Principal Security Architect, Active Directory & Entra ID Backup and Recovery
A hands-on principal architect role owning AvePoint's backup, restore, rollback, and disaster-recovery architecture for Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, and hybrid identity environments. Day to day you define data models and restore workflows, prototype high-risk recovery areas, and guide engineering on a SaaS identity-resilience platform.
- Compensation
- $180K–$270K / yr
- Location
- Chicago, IL, United States
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Principal
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 8+ years
- Category
- Security
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or 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 (design, operations, troubleshooting, migration, or recovery)
- Direct experience with AD backup, restore, object rollback, domain controller recovery, forest recovery, or directory-service disaster recovery
- Strong understanding of AD internals: NTDS.dit, System State, VSS, FSMO roles, RID pools, DSRM, AD-integrated DNS, SYSVOL/DFSR, Group Policy, tombstone lifecycle, Global Catalog, replication, trusts
- Hands-on experience with complex AD topologies (multi-domain forests, multi-forest, forest trusts, account/resource forest models, M&A, regulated environments)
- Deep working knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID and hybrid identity: Entra Connect / Cloud Sync, sourceAnchor/ImmutableID, hard/soft match, Microsoft Graph, administrative units, Conditional Access
- Experience designing or operating backup and recovery workflows with RPO/RTO thinking, recovery point selection, validation, restore ordering, and auditability
- Ability to translate low-level directory behavior into product architecture implementable by distributed engineering teams and understood by stakeholders
- Strong scripting and automation experience: PowerShell, LDAP tooling, Microsoft Graph, Windows Server administration, lab automation
- Track record of designing and shipping deeply technical infrastructure, identity, or data protection products at scale
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills for technical engineers, executives, and customers
Nice to have
- Experience at an AD/Entra backup or recovery vendor
- Familiarity with vendors such as Quest, Semperis, Cayosoft, Netwrix, Commvault, Rubrik, Druva, Veeam, or Microsoft
- Experience with AD migrations, tenant-to-tenant migrations, Entra ID backup/recovery, Okta/AD integration, or hybrid identity modernization
- Microsoft MVP recognition, Microsoft identity certifications, or public technical speaking/writing in AD, Entra ID, or directory services
Full description
About AvePoint:
Beyond Secure. AvePoint is the global leader in data security, governance, and resilience, going beyond traditional solutions to ensure a robust data foundation and enable organizations everywhere to collaborate with confidence. Over 25,000 customers worldwide rely on the AvePoint Confidence Platform to prepare, secure, and optimize their critical data across Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and other collaboration environments. AvePoint’s global channel partner program includes approximately 5,000 managed service providers, value-added resellers, and systems integrators, with our solutions available in more than 100 cloud marketplaces. To learn more, visit .
At AvePoint, we are committed to investing in our people. Agility, passion and teamwork set us up to do our best work and foster a culture where you are empowered to craft your career, make an impact, and own (y)our future. Unleash the power of you!
About the position:
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.
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- 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.