Senior Directory Federation Specialist

Job Title: Senior Directory Federation 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 Directory Federation Specialist to design, implement, and maintain secure identity federation and directory integration solutions across enterprise applications, cloud platforms, and hybrid IT environments. The successful candidate will ensure seamless authentication, consistent identity management, and secure access between directory services, identity providers, and external systems.

This role requires strong expertise in directory architecture, federation protocols, single sign-on (SSO), access management, and identity security. You will collaborate with cybersecurity, infrastructure, cloud engineering, and application teams to strengthen authentication controls, improve interoperability, and maintain reliable access to critical business systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain directory federation architectures across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
• Configure and manage identity federation using protocols such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), OpenID Connect (OIDC), and OAuth 2.0.
• Integrate enterprise directory services, including Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, LDAP directories, and compatible identity providers.
• Implement and maintain single sign-on (SSO), cross-domain authentication, and secure identity exchange for enterprise applications.
• Configure federation trust relationships, claims rules, identity mappings, authentication policies, and certificate-based trust.
• Troubleshoot authentication failures, federation metadata issues, token validation errors, certificate problems, and directory synchronization inconsistencies.
• Manage federation certificates, signing and encryption keys, trust configurations, and renewal schedules to prevent service interruptions.
• Establish secure identity lifecycle processes covering account provisioning, deprovisioning, role changes, and access revocation.
• Support integration with SaaS applications, internal business systems, cloud services, and third-party identity platforms.
• Assess federation configurations for security weaknesses, excessive permissions, misconfigured claims, and potential identity-related risks.
• Implement monitoring, logging, alerting, and auditing for federation services and authentication workflows.
• Coordinate identity federation changes, upgrades, and migrations while maintaining service availability and compatibility.
• Develop automation scripts for configuration validation, certificate monitoring, federation testing, and operational reporting.
• Maintain technical documentation, architecture diagrams, recovery procedures, and operational runbooks.
• Collaborate with security teams on identity threat detection, conditional access, multifactor authentication, and incident response.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance on federation standards, identity integration patterns, and access management best practices.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related field.
• Significant experience in identity and access management, directory services, authentication engineering, or enterprise identity integration.
• Strong understanding of Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, LDAP, and hybrid identity architectures.
• Hands-on experience implementing and troubleshooting SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect.
• Experience configuring federation services, SSO integrations, trust relationships, claims mapping, and identity provider settings.
• Knowledge of authentication flows, token lifecycles, certificates, public key infrastructure (PKI), and cryptographic signing.
• Familiarity with multifactor authentication, conditional access, role-based access control, and privileged identity management.
• Experience integrating enterprise applications, SaaS platforms, and cloud services with centralized identity providers.
• Proficiency in PowerShell, Python, or similar scripting languages for automation and diagnostics.
• Understanding of identity security, access governance, audit requirements, and applicable data protection practices.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, communication, and documentation skills.
• Ability to manage complex integrations and coordinate effectively with distributed technical teams.
• Relevant certifications in Microsoft identity, identity and access management, or cybersecurity are an advantage.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Federation Availability: Reliability and availability of critical federation and SSO services.
• Integration Success: Percentage of planned application integrations completed successfully.
• Authentication Reliability: Reduction in federation-related authentication failures.
• Security Compliance: Timely remediation of identity configuration weaknesses and federation vulnerabilities.
• Certificate Management: Successful certificate renewals and prevention of certificate-related outages.
• Incident Resolution: Time required to diagnose and resolve federation issues.
• Documentation Quality: Accuracy of federation configurations, integration records, and operational procedures.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation based on qualifications and relevant experience.
• Fully remote work-from-home arrangements.
• Opportunities to work with enterprise identity platforms and complex federation architectures.
• Professional development in identity security, cloud authentication, access governance, and enterprise architecture.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit an updated CV highlighting their experience in directory federation, SSO implementation, identity provider integration, authentication protocols, and enterprise identity security.

Please include examples of complex federation integrations, authentication issues resolved, and improvements made to identity security or service reliability.

Email Subject: Application – Senior Directory Federation Specialist (United Arab Emirates Remote)

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