposing solutions into clear epics/stories, authoring ADRs/runbooks/standards, conducting reviews, coaching engineers/SREs, and producing clear written documentation to influence stakeholders in an agile squad model.
• Enterprise & industry savvy: experience navigating large-institution environments; influencing roadmaps; driving adoption of controls and best practices; typically 10+ years in IAM engineering within complex, global settings.

Responsibilities

• Lead Hands-On Authentication Engineering: design, build, integrate, and ship secure, scalable solutions for human and non-human identities (bots, service accounts, applications, agentic systems).
• Own Enterprise Authentication & Federation: implement and harden OIDC/OAuth2, SAML, SSO, FIDO2/WebAuthn, PKI (mTLS, cert lifecycle), API auth, and Unix/Linux authentication.
• Integrate and Customize IAM Platforms: deliver end-to-end integrations across Entra ID, Ping Identity, SailPoint, CyberArk, HashiCorp Vault, HSMs, IDM/LDAP, and RCBI in cloud and hybrid environments.
• Drive Reliability and Automation at Scale: operate and evolve large-scale IAM estates with HA/DR, performance tuning, IaC (Terraform), config management (Ansible/Puppet/Chef), CI/CD, observability, and safe deployment strategies.
• Harden and Govern Identity Controls: define and enforce policies for identity lifecycle, authentication, authorization, PAM, and secrets management for human and non-human identities.
• Assess and Uplift Existing Solutions: identify risks and technical debt, deliver remediation plans, and implement secure-by-default patterns with measurable outcomes.
• Translate Architecture into Executable Work: break down complex designs into clear epics, stories, runbooks, and pipelines; produce ADRs, standards, and audit-ready documentation to align engineers, SREs, POs, and QA.
• Partner and Operate Across Teams: collaborate with product/platform leads to scale adoption; participate in on-call, lead RCAs, and drive operational excellence.

Benefits

• Comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry.
• Opportunities for career advancement within the company.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees