About Me
Bob Dolan
I'm a technology leader with over two decades of experience spanning hands-on software engineering and executive management. My career has been defined by a passion for solving complex identity challenges in highly regulated industries — from financial services and healthcare to government and critical infrastructure.
As a principal software engineer turned manager, I bring a rare dual perspective: I understand the code at a deep level and the organizational dynamics needed to ship secure, reliable identity solutions at either enterprise or web scale.
My expertise centers on Identity and Access Management (IAM), Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Zero Trust architecture. I've led teams that have designed and delivered identity platforms protecting hundreds of millions of digital identities across global enterprises.
20+
Years Experience
IAM
Core Specialty
Enterprise+
Scale Focus
Career History
Experience
ezCater
Boston, MA
September 2022 – May 2025
Senior Engineering Manager & Product Manager – Identity and Access Management
- ▸Led enterprise IAM strategy, roadmap, and execution across both workforce and customer identity domains.
- ▸Owned multi-year IAM strategy encompassing authentication, authorization, user preferences, consent, workforce lifecycle management, access governance, and privileged access.
- ▸Built the IAM organization from inception; led product managers, engineers, and architects delivering a unified identity platform supporting 10M+ users across workforce, consumer, and partner ecosystems.
- ▸Delivered modern workforce IAM and CIAM capabilities using Okta/Auth0, OAuth/OIDC, SAML, SSO, SCIM, MFA, RBAC/ABAC, and automated JML workflows.
- ▸Implemented lifecycle automation and workforce provisioning integrations across HR, IT, security, and B2B partner systems; reduced provisioning time by 72%.
Pearson Education
Boston, MA
June 2014 – September 2022
Associate Director – Identity and Access Management
April 2020 – September 2022Directed global IAM engineering teams (25 personnel including managers, technical leads, and senior engineers) responsible for workforce IAM, CIAM, governance, and privileged access supporting millions of users globally.
- ▸Defined enterprise IAM strategy across workforce lifecycle, access governance, privileged access, identity governance, and authentication modernization.
- ▸Modernized Identity Governance by adopting SailPoint and revamping processes related to access request and approval, access certification and review, attestations, roles and policy management, and compliance and audit.
- ▸Refashioned the enterprise Privileged Access approach by adopting CyberArk and migrating all privileged accounts to the vault, implementing password rotation, credential checkout, access expiration, and JIT access policies.
- ▸Designed and rolled out a modern CIAM platform consolidating multiple legacy systems; improved uptime from 98.6% to 99.99% and reduced incident volume by 90%+.
- ▸Built a centralized custom consent management platform used by multiple internal partners to collect, manage, and store user consent for data collection, specifically for GDPR and CCPA compliance.
Senior Software Development Manager – Identity and Access Management
April 2016 – April 2020Led multiple global teams (18 people including managers and technical leads) delivering both cloud and legacy IAM capabilities at very high scale.
- ▸Restored availability and performance of a mission-critical IAM platform; reduced critical incidents by 94% and established on-call and incident response best practices.
- ▸Directed delivery of microservices-based access management on AWS while driving stability improvements across legacy systems.
- ▸Managed budgets, multi-year roadmaps, SLAs, operational reviews, and stakeholder alignment across Security, Engineering, Architecture, and Compliance.
- ▸Championed servant leadership and engineering and operational best practices across teams.
Software Development Manager – Identity and Access Management
June 2014 – April 2016Led a dynamic tiger team in collaboration with Pivotal Labs, tasked with developing a state-of-the-art access management system leveraging RESTful microservices on AWS.
- ▸Delivered the initial version of a cloud-based access management system; built and transitioned work to a permanent Boston engineering team.
- ▸Enabled cross-functional alignment through strong stakeholder collaboration with Product, Architecture, Security, and Operations.
- ▸Implemented Agile/Scrum and modern engineering practices; reduced technical debt via code reviews and architecture improvements.
- ▸Coached engineers and conducted performance reviews to grow internal talent.
Brown Brothers Harriman
Boston, MA
July 2008 – June 2014
Assistant Vice President / Software Architect / Technical Lead
- ▸Architected and developed applications in a distributed environment supporting the trading, operations, and relationship management aspects of the global securities lending business.
- ▸Led onboarding and provisioning of clients into the securities lending platform.
- ▸Integrated IAM controls into internal and client-facing applications in a regulated financial environment.
IBM / Lotus Development Corporation
Cambridge, MA
May 1997 – July 2008
Software Architect / Principal Software Engineer / Technical Lead
- ▸Delivered scalable, secure, and reliable authentication and authorization functionality for several enterprise and customer-facing products.
- ▸Built APIs and SDKs for secure integration across enterprise systems.
Academic & Professional
Education & Certifications
Degrees
Bachelor of Science, Computer and Systems Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Concentration in Software Engineering. Dean's List.
Certifications
Certified Identity Management Professional (CIMP)
IDSA
Current
SailPoint Certified IdentityIQ Engineer
SailPoint Technologies
Current
Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate
Microsoft
Current
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
ISC²
Current
AWS Certified Security – Specialty
Amazon Web Services
Current
What I Bring
Skills & Expertise
IAM Platforms
IAM Protocols & Standards
Cloud & Infrastructure
Governance & Compliance
Leadership & Strategy
Languages
Web Services
NoSQL Databases
SQL Databases
Messaging
What Others Say
Testimonials
“Bob is the kind of manager every engineer hopes to work with. He trusted me with high-visibility, company-critical initiatives and always ensured I had the context and support to deliver. His real-time feedback was invaluable. He has a thoughtful way of coaching that sharpens your technical decision-making without ever feeling heavy-handed. Bob played a major role in my growth toward a tech-lead path.”
“I was always impressed with Bob's depth and breadth of knowledge — not just of the applications directly under his purview, but of the entire Pearson ecosystem and its countless integrations, dependencies, and edge cases. He was usually my first call when I had questions. When I eventually joined one of his teams, it was refreshing to work with an engineering manager who saw the big picture and treated Product as an equal. We co-managed systems supporting millions of users, and I could always count on him to put those users first and give his honest, unbiased perspective. He's comfortable speaking truth to power and sticks to his position even when it doesn't align with popular opinion.”
“Bob hired me as a senior developer and I was under his management for the past three years. It was a great experience. Bob is an excellent manager with strong leadership and communication skills. He cares not only about the projects but also about the professional growth of his developers. He is technically strong and knows the applications very well — he can always point you in the right direction when needed. When we hit hurdles and needed help from management or communication with other teams, he was always there and resolved issues quickly. It was a great pleasure to work for Bob.”
Get In Touch
Contact Me
Whether you're looking to discuss an IAM challenge, explore a collaboration, or simply connect — I'd love to hear from you.