· Identity & Access Management
Identity & Access Management

Identity & Access Management

Identity and Access Management (IAM) technologies enable secure authentication, authorization, and user identity governance across enterprise systems. SAML dominates enterprise SSO with >10% prevalence in Security Engineering positions, enabling federated authentication across organizations. OAuth and OAuth 2.0 power modern API authorization (>10% combined in security roles), while OpenID Connect (OIDC) adds identity layer atop OAuth for authentication (>5%). Directory services like Active Directory maintain strong enterprise presence (>10% in security engineering) for centralized identity management, with LDAP providing the underlying protocol (>5%). Legacy authentication like Kerberos persists in Windows environments. Identity providers like Okta enable cloud-based IAM (>5% prevalence), while specialized tools like SailPoint handle identity governance and CyberArk manages privileged access. Supporting concepts include SSO (>5% prevalence), PKI for certificate management (>10%), and JWT for token-based authentication (>5% in API development). Entry-level accessibility is moderate for foundational concepts like OAuth, Active Directory, and LDAP (>5-10% in entry-level security roles), though IAM typically requires security expertise. These technologies are essential for Security Engineering careers and increasingly relevant for backend engineers implementing authentication, with expertise spanning protocol implementation, directory services, federation, and compliance requirements like GDPR and SOC 2.

Authentication & Authorization Protocols

Standards and protocols enabling secure authentication and authorization flows. SAML dominates enterprise federation, OAuth powers API authorization, OIDC provides modern authentication, LDAP enables directory access, and Kerberos serves Windows authentication. These protocols are foundational to security engineering with moderate entry-level accessibility.

SAML

Moderate Demand
Rank: #1
Entry-Level: Low
Security Assertion Markup Language in Security Engineering (>10%), IoT Systems Development (>5%), and enterprise SSO contexts. Lower entry-level accessibility. XML-based federation protocol. Used for enterprise single sign-on, federated identity management, cross-domain authentication, service provider and identity provider integration, B2B authentication, enabling users to access multiple applications with single login, and standard for enterprise SSO implementations.

OAuth

Moderate Demand
Rank: #2
Entry-Level: Low
Authorization framework in Security Engineering (>10%), API Design & Development (>5%), IoT Systems Development (>5%), and API security contexts. Lower entry-level presence. Delegated authorization standard. Used for API authorization, third-party app permissions, social login integration, token-based access control, mobile app authentication, microservices security, and enabling applications to access resources on behalf of users without sharing credentials.

OAuth 2.0

Low Demand
Rank: #3
Entry-Level: Low
Modern authorization framework, often listed separately from OAuth in Security Engineering and API contexts (<5% explicit prevalence). Current OAuth standard. Used for same purposes as OAuth: API authorization, access tokens, refresh tokens, various grant types (authorization code, client credentials, etc.), securing REST APIs, and modern standard for delegated authorization in web and mobile applications.

OIDC

Low Demand
Rank: #4
Entry-Level: Low
OpenID Connect authentication layer in Security Engineering (>5%). Limited entry-level demand. Identity layer on OAuth 2.0. Used for authentication with OAuth 2.0, single sign-on, ID tokens with user claims, modern authentication flows, replacing SAML in modern applications, mobile and web app authentication, and providing standardized way to verify user identity built on OAuth 2.0 authorization.

LDAP

Moderate Demand
Rank: #5
Entry-Level: Moderate
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol in Security Engineering (>5%), Systems Integration (>5%), and directory services contexts. Moderate entry-level accessibility with >10% prevalence. Directory access protocol. Used for accessing directory services, querying Active Directory, user authentication, storing organizational data, centralized user management, LDAP bind operations, and protocol underlying directory services like Active Directory and OpenLDAP.

Kerberos

Low Demand
Rank: #6
Entry-Level: Low
Network authentication protocol with limited presence (<5% prevalence). Windows domain authentication. Ticket-based authentication. Used for Windows domain authentication, mutual authentication, single sign-on in Windows environments, Active Directory authentication, trusted third-party authentication, and securing authentication in networked environments without transmitting passwords.

Identity Management Systems

Platforms and services for managing user identities, access rights, and authentication. Active Directory dominates enterprise directory services, Okta provides cloud-based identity, SailPoint enables governance, and CyberArk manages privileged access. These systems are central to enterprise security with moderate entry-level opportunities for foundational technologies.

Active Directory

Moderate Demand
Rank: #1
Entry-Level: Moderate
Microsoft's directory service in Security Engineering (>10%), Systems Integration, and Windows enterprise environments. Moderate entry-level demand with >10% prevalence. Windows domain controller. Used for centralized user management, group policies, authentication in Windows domains, LDAP directory, Kerberos authentication, single sign-on, computer management, organizational units, and foundational identity infrastructure in Microsoft-centric enterprises.

Okta

Low Demand
Rank: #2
Entry-Level: Low
Cloud identity platform in Security Engineering (>5%). Lower entry-level accessibility. Identity-as-a-Service provider. Used for cloud-based identity management, SSO across cloud applications, multi-factor authentication, lifecycle management, API access management, adaptive authentication, integrating SaaS applications, and organizations seeking cloud-native identity solution without on-premise infrastructure.

SailPoint

Low Demand
Rank: #3
Entry-Level: Low
Identity governance platform with limited presence (<5% prevalence). Enterprise identity governance. Minimal entry-level demand. Used for identity governance and administration (IGA), access certifications and reviews, role-based access control, compliance reporting, automated provisioning/deprovisioning, separation of duties enforcement, and enterprises requiring comprehensive identity governance for regulatory compliance.

CyberArk

Low Demand
Rank: #4
Entry-Level: Low
Privileged access management platform in Security Engineering (>5%). Limited entry-level opportunities. PAM solution. Used for privileged account security, password vaulting, session management and recording, least privilege enforcement, protecting administrator credentials, securing DevOps secrets, and organizations requiring protection of privileged accounts and credentials.

Security Concepts & Standards

Foundational security concepts and technologies supporting identity and access management. SSO enables unified authentication, PKI provides certificate infrastructure, and JWT enables stateless token authentication. These concepts are essential across security and backend engineering with moderate entry-level accessibility.

SSO

Moderate Demand
Rank: #1
Entry-Level: Low
Single Sign-On capability in Security Engineering (>5%) and enterprise authentication contexts. Lower entry-level accessibility. Unified authentication concept. Used for authenticating once to access multiple applications, improving user experience, reducing password fatigue, centralizing authentication, SAML or OIDC implementations, enterprise productivity, and reducing help desk calls for password resets.

PKI

Moderate Demand
Rank: #2
Entry-Level: Low
Public Key Infrastructure in Security Engineering (>10%). Lower entry-level demand. Certificate management framework. Used for digital certificates and certificate authorities, SSL/TLS certificates, code signing, email encryption, authentication with certificates, trust hierarchies, managing cryptographic keys, and providing framework for secure communications and digital signatures.

JWT

Low Demand
Rank: #3
Entry-Level: Low
JSON Web Token in API Design & Development (>5%), Security Engineering (>5%), and API authentication contexts. Lower prevalence. Compact token format. Used for stateless authentication, API tokens, OAuth 2.0 access tokens, transmitting claims between parties, microservices authentication, mobile app tokens, single sign-on tokens, and encoding authentication/authorization data in compact, URL-safe JSON format.