Group Security Architecture & IAM Lead

Role overview

This position is for a Group Security Architecture & IAM Lead based in Chennai, India, with about 20% international travel to the Middle East. The role is responsible for shaping the group-wide cybersecurity architecture direction, with emphasis on enterprise security, identity and access management, cloud security, and zero trust. The goal is to build security into systems from the start across all subsidiaries rather than adding it later.

The role also serves as the single point of contact for design-related cybersecurity decisions and participates in major IT, OT, and digital transformation programs to represent security requirements. It is responsible for defining group security standards, technology standards, IAM and access governance approaches, and security controls that remain consistent, resilient, and modern across on-premises, cloud, regional, and subsidiary environments.

Work setup

Working days are Monday to Friday. The role follows a day shift schedule. This is a full-time position. Interview process is online.

Location and travel

Primary location: Chennai, India. The role involves international travel to the Middle East at around 20%.

Qualification

Preferred educational background includes B.E. or B.Tech in IT, Computer Science, Cyber Security, Data Science, or AI. M.E. or M.Tech in the same or related areas is also considered.

Experience and certifications

The position calls for 12 to 15+ years of cyber security experience, including hands-on work in cyber security, cloud security, application security, and network architecture. The candidate should have experience standardizing tools in large enterprises and multi-subsidiary environments, as well as leading large IAM and PAM programs in complex settings. Prior exposure to large, multi-country organizations is required.

Professional certifications that are valued include CISSP, SABSA, TOGAF, ISSAP, CCSP, and Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert (SC-100).

Key responsibilities

The selected leader will define standard security blueprints for cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments and ensure these reference architectures are adopted at group level and by subsidiaries.

The role includes centralizing identity management so that single sign-on and multi-factor authentication are consistently applied across the group, while also building strong access governance, including access removal processes. It should clearly differentiate access controls for employees, contractors, and temporary third-party workers.

The position will lead the transition from traditional identity security to a zero trust model by enabling continuous identity-based verification, network segmentation, and device trust for digital identities and agentic AI identities.

As the security point of contact for group-wide IT projects, the role will review new initiatives such as ERP rollouts from the request-for-proposal stage onward to ensure security is built into the design.

It will also oversee privileged access management so that administrator rights on critical systems, including energy and construction systems, are tightly controlled and all actions are logged.

Another important responsibility is designing secure integration for newly acquired companies so they can connect safely to the group network and support faster IT and business system integration.

For cloud security architecture, the role must define security standards for Azure, AWS, OCI, and GCP, establish secure landing zones and cloud governance, and work closely with DevOps and application teams.

The position also requires alignment of IT and OT architectures in partnership with the OT Security lead, along with secure connectivity between enterprise systems and plant environments.

Finally, the role will evaluate security tools and platforms for standardization across the group, promote adoption of shared standards with subsidiaries, and help define a long-term security roadmap with group and subsidiary leadership while avoiding unnecessary tool duplication and redundant spend.

Skills and competencies

This role requires strong enterprise security architecture capability, deep IAM/PAM expertise, and the ability to influence large-scale IT and digital transformation efforts. The candidate should be comfortable operating across IT, cloud, and OT-integrated environments and combine strategic thinking with a hands-on approach.

Important behavioral strengths include design thinking, the ability to influence without direct authority, technical depth, long-term orientation, attention to detail, and strategic foresight.

The role also needs strong stakeholder communication, the confidence to challenge architecture decisions constructively, and the ability to drive security standards across the group by persuading senior leadership and subsidiary teams.

Technical strengths include enterprise security and reference architecture frameworks, IAM and PAM design and implementation, network security architecture, cloud security across Azure, AWS, GCP, and OCI, zero trust architecture, DevSecOps integration, application security architecture, OT/IT convergence, API security, microservices security, identity protocols such as SAML, OIDC, and OAuth, cloud security posture management, and network micro-segmentation.

Additional details

Open position count: 1. Gender: male/female. Joining: immediate.

Compensation

Salary range: INR 40,00,000 to 70,00,000 per year.