Senior Access Governance Specialist

Job Title: Senior Access Governance Specialist

Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Work Arrangement: 100% Remote — Work From Home

Level: Senior

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Access Governance Specialist to oversee identity and access governance processes, access control reviews, entitlement management, and compliance monitoring. The role focuses on strengthening access governance frameworks, reviewing user permissions, monitoring privileged access controls, supporting segregation of duties, and ensuring that access management practices align with organizational security policies and regulatory requirements.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in identity governance, access control administration, information security, and IT risk management. This is a fully remote position focused on governance oversight, digital access reviews, control assessments, documentation, and coordination with technology, security, risk, and compliance teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and improve identity and access governance policies, standards, procedures, and control frameworks.
• Review user access rights across enterprise applications, databases, infrastructure platforms, and business systems.
• Coordinate periodic user access certifications and entitlement recertification campaigns.
• Assess access requests, role assignments, permission changes, and approval records against established governance requirements.
• Monitor segregation of duties (SoD) conflicts and recommend appropriate remediation measures.
• Review privileged access governance records, administrator entitlements, and exception documentation.
• Support role-based access control (RBAC) design, role mapping, and entitlement standardization.
• Evaluate joiner, mover, and leaver processes to ensure timely and appropriate access lifecycle management.
• Review access provisioning and deprovisioning evidence to identify control weaknesses and process delays.
• Monitor access governance exceptions, temporary permissions, dormant accounts, and excessive access privileges.
• Coordinate remotely with application owners, system administrators, business managers, information security teams, and internal auditors.
• Support identity governance and administration (IGA) platform configuration reviews and process improvements.
• Assess access control evidence and prepare documentation for internal audits, external audits, and regulatory examinations.
• Monitor compliance with internal security policies, data protection requirements, and applicable regulatory frameworks.
• Investigate reported access governance issues and coordinate corrective action plans with responsible teams.
• Maintain access review schedules, governance registers, approval records, and exception tracking documentation.
• Prepare management reports covering access review completion, policy exceptions, privileged access risks, and remediation progress.
• Support the development of access governance metrics, key risk indicators, and control effectiveness assessments.
• Recommend improvements to access request workflows, approval structures, entitlement management, and governance automation.
• Promote awareness of least-privilege principles, accountability, and secure access management practices.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
• Typically 7–10 years of relevant experience in identity and access management, access governance, IT security, or technology risk management.
• Strong understanding of identity lifecycle management, access certification, entitlement reviews, and access control principles.
• Experience with role-based access control (RBAC), attribute-based access control (ABAC), and segregation of duties frameworks.
• Knowledge of privileged access management (PAM), identity governance and administration (IGA), and authentication technologies.
• Familiarity with platforms such as SailPoint, Saviynt, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, CyberArk, or equivalent solutions.
• Understanding of access control frameworks and relevant standards, including ISO 27001, NIST, and COBIT.
• Experience reviewing access governance controls across ERP, CRM, HR, financial, and enterprise applications.
• Knowledge of joiner-mover-leaver workflows, access approval processes, and periodic recertification procedures.
• Experience preparing audit evidence, control assessments, risk registers, and remediation reports.
• Strong analytical, investigative, and problem-solving abilities.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, reporting tools, and identity governance platforms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to coordinate complex access governance activities across multiple stakeholders in a fully remote environment.
• Certifications such as CISA, CISSP, CRISC, CISM, or relevant identity and access management credentials are advantageous.

What We Offer

• 100% remote working arrangement from home.
• Full-time opportunity in cybersecurity governance and identity management.
• Exposure to enterprise identity platforms and access control frameworks.
• Collaboration with experienced information security, IT risk, and compliance professionals.
• Opportunities for professional development and career advancement.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit an updated CV highlighting their access governance experience, identity management expertise, control assessment capabilities, enterprise platform knowledge, and relevant professional certifications.

Application Subject: Application – Senior Access Governance Specialist (UAE Remote)

Candidates should confirm applicable employment arrangements, residency requirements, and work authorization before accepting an offer.

• Remote Work Scope: This position is limited to remote access governance oversight, entitlement analysis, access certification coordination, policy review, control monitoring, documentation assessment, and risk reporting. Physical infrastructure operations, hardware maintenance, and hands-on administration requiring local facility access must be performed by qualified local personnel. Production access provisioning, privileged administration, emergency access changes, security exception acceptance, and material risk or compliance approvals must be performed or approved by appropriately authorized personnel under established change-management and security procedures. The role does not independently authorize privileged production changes or override formal access approval requirements.