Security Architect - Agentic Identity & Access Management (IAM) | Onsite in Dallas | 6-8 Months Contract (Possibility of extensions)

Job Details:
Job Title:             Security Architect - Agentic Identity & Access Management 
Location:             Onsite in Dallas - 2702 Love Field Drive, Dallas, Texas 75235
Duration:            6-8 Months Contract (Possibility of extensions)

Job Summary:
We are seeking an experienced Cybersecurity Architect to design integrated authorization architecture and governance model for AI applications and agents across SWA within the Identity and Access Management space; evaluate and recommend new and/or existing capabilities and tools that integrate with SWA infrastructure, including emerging technologies; and to serve as Subject Matter Expert to Cybersecurity Teams on identity governance for AI systems, building durable capabilities.

WORK ACTIVITIES/CONTEXT:
•    Define the enterprise target-state architecture and governance model for identities, delegated authority, and authorization across AI applications, agents, tools, APIs, and human users. 
•    Establish reusable authorization patterns for user-to-agent, agent-to-tool, machine-to-machine, and agent-to-agent interactions. 
•    Design policy enforcement approaches that support least privilege, ZSP, separation of duties, context-aware access, runtime decisioning, and human-in-the-loop guardrails. 
•    Define lifecycle governance for AI agents and other non-human identities, including registration, sponsorship, ownership, credential issuance, rotation, recertification, suspension, deprovisioning, and evidence retention. 
•    Develop standards for OAuth 2.0, OIDC, token exchange, workload identity, delegated authorization, service accounts, and short-lived credentials. 
•    Evaluate vendor and native platform capabilities; document options, tradeoffs, integration impacts, risks, and recommendations for Southwest. 
•    Partner with IAM, IGA, PAM, Enterprise Access Management, Cloud Security, Application Security, AI Engineering, AI Governance, Enterprise Architecture, and platform teams to align controls and operating responsibilities. 
•    Create reference architectures, design principles, control requirements, decision records, implementation roadmaps, and adoption guidance. 
•    Support solution reviews and threat-informed design decisions for AI use cases, MCP servers, agent tools, data access paths, and autonomous actions. 
•    Define logging, traceability, audit evidence, and monitoring requirements that connect an agent action to the agent identity, sponsoring owner, delegated user or system, authorization decision, and affected resource. 
•    Provide technical leadership and consultation to Cyber teams; translate complex IAM and AI security concepts into clear decisions for engineers, product teams, leaders, and governance forums. 
•    Track relevant market and technology developments and recommend updates to architecture standards and strategic roadmaps

Must be able to meet any physical ability requirements listed on this description.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS: 
High School Diploma, GED or equivalent education required. 
EDUCATION:
College degree in Technology, Finance, Business or equivalent work experience

WORK EXPERIENCE: 

•    Must have a minimum 3 years’ experience solving complex problems and driving multiple stakeholders towards implementable solutions; prefer 5 years of experience 
•    Minimum 3 years’ experience developing communication strategies for buy-in and acceptance preferred; prefer 5 years of experience 
•    Minimum 3 years working in a cross-functional environment within technology domain; prefer 5 years of experience 
•    2 years or more of experience in Cybersecurity Identity and Access Management domain preferred
•    Experience and solid knowledge of strategic and financial analysis and issues/risk management and project change requests. 
•    Ability to influence diverse customer groups to align on strategic goals and decisions
•    Prefer at least 1 year working in a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) environment.
•    Consulting experience (highly desired)

LICENSING/CERTIFICATION: SKILLS/ABILITIES/KNOWLEDGE/WORK STYLE: 
•    Built and maintained communication strategy for diverse user group (highly desired)
•    Must have the ability to assume a high-level responsibility and to provide direction in a cross-functional, team-oriented environment
•    Ability to quickly ramp up when placed in new areas business (proactively engage all levels the organization to expand functional understanding. 
•    Proficiency in Agile methodologies, collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams.
•    Deep expertise in enterprise Identity and Access Management (IAM) architecture and integration patterns for AI systems and agent-based environments
•    Understanding of best practices for authorization enforcement across AI agents, tools, APIs, and human identities
•    Knowledge of core authorization principles such as least privilege access, Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP), policy enforcement,  auditability, and runtime governance
•    Technology expertise: AWS AgentCore, SailPoint Identity Security Cloud, Ping Identity Platform, CyberArk
•    Experience designing OAuth 2.0 / OIDC flows for machine-to-machine and agent-to-agent communication
•    Understanding of AI agent lifecycle governance — registration, credential rotation, deprovisioning, and auditability of autonomous actions
•    Technology expertise: Ping Agent IAM Core module, SailPoint Entro Security, CyberArk Idira, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft EntraID
•    Experience with secrets management and credential vaulting (e.g., CyberArk, HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager)
•    Familiarity with AI safety/governance frameworks (NIST AI RMF, OWASP Top 10 for LLMs) and regulatory/compliance considerations for autonomous systems
•    Strong communication and cross-team collaboration skills; ability to translate complex IAM concepts for engineering and leadership audiences
•    Strong hands-on knowledge of:
o    Privileged Access Management (PAM)
o    Directory services (AD, eDirectory, LDAP)
o    Workforce/Enterprise IAM
o    CIAM platforms and patterns
•    Experience with IAM tools such as CyberArk, BeyondTrust, Ping, Azure AD, SailPoint, or similar
•    Experience in cloud-based IAM (AWS, Azure, hybrid environments)
•    Ensure IAM solutions align with Zero Trust, least privilege, and identity-first security principles.
•    Exceptional attention to detail, with strong documentation skills.
•    Self-motivated, proactive, and committed to driving tasks to completion.
•    Ability to connect how and programs integrate with company objectives.
•    Experience solving complex problems (Business and Technical) and identifying options for solutions. 
•    Experience supporting (or leading) Executive-level communication (e.g. project status updates, presentations requesting approval, Multiyear Roadmaps, Financial health etc.)
•    Ability to digest significant amount of detail and summarize relevant information for the appropriate stakeholder (e.g., Managers, Directors, VPs, etc.)
•    Experience with or thorough understanding the process for gathering business requirements for an implementation project.
•    Understands how to translate business needs into releases that strategically deliver business value.
•    Ability to translate business process into strategy and drive innovation that builds capabilities.
•    Understands how to read market landscape and implement best practices to remain competitive.
•    Ability to lead discussions with stakeholders from multiple backgrounds who have conflicting priorities; act as mediator if Teams are not aligned and drive towards a recommendation or solution.
•    Ability to use critical thinking to identify, analyze and interpret trends and patterns in complex data sets to solve problems, and develop recommendations based on findings.
•    Strong oral communication and presentation delivery skills when facilitating discussions at the Executive level.
•    Skilled influencer, negotiator, consensus-builder, and change agent.
•    Display ability to recognize inefficiencies with processes/procedures and proactively offer suggestions for improvements – ability to take items a step further, not just follow defined path (continue process because it is the same as it is today).
•    Must be able to work remain flexible and work in the grey as priorities may shift to meet enterprise objectives.
•    Must be able to comply with Company attendance standards as described in established guidelines.
 
Preferred Skills (skills that would be beneficial but are not required):
Excellent soft skills and strong emotional intelligence to be able to read the room’s tone to ensure alignment while continuously calibrating to achieve desired outcomes of the meeting.
Fun loving attitude.
Does not take themselves too seriously.
Entrepreneurial spirit | I’ll figure it out and get it done.