Principal Authentication Engineer (IAM) — Vice President

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.

What you’ll do in the role

• 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.

What you’ll bring to the role

• 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.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years.  Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices​ into your browser.

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $150,000 and $210,00 per year at the commencement of employment. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long-term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background.  Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross-section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

For more information, please visit: https://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/eeo.