Principal Security Architect, Active Directory & Entra ID Backup and Recovery
AvePoint, Chicago, IL +1
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The role
The Principal Architect for Active Directory & Entra ID Backup and Recovery will be the foundational technical leader for AvePoint's hybrid identity resilience build strategy. This role is focused on the architecture of backup, restore, rollback, and disaster recovery capabilities for Active Directory (AD), Microsoft Entra ID, and hybrid AD/Entra environments.
This is a hands-on, deeply technical architecture role. The person in this role will define how AvePoint captures identity state, protects AD and Entra configuration, restores objects and attributes, handles hybrid source-of-authority rules, and supports complex enterprise topologies such as multi-domain forests, multiple forests, trusts, and Entra Connect / Cloud Sync environments.
This role is intentionally not the primary owner for AD/Entra threat detection, alert rule authoring, SIEM content, or incident response strategy. AvePoint expects to hire a separate AD/Entra security-focused role for ITDR and security detection. The architect in this role will partner closely with that security role, but the core responsibility here is the backup and recovery architecture: how to safely protect and restore Microsoft identity systems when disaster occurs.
The ideal candidate has built, operated, or deeply influenced Active Directory and Entra ID backup/recovery products or services, ideally at a vendor that protects AD, Entra ID, hybrid identity, or directory services at enterprise scale. They should be comfortable with both the low-level realities of AD recovery and the product engineering tradeoffs required to ship a scalable SaaS backup and recovery platform.
What you will do
- Own the end-to-end technical architecture for Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID backup, restore, rollback, and disaster recovery capabilities.
- Define the architecture for protecting AD objects, attributes, group memberships, OUs, GPOs, DNS-related state, SYSVOL, domain controllers, forest metadata, trust relationships, and other recovery-critical directory components.
- Design restore workflows for object-level, attribute-level, group membership, OU, GPO, domain controller, and forest-level recovery, with clear sequencing, validation, retry, and rollback behavior.
- Architect support for enterprise AD topologies, including single-domain/single-forest, multi-domain/single-forest, multi-forest, account/resource forest, forest trust, and hybrid AD-to-Entra scenarios.
- Design the AD collection and backup model, including full-state snapshots, incremental change capture, LDAP/DirSync or equivalent mechanisms, event correlation where useful, system state / VSS considerations, and backup metadata required for reliable recovery.
- Define the hybrid source-of-authority model for AD-synced and cloud-only objects, including Entra Connect / Cloud Sync behavior, sourceAnchor / ImmutableID mapping, hard-match and soft-match considerations, and recovery sequencing when AD is authoritative.
- Extend AvePoint's existing Entra ID protection strategy into a coherent hybrid recovery architecture that understands which objects and settings should be restored in AD first, Entra first, or only in the cloud.
- Partner with Product Management to define realistic MVP scope, phased delivery, technical tradeoffs, customer topology coverage, and acceptance criteria for AD and hybrid identity recovery.
- Partner with Engineering to create architecture documents, data models, sequence diagrams, technical specifications, API expectations, lab plans, validation criteria, and reference implementations.
- Prototype the highest-risk technical areas, such as AD state capture, object/attribute rollback, source-of-authority resolution, Entra Connect re-link validation, or forest recovery orchestration.
- Define lab environments and test scenarios that reflect real customer complexity, including multi-domain forests, multi-forest trusts, hybrid Entra Connect environments, deleted-object recovery, and recovery after failed or partial restores.
- Guide engineering decisions around backup consistency, restore ordering, data retention, metadata requirements, recovery point selection, validation checks, and operational reliability.
- Collaborate with a dedicated AD/Entra security architect on privileged access, secure credential handling, identity attack scenarios, and ITDR signal integration, while keeping this role centered on recovery architecture.
- Serve as the senior technical reviewer for AD and hybrid identity design decisions, ensuring the product is technically correct, scalable, supportable, and aligned with real-world enterprise identity environments.
- Spend time with customers, partners, field engineers, and support teams to validate architecture against real-world AD and hybrid identity deployments.
- Mentor internal engineers and architects on AD recovery concepts, hybrid identity behavior, and the operational realities of enterprise directory services.
What you need
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field; equivalent practical experience strongly considered.
- 12+ years of hands-on technical experience in identity infrastructure, directory services, infrastructure recovery, or enterprise systems engineering.
- 8+ years of deep Active Directory architecture experience, including design, operations, troubleshooting, migration, or recovery of enterprise AD environments.
- Direct experience with Active Directory backup, restore, object rollback, domain controller recovery, forest recovery, or directory-service disaster recovery. Experience at an AD/Entra backup or recovery vendor is strongly preferred.
- Strong understanding of AD internals, including domain controllers, NTDS.dit, System State, VSS, FSMO roles, RID pools, DSRM, AD-integrated DNS, SYSVOL/DFSR, Group Policy, tombstone/deleted-object lifecycle, Global Catalog, sites/services, replication, and trusts.
- Hands-on experience with complex AD topologies such as multi-domain forests, multiple forests, forest trusts, account/resource forest models, mergers and acquisitions, or regulated/segmented directory environments.
- Deep working knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID and hybrid identity, including Entra Connect / Cloud Sync, sourceAnchor / ImmutableID, hard match / soft match behavior, Microsoft Graph, administrative units, Conditional Access dependencies, and cloud-only versus synced object behavior.
- Experience designing or operating backup and recovery workflows with clear RPO/RTO thinking, recovery point selection, validation, restore ordering, auditability, and customer-facing operational simplicity.
- Ability to translate low-level directory behavior into product architecture that can be implemented by distributed engineering teams and understood by product, support, sales engineering, and executive stakeholders.
- Strong scripting and automation experience, especially with PowerShell, LDAP tooling, Microsoft Graph, Windows Server administration, and lab automation.
- Demonstrated track record of designing and shipping deeply technical infrastructure, identity, or data protection products at scale.
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; able to explain AD and hybrid identity recovery tradeoffs to deeply technical engineers, field architects, executives, and customers.
- Bonus: Direct experience at, or deep familiarity with, vendors such as Quest, Semperis, Cayosoft, Netwrix, Commvault, Rubrik, Druva, Veeam, Microsoft, or similar identity/data protection vendors.
- Bonus: Experience with AD migrations, tenant-to-tenant migrations, Entra ID backup/recovery, Okta/AD integration, or hybrid identity modernization.
- Bonus: Microsoft MVP recognition, Microsoft identity certifications, or public technical speaking/writing history in AD, Entra ID, or directory services.
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