Lead/Senior SSO Architect

Senior SSO Architect/Team Lead Location: Denver, CO 12 Plus Months Contract
Purpose of the Role
Client is seeking an experienced, forward-thinking Senior SSO Architect & Team Lead to direct our Single Sign-On engineering squad and serve as the technical authority for enterprise authentication. In this role, you will maintain high availability for our core Ping federation environment, lead our active migration to PingOne Workforce Cloud, and partner across architecture and security teams to build a modern, Zero Trust authentication ecosystem for 70,000+ corporate and clinical teammates across the Village.
Key Responsibilities: Team Leadership & Architecture Governance

• Squad Leadership: Lead, mentor, and technically direct the SSO engineering squad in an Agile/Scrum framework, fostering engineering excellence and operational rigor.
• Architecture Alignment: Partner closely with Enterprise Architecture and Security Architects to align SSO roadmaps with enterprise blueprints and represent SSO on Architecture Review Boards (ARB).
• Authorization Modernization: Collaborate with adjacent IAM teams evaluating PingAuthorize and modern IDM/IGA solutions to replace legacy authorization systems (Oracle Entitlement Server / OES).
• Microsoft Ecosystem Collaboration: Partner with the Microsoft/M365 team to ensure seamless federation, PRT evaluation, Conditional Access handoffs, and a cohesive user experience.

Operational Reliability & Current Environment

• Tier-0 High Availability: Maintain 24x7 operational reliability and high availability (99.99%+) for enterprise federation infrastructure, including PingFederate, PingDirectory, and PingID.
• Workforce & CIAM Integrations: Manage integrations for PingOne Customer (CIAM) and support enterprise workforce authentication across dedicated endpoints, shared clinical kiosks, and Citrix VDI.
• Application Federation: Onboard and support core clinical applications (CWOW, HWOW, PATH, Epic, Cerner) and enterprise SaaS platforms using SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect (OIDC).
• Certificate & Key Lifecycle: Standardize and automate cryptographic certificate management, token signing, and encryption keys to eliminate unplanned outages.

Modernization & Future Architecture

• Cloud Workforce Migration: Lead the active migration of workforce authentication to PingOne Workforce Cloud and drive cloud-native identity modernization.
• Standards Enforcement: Champion and enforce client SSO Enterprise Standards ('Configuration over Customization'), establishing strict governance for application onboarding and exception reviews.
• Legacy Grant Deprecation: Deprecate legacy authentication methods and eliminate insecure grants (e.g., migrating applications off Resource Owner Password Credentials / ROPC to OAuth 2.0 Auth Code with PKCE).
• Identity Orchestration (DaVinci): Architect dynamic identity orchestration workflows and user journeys using PingOne DaVinci, integrating adaptive MFA (PingOne Protect), risk signals, and passwordless authentication (FIDO2, WebAuthn).
• Google Cloud Platform Cloud DevOps: Drive Google Cloud Platform DevOps automation for identity services, leveraging Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), CI/CD pipelines, and containerized deployments on Google Cloud (GKE).
• Future Cloud IdP Readiness: Maintain architectural readiness for potential future adoption of cloud identity platforms such as Microsoft Entra ID.
• Developer Experience: Streamline developer onboarding through self-service tools, dynamic JWKS key discovery, and CI/CD automation.

Experience:

• Total Experience: 8+ years of dedicated experience in Identity & Access Management (IAM) and enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) engineering.
• Technical Leadership: 2+ years of experience leading engineering squads, mentoring developers, and partnering with Enterprise Architecture and Security Architecture groups.
• Enterprise Scale: Proven track record supporting high-availability, mission-critical environments (healthcare and HIPAA compliance experience preferred).

Technical Competencies:

• Ping Identity & DaVinci Orchestration: Deep expertise in PingFederate, PingID, PingDirectory, PingCentral, PingOne Workforce Cloud, PingOne Customer (CIAM), and strong hands-on skills in PingOne DaVinci for identity orchestration and flow design. (Note: PingAccess is not used in this environment).
• Authorization & Identity Modernization: Solid understanding of fine-grained authorization (ABAC/PBAC) and how modern externalized authorization platforms (e.g., PingAuthorize) integrate with SSO to replace legacy policy engines (OES).
• Federation Protocols & Standards: Expert mastery of SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), JWT, and SCIM; deep knowledge of modern grant flows (Auth Code + PKCE, Token Exchange) and legacy grant remediation.
• Microsoft Federation & Cloud Identity: Strong familiarity with Microsoft 365 federation, Hybrid Identity, and Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) concepts (Conditional Access, Intune, PRT) to optimize user login flows and assess future cloud IdP opportunities.
• Endpoints & Session Controls: Experience designing session policies, Single Logout (SLO), and MFA rules for corporate laptops, shared clinical workstations, and Citrix VDI.
• Google Cloud Platform & Cloud DevOps: Strong hands-on DevOps expertise in Google Cloud Platform (Google Cloud Platform), including Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), Kubernetes (GKE), Docker, CI/CD pipeline automation (Jenkins/GitLab CI), REST APIs, and scripting (Python, PowerShell, Bash).

Core Soft Skills:

• Strategic Problem Solver: Balances rigorous security controls with frictionless clinical and teammate user workflows.
• Collaborative Communicator: Effectively translates enterprise architectural blueprints into technical implementations and communicates clearly across all levels.
• Team Coach: Dedicated to developing engineering talent and fostering a culture of technical excellence.

Preferred Certifications:

• Ping Identity Certified Professional / Architect (PingFederate / PingOne)
• Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300) / Cybersecurity Architect Expert (SC-100)
• Google Cloud Certified: Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer / Cloud Security Engineer
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
• Certified Identity and Access Manager (CIAM)