VP - IAM Operations & User Experience

Role Title: VP - IAM Operations & User Experience (L12)

Company Overview:

Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a leading consumer financing company that has been at the heart of American commerce and opportunity for nearly a century. Synchrony delivers credit and banking products that empower tens of millions of consumers to improve their financial lives and access what matters most. Leveraging innovative solutions that are shaping the future of retail commerce, Synchrony supports the growth and success of some of the nation’s most respected brands, alongside hundreds of thousands of small and midsize businesses, including health and wellness providers. Committed to excellence in service and culture, Synchrony is proud to be named as #3 as a Great Place to Work® in India and is honored to be ranked the #1 Best Company to Work For® in the U.S. by Fortune magazine and Great Place to Work®. For more information, visit www.synchrony.com.

Organizational Overview:

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) team at Synchrony, led by the Head of IAM reporting to the CISO, oversees key security functions. Direct reports specialize in authentication, authorization, privileged access management, special programs, and federated controls governance. This structure ensures comprehensive management of identity and access processes to maintain robust security and compliance across the organization.

Role Summary/Purpose:

This is a people manager role responsible for leading enterprise IAM Security Administration, End User Operations, across people, technology, controls, and transformation. The VP will combine IAM expertise with practical AI and automation engineering capability to drive reliable identity lifecycle and privileged access operations, simplify access requests and fulfilment, and reduce repetitive manual work. The role will define automation strategy and requirements, partner with Automation and Engineering teams to deliver scalable solutions and safely operationalize Agentic AI and Generative AI with appropriate human oversight and security controls

Key Responsibilities:

Lead the enterprise IAM Security Administration and Automation functions, including people, operations, technology, controls, and transformation.

• Drive automation and access-experience transformation: Own the strategy to automate the majority of repetitive Security Administration activities using Agentic AI, Generative AI, RPA, Python, PowerShell, APIs, and self-service. Prioritize opportunities, modernize IAM access requests and fulfilment, and define requirements, business outcomes, and control objectives with Automation and Engineering teams. Drive automation of ServiceNow request, incident, change, and problem-management activities.
• Improve operations through data, AI, and user insight: Analyse IAM operational data, incidents, logs, knowledge articles, historical resolutions, and recurring issues to identify sustainable improvements. Use Generative AI, Splunk, and IAM telemetry to accelerate troubleshooting and root-cause analysis and establish AI-assisted monitoring and predictive capabilities. Gather end-user feedback to reduce friction, manual effort, and unnecessary process complexity.
• Establish governance and measurable outcomes: Maintain human-in-the-loop oversight, approvals, auditability, security, and segregation-of-duties controls for AI-driven operations. Set and track targets for automation coverage, manual effort reduction, provisioning success, recurring failure reduction, SLA adherence, incident resolution, first-time-right execution, operational reliability, and security-control effectiveness, with no compromise to governance or compliance.
• Identify and prioritize automation opportunities that enhance the user experience and collaborate with the automation team to implement them.
• Build talent and lead cross-functional transformation: Lead, coach, and develop Security Administration and Operations teams, strengthening IAM, AI, Python, PowerShell, and RPA capabilities. Identify high-potential talent, establish succession plans and technical SME ownership, and promote automation-first thinking, engineering discipline, continuous improvement, and accountability. Partner with technology, Automation, control, business, and end-user communities to deliver measurable improvements in cost, quality, speed, and risk reduction.

Required Skills/Knowledge:

• Strong experience in IAM/IGA, identity lifecycle management, and Security Administration across SailPoint, NHID, Okta, Beyond Identity, Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, and Delinea/PAM, including provisioning, reconciliation, access governance, and privileged access operations.
• Ability to identify, assess, and prioritize IAM automation opportunities based on business value, operational efficiency, risk reduction, and end-user experience. Working knowledge of Python, PowerShell, REST APIs, Automation Anywhere/RPA, Agentic AI, Generative AI, and LLM-based capabilities to evaluate potential use cases and collaborate effectively with automation teams.
• Experience translating IAM operational needs into clear business requirements, process flows, control requirements, and acceptance criteria for automation teams, including integration needs across IAM platforms, ServiceNow, and Splunk. Strong understanding of approval workflows, audit requirements, segregation-of-duties controls, and the safe use of AI.
• Demonstrated people leadership and IAM transformation capability, including team development, succession planning, operational ownership, and cross-functional collaboration. Ability to partner with automation teams through feasibility assessment, prioritization, user acceptance testing, adoption, and benefits realization.

Desired Skills/Knowledge:

• Experience developing and prioritizing an IAM automation roadmap, identifying opportunities for reusable solutions across processes, and partnering with automation teams to assess feasibility, dependencies, and expected benefits.
• Ability to identify use cases for AI-assisted monitoring, predictive insights, knowledge assistance, and intelligent troubleshooting to address recurring IAM failures and operational risks.
• Experience driving the adoption of automation and self-service across IAM, Active Directory, PAM, ServiceNow, and routine administrative processes, with measurable improvements in cost, quality, speed, risk reduction, and end-user experience.

Eligibility Criteria:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or related field; Master’s degree preferred with 9+years of IT experience with a minimum of 6 years focused on IAM operations and end-user services management.

Work Timings: 2:00 PM - 11:00 PM IST

(This role qualifies for Enhanced Flexibility and Choice offered in Synchrony India and will require the incumbent to be available between 06:00 AM Eastern Time – 11:30 AM Eastern Time (timings are anchored to US Eastern hours and will adjust twice a year locally). This window is for meetings with India and US teams. The remaining hours will be flexible for the employee to choose. Exceptions may apply periodically due to business needs. Please discuss this with the hiring manager for more details.)

For Internal Applicants:

• Understand the criteria or mandatory skills required for the role, before applying

• Inform your manager and HRM before applying for any role on Workday

• Ensure that your professional profile is updated (fields such as education, prior experience, other skills) and it is

mandatory to upload your updated resume (Word or PDF format)

• Must not be any corrective action plan (First Formal/Final Formal, LPP)

• L10+ Employees who have completed 18 months in the organization and 12 months in current role and level are

only eligible.

• L10+ Employees can apply

Grade/Level: 12

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