Contractor: Senior IBM Security Verify Access (ISVA/ISAM) Engineer

LOCATION REQUIREMENT: This role is remote but candidates MUST be based in India, working India Standard Time (IST) hours. Applications from outside India will not be considered. Employment type: Contract, full-time, paid hourly Position Summary We are seeking a seasoned IBM Security Verify Access / IBM Security Access Manager specialist with 10+ years of IAM experience. The candidate should be hands-on in deploying, migrating, upgrading, troubleshooting, and operating enterprise-scale ISVA/ISAM environments, including IBM Security Directory Server and modern federation standards such as SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect. The client's environment also includes IBM Verify (SaaS); familiarity here is a strong plus but not required. Key Responsibilities IBM Security Verify Access / ISAM Administration • Design, install, configure, and administer ISVA/ISAM environments • Perform setup, migration, upgrade, patching, and lifecycle management of ISAM/ISVA/ISVIA virtual appliances • Configure and support WebSEAL, Policy Server, Runtime Components, Federation Services, Advanced Access Control, authorization policies, and reverse proxy components • Design and operate clustered, highly available, disaster recovery-ready ISVA environments • Manage snapshots, backups, restores, runbooks, rollback plans, and production cutover activities • Troubleshoot complex authentication, authorization, SSO, federation, appliance, certificate, and access policy issues Federation, SSO, and Protocol Expertise • Design and implement enterprise SSO using SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OIDC, JWT • Configure IdP/SP integrations, federation partners, metadata, certificates, endpoints, bindings, signatures, encryption settings • Develop and troubleshoot claims, assertions, scopes, token attributes, subject identifiers, relay state, ACS URLs, redirect URIs • Analyze SAML assertions, OAuth/OIDC tokens, authorization code flows, refresh token behavior, PKCE, token validation issues • Onboard SaaS and on-prem applications to enterprise SSO platforms; support large-scale federation migration programs Mapping Rules and Custom Authentication Logic • Develop, enhance, and troubleshoot ISVA mapping rules using JavaScript • Implement attribute mapping, claims transformation, token customization, session handling, policy-driven access flows • Integrate mapping rules with LDAP attributes, HTTP headers, REST APIs, external decision points • Debug rule execution, exceptions, runtime behavior across SAML, OAuth, and OIDC integrations IBM Security Directory Server / LDAP • Install, configure, administer, troubleshoot IBM Security Directory Server • Support schema management, indexing, replication, backup, restore, tuning, HA configuration • Troubleshoot LDAP bind, search, replication, SSL/TLS, schema, performance issues • Support directory migration and integration with IAM platforms Required Qualifications • 10+ years of IAM experience with strong hands-on ISVA/ISAM administration • ISVA/ISAM: installation, configuration, migration, upgrade, WebSEAL, Policy Server, AAC, Federation, reverse proxy, appliance operations • Strong expertise in SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OIDC, JWT, metadata, certificates, token claims, trust configuration • Hands-on JavaScript mapping rule development for SAML, OAuth, OIDC, attribute transformation, custom authentication logic • IBM Security Directory Server, LDAP schema, replication, indexing, tuning, SSL/TLS • Certificates, PKI, TLS, Linux/Unix, load balancers, DNS, networking basics, logging, monitoring, production incident handling • Shell scripting, Python, JavaScript, REST APIs, log analysis, support automation Preferred Qualifications • IBM Verify (SaaS) experience — a strong plus given the client's environment, but not required • IBM Security Identity Manager / IBM Security Verify Governance familiarity • IBM Security Directory Integrator experience • Azure AD / Microsoft Entra ID, AWS Cognito, or other cloud IdP integration experience • Kubernetes or OpenShift experience • Experience leading IAM migration, modernization, consolidation, or platform upgrade initiatives • Experience creating architecture diagrams, technical design documents, SOPs, runbooks Key Competencies • Strong analytical and troubleshooting mindset for high-severity production issues • Ability to lead technical discussions with application, infrastructure, network, security, and vendor teams • Strong documentation skills for runbooks, architecture notes, implementation plans, rollback plans, knowledge transfer material • Clear communication for status updates, issue summaries, root cause analysis, stakeholder reporting • End-to-end troubleshooting across ISVA/ISAM, WebSEAL, AAC, federation, mapping rules, IBM Security Directory Server, LDAP, certificates, DNS, load balancers • Ability to analyze request flows, authentication traces, policy decisions, junction behavior, HTTP headers, cookies, session issues • Hands-on debugging of SAML/OAuth/OIDC issues: metadata mismatch, assertion validation, signature/encryption failures, redirect URI problems, clock skew, certificate trust failures Originally posted on Himalayas