Senior Active Directory Engineer
M&T Bank · Buffalo · $97,100–$161,800 (stated in the posting)
This role is four days onsite at our Seneca One Buffalo, NY location, with the flexibility to work from home one day per week
Overview:
Responsible for designing, securing, and operating Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in regulated, high-availability environments. Acts as knowledge resource for and trains less experienced engineers. Completes day-to-day support activities and special projects.
Primary Responsibilities:
Enterprise Active Directory Architecture
Proven expertise supporting large-scale, Tier‑1 identity infrastructures with strict uptime, latency, and change‑control requirements
Strong experience with:
Multi-domain and multi-forest designs aligned to business units, regions, or regulatory boundaries
Forest and external trusts supporting M&A, joint ventures, and third-party integrations
FSMO role placement optimized for resilience and auditability
Advanced understanding of Active Directory–integrated DNS, split‑brain DNS, and secure name resolution models
Hybrid Identity & Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD)
Extensive experience integrating on-prem AD with Microsoft Entra ID in regulated financial environments
Hands-on implementation of:
Entra Connect (Cloud Sync and Traditional)
Password Hash Sync, Pass-through Authentication, and Federation
Strong experience with:
Conditional Access aligned to regulatory and risk-based controls
Hybrid Join, Entra ID Join, and legacy device coexistence
Understanding of identity lifecycle controls to support joiners, movers, leavers, and separation-of-duties requirements
Security, Compliance & Risk Controls
Expert-level knowledge of Active Directory security hardening in financial services, including:
Tiered administrative model (Tier 0/1/2)
Dedicated admin forests or hardened admin boundaries (where applicable)
Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs) / Secure Admin Workstations
Experience enforcing least privilege, role separation, and dual‑control models
Deep familiarity with threats targeting financial institutions:
Credential theft, Kerberoasting, Pass-the-Hash/Ticket
Delegation and ACL abuse
Hands-on experience with:
Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
Regular access reviews and entitlement recertification
Strong alignment with Zero Trust and defense-in-depth identity strategies
Regulatory & Audit Readiness
Demonstrated experience supporting audits and controls for financial regulations and frameworks, such as:
SOX, GLBA, PCI DSS, SOC 2
Internal risk management and model governance requirements
Ability to design AD environments that support:
Strong logging and traceability
Tamper-resistant audit logs
Evidence generation for internal and external auditors
Automation & PowerShell
Advanced PowerShell expertise for:
Controlled, auditable administrative changes
Automated provisioning/deprovisioning aligned to compliance workflows
Identity reporting for risk, security, and audit teams
Experience building automation that integrates with:
Change management processes
IAM, ticketing, and security tooling
Operations, Resilience & Recovery
Deep experience managing:
AD replication topology across data centers and regions
SYSVOL (DFSR) health and recovery
Latency-sensitive authentication dependencies
Strong understanding of:
AD backup, recovery, and authoritative restore procedures
Identity disaster recovery scenarios with defined RTO/RPO
Experience implementing monitoring and alerting with a focus on early risk detection
Leadership & Governance
Acts as technical authority and escalation point for all directory and identity services
Defines and enforces:
Enterprise identity standards
Secure configuration baselines
Operational runbooks and procedures
Partners closely with:
Information Security and IAM teams
Risk, audit, and compliance stakeholders
Infrastructure, cloud, and application teams
Mentors engineers and reviews designs from a security and risk-first perspective
Education and Experience Required:
- Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 3 years’ relevant work experience, or in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 7 years’ higher education and/or work experience
Education and Experience Preferred:
- Intermediate understanding of the security system development and infrastructure lifecycle and architecture, and systems design
- Proven experience with the tools utilized in assigned Cybersecurity function
- Experience translating architecture into technical requirements.
- Proficient level of critical thinking and problem solving
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Proven experience collaborating with leaders to execute results.
- Prior experience seeking buy-in of others to align on processes.
- Ability to analyze and draw conclusions based on quantitative data from multiple sources.