About the Role
As our IAM Advisor & Policy Architect, you will bridge technical infrastructure and institutional policy and standards at the University of Alaska, the state's only public university system, spanning three universities. You'll help guide the modernization of our identity landscape toward a unified, seamless, and secure experience for every student, faculty member, researcher, and staff member.
This work directly enables UA's mission. As federal regulations evolve, identity and access management becomes a strategic enabler of the university's mission, not just an IT function, positioning UA as a trusted partner while keeping academic resources open and frictionless. While identity is the heart of this role, we'll also look to you as a broader advisor on security policy, governance, risk, and compliance.
As the primary liaison between our technical teams and governance, risk and compliance, you'll be a collaborative strategist in a policy and architecture framework that respects academic freedom while meeting the highest security and compliance standards. Expect varied, high-impact work: creating identity and access standards with partners across academic and administrative offices, architecting how we manage a complex and multi-role community, advancing secure collaboration with peer institutions, and strengthening authentication and access controls statewide.
To thrive in this role, you will bring a blend of policy fluency and technical credibility. You have experience turning enterprise data sources into modern identity services, ideally in a multi-institution or system environment, and you treat privacy, security, and compliance requirements such as FERPA, HIPAA, and GLBA, NIST 800-171 and CMMC as frameworks for protecting our community rather than roadblocks. You've helped strengthen authentication and access across a device-diverse, geographically dispersed population, and while your focus is policy and architecture, you can hold your own in a technical conversation with engineers.
You will build trust through transparency and active listening, and are viewed as a collaborator among IT, academic departments, and administration to find the optimal path for robust security and open access. You'll help shape not only the identity foundation but the broader security and governance direction of our statewide university system at a pivotal moment of modernization.
Minimum Qualifications
Master's degree in computer science, Information Systems, Public Administration, or a related field, and 6 years of progressively responsible experience, or an equivalent combination of training and experience, in identity and access management, IT/security policy, or governance, risk, and compliance. Preference given to auditable evidence of expertise in higher-education IAM and IT policy development and to higher-level degrees. Education may be substituted by professional experience.
Position Details
This is a full-time, exempt staff position complete with both a competitive salary and full employee benefits package. UA provides a generous compensation package that includes retirement options, annual leave, 12 paid holidays per year, tuition waivers for employees and family members, and affordable medical, dental and vision care coverage. New hires will be placed on the UA Staff Salary Schedule, Grade 83, based on education and experience.
Application review will begin on September 28, 2026. Applications received by this date will receive priority consideration; however, the recruitment will remain open until filled.
Additional Information
The successful applicant is required to complete a background check. Any offer of employment is contingent on the background check.