Senior Active Directory Engineer

M&T Bank•Buffalo, NY

2d•$97,100 - $161,800•Hybrid

About The Position

Responsible for designing, securing, and operating Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in regulated, high-availability environments. Acts as knowledge resource for and trains less experienced engineers. Completes day-to-day support activities and special projects.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 3 years’ relevant work experience, or in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 7 years’ higher education and/or work experience.
Proven expertise supporting large-scale, Tier‑1 identity infrastructures with strict uptime, latency, and change‑control requirements.
Strong experience with multi-domain and multi-forest designs aligned to business units, regions, or regulatory boundaries.
Strong experience with forest and external trusts supporting M&A, joint ventures, and third-party integrations.
Strong experience with FSMO role placement optimized for resilience and auditability.
Advanced understanding of Active Directory–integrated DNS, split‑brain DNS, and secure name resolution models.
Extensive experience integrating on-prem AD with Microsoft Entra ID in regulated financial environments.
Hands-on implementation of Entra Connect (Cloud Sync and Traditional), Password Hash Sync, Pass-through Authentication, and Federation.
Strong experience with Conditional Access aligned to regulatory and risk-based controls.
Strong experience with Hybrid Join, Entra ID Join, and legacy device coexistence.
Understanding of identity lifecycle controls to support joiners, movers, leavers, and separation-of-duties requirements.
Expert-level knowledge of Active Directory security hardening in financial services, including: Tiered administrative model (Tier 0/1/2), Dedicated admin forests or hardened admin boundaries (where applicable), Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs) / Secure Admin Workstations.
Experience enforcing least privilege, role separation, and dual‑control models.
Deep familiarity with threats targeting financial institutions: Credential theft, Kerberoasting, Pass-the-Hash/Ticket, Delegation and ACL abuse.
Hands-on experience with Privileged Identity Management (PIM).
Hands-on experience with regular access reviews and entitlement recertification.
Strong alignment with Zero Trust and defense-in-depth identity strategies.
Demonstrated experience supporting audits and controls for financial regulations and frameworks, such as: SOX, GLBA, PCI DSS, SOC 2.
Demonstrated experience supporting internal risk management and model governance requirements.
Ability to design AD environments that support strong logging and traceability.
Ability to design AD environments that support tamper-resistant audit logs.
Ability to design AD environments that support evidence generation for internal and external auditors.
Advanced PowerShell expertise for controlled, auditable administrative changes.
Advanced PowerShell expertise for automated provisioning/deprovisioning aligned to compliance workflows.
Advanced PowerShell expertise for identity reporting for risk, security, and audit teams.
Experience building automation that integrates with change management processes.
Experience building automation that integrates with IAM, ticketing, and security tooling.
Deep experience managing AD replication topology across data centers and regions.
Deep experience managing SYSVOL (DFSR) health and recovery.
Deep experience managing latency-sensitive authentication dependencies.
Strong understanding of AD backup, recovery, and authoritative restore procedures.
Strong understanding of identity disaster recovery scenarios with defined RTO/RPO.
Experience implementing monitoring and alerting with a focus on early risk detection.
Acts as technical authority and escalation point for all directory and identity services.
Defines and enforces enterprise identity standards.
Defines and enforces secure configuration baselines.
Defines and enforces operational runbooks and procedures.
Partners closely with Information Security and IAM teams.
Partners closely with risk, audit, and compliance stakeholders.
Partners closely with infrastructure, cloud, and application teams.
Mentors engineers and reviews designs from a security and risk-first perspective.

Nice To Haves

Intermediate understanding of the security system development and infrastructure lifecycle and architecture, and systems design.
Proven experience with the tools utilized in assigned Cybersecurity function.
Experience translating architecture into technical requirements.
Proficient level of critical thinking and problem solving.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Proven experience collaborating with leaders to execute results.
Prior experience seeking buy-in of others to align on processes.
Ability to analyze and draw conclusions based on quantitative data from multiple sources.

Responsibilities

Enterprise Active Directory Architecture: Proven expertise supporting large-scale, Tier‑1 identity infrastructures with strict uptime, latency, and change‑control requirements.
Multi-domain and multi-forest designs aligned to business units, regions, or regulatory boundaries.
Forest and external trusts supporting M&A, joint ventures, and third-party integrations.
FSMO role placement optimized for resilience and auditability.
Advanced understanding of Active Directory–integrated DNS, split‑brain DNS, and secure name resolution models.
Hybrid Identity & Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD): Extensive experience integrating on-prem AD with Microsoft Entra ID in regulated financial environments.
Hands-on implementation of: Entra Connect (Cloud Sync and Traditional), Password Hash Sync, Pass-through Authentication, and Federation.
Strong experience with: Conditional Access aligned to regulatory and risk-based controls, Hybrid Join, Entra ID Join, and legacy device coexistence.
Understanding of identity lifecycle controls to support joiners, movers, leavers, and separation-of-duties requirements.
Security, Compliance & Risk Controls: Expert-level knowledge of Active Directory security hardening in financial services, including: Tiered administrative model (Tier 0/1/2), Dedicated admin forests or hardened admin boundaries (where applicable), Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs) / Secure Admin Workstations.
Experience enforcing least privilege, role separation, and dual‑control models.
Deep familiarity with threats targeting financial institutions: Credential theft, Kerberoasting, Pass-the-Hash/Ticket, Delegation and ACL abuse.
Hands-on experience with: Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Regular access reviews and entitlement recertification.
Strong alignment with Zero Trust and defense-in-depth identity strategies.
Regulatory & Audit Readiness: Demonstrated experience supporting audits and controls for financial regulations and frameworks, such as: SOX, GLBA, PCI DSS, SOC 2, Internal risk management and model governance requirements.
Ability to design AD environments that support: Strong logging and traceability, Tamper-resistant audit logs, Evidence generation for internal and external auditors.
Automation & PowerShell: Advanced PowerShell expertise for: Controlled, auditable administrative changes, Automated provisioning/deprovisioning aligned to compliance workflows, Identity reporting for risk, security, and audit teams.
Experience building automation that integrates with: Change management processes, IAM, ticketing, and security tooling.
Operations, Resilience & Recovery: Deep experience managing: AD replication topology across data centers and regions, SYSVOL (DFSR) health and recovery, Latency-sensitive authentication dependencies.
Strong understanding of: AD backup, recovery, and authoritative restore procedures, Identity disaster recovery scenarios with defined RTO/RPO.
Experience implementing monitoring and alerting with a focus on early risk detection.
Leadership & Governance: Acts as technical authority and escalation point for all directory and identity services.
Defines and enforces: Enterprise identity standards, Secure configuration baselines, Operational runbooks and procedures.
Partners closely with: Information Security and IAM teams, Risk, audit, and compliance stakeholders, Infrastructure, cloud, and application teams.
Mentors engineers and reviews designs from a security and risk-first perspective.