Implementation Engineer

Location: Newark, NJ

Essential Functions:

• Install, configure, and validate SPHEREboard components, including application services, connectors, agents, and data collectors.
• Integrate SPHEREboard with directory services, identity platforms, databases, cloud platforms, infrastructure systems, and other enterprise data sources.
• Execute implementation activities in accordance with the approved scope, project plan, security requirements, and change-management processes.
• Validate data ingestion, normalization, completeness, and visualization within SPHEREboard before promoting integrations to production use.

• Serve as a dependable customer-facing technical partner throughout discovery, implementation, testing, and transition to operations.
• Build trusted relationships by listening carefully, understanding the customer's business and security objectives, and aligning technical work to the outcomes they are trying to achieve.
• Translate complex technical concepts, risks, and decisions into clear language appropriate for technical teams, project managers, and business stakeholders.
• Set and manage expectations by communicating progress, dependencies, risks, blockers, and next steps promptly and accurately; avoid surprises and close the loop on commitments.
• Lead or actively participate in customer workshops, technical working sessions, status meetings, and issue-resolution calls with professionalism and preparation.
• Respond to questions and concerns with patience, urgency, and ownership, coordinating across internal teams when resolution requires additional expertise.
• Maintain composure during difficult conversations or high-impact issues, focusing discussions on facts, options, ownership, and a practical path forward.
• Advocate for both customer success and a supportable solution by identifying scope changes, operational risks, or unsupported approaches early and escalating them appropriately.

• Collaborate with customer and internal teams to gather technical, security, access, infrastructure, and operational requirements.
• Analyze the existing environment and identify integration points, prerequisites, dependencies, constraints, and potential implementation risks.
• Confirm ownership and readiness of customer-provided items such as servers, service accounts, firewall rules, certificates, source inventories, and test data.
• Document environmental configurations, decisions, assumptions, open questions, and acceptance criteria so all stakeholders share a common understanding.

• Troubleshoot end to end across identity systems, operating systems, networks, DNS, ports and firewalls, permissions, certificates, application services, databases, connectors, and source data.
• Use logs, queries, system utilities, and controlled testing to isolate root causes and distinguish product issues from environmental or configuration issues.
• Work with Engineering, Product, Cloud, Security, and Support teams to escalate complex problems with complete evidence, business impact, and reproducible details.
• Implement and validate solutions with a security-first mindset and in compliance with customer policies and approved change procedures.

• Create and maintain implementation documentation, including architecture and environment details, configuration records, runbooks, test evidence, validation results, and support procedures.
• Keep project records current so decisions, dependencies, risks, actions, and configuration changes are traceable.
• Provide customer administrator training and knowledge transfer that enables reliable ownership after deployment.
• Contribute lessons learned, reusable scripts, deployment guidance, and troubleshooting knowledge to internal repositories.

• Develop and troubleshoot SQL queries, views, stored procedures, and data mappings needed to support implementations and validate results.
• Reconcile source inventories against ingested data and investigate gaps, duplicates, exceptions, and unexpected results.
• Produce clear validation summaries that demonstrate coverage, data quality, connector performance, and readiness for customer acceptance.

• Work under the direction of the Implementation Manager to execute assigned work, manage priorities, and report status accurately.
• Partner with project management and technical teams to maintain momentum, identify schedule impacts early, and drive assigned actions to completion.
• Participate in internal stand-ups, customer check-ins, technical reviews, retrospectives, and handoff activities.
• Provide actionable feedback to Product and Engineering on deployment challenges, recurring customer needs, and opportunities to improve the platform and implementation process.

• Deployment quality, configuration accuracy, data integrity, and successful connector validation.
• Completion of assigned implementation phases and action items within agreed timelines.
• Customer confidence and satisfaction with communication, ownership, responsiveness, and technical execution.
• Early identification and effective management of risks, dependencies, and blockers.
• Quality and completeness of documentation, test evidence, training, and operational handoff.
• Effectiveness of troubleshooting, escalation quality, and time to resolution for technical issues.

Requirements:

• 3+ years of experience in systems engineering, systems administration, application implementation, professional services, or enterprise technical support.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with enterprise customers on technical deployments, integrations, upgrades, or complex issue resolution.
• Working knowledge of Windows Server and Linux/UNIX administration, including services, permissions, file systems, logs, and command-line troubleshooting.
• Experience with identity and directory technologies such as Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, LDAP, or Okta, plus a practical understanding of identity and access management concepts.
• Understanding of enterprise networking and security fundamentals, including DNS, TCP/IP, ports and firewalls, proxies, TLS, certificates, and service accounts.
• Proficiency with SQL for data analysis and troubleshooting, including joins, filtering, reconciliation, and validation within relational databases.
• Ability to use or develop scripts in PowerShell, Bash, Python, or a similar language to automate repeatable technical tasks.
• Strong analytical, organizational, documentation, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and follow issues through resolution.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, sound judgment, and a customer-service mindset suited to both technical and nontechnical audiences.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience implementing or supporting identity governance, privileged access, security, compliance, or data-governance platforms.
• Familiarity with technologies such as CyberArk, CMDB, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, or other enterprise infrastructure and database platforms.
• Experience with both SaaS and self-hosted enterprise software deployments, particularly in regulated or security-conscious environments.
• Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, cybersecurity, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Relevant technical certifications in Microsoft, Linux, cloud, networking, databases, security, or identity and access management.

Why Join Us:

• Join a high-growth company shaping the future of identity security.
• Be part of a collaborative culture that values innovation, transparency, and teamwork.
• Work in a dynamic environment alongside talented colleagues, customers, and industry partners.
• Enjoy a competitive compensation and benefits package with opportunities for professional growth.

About Sphere:

SPHERE is the global leader in Identity Hygiene. We are dedicated to reshaping modern identity programs by embedding this foundational fabric, enabling organizations to quickly reduce risks. We work through an identity lens that protects an organization’s accounts, data, and infrastructure. Our solutions deliver immediate time-to-value by leveraging automation to discover, remediate and secure identities, now and forever. Driven by our core values of passion, empathy, and authenticity, our vision drives us to continually innovate, helping our clients to sleep better knowing their attack surface is drastically reduced, thwarting the plans of bad actors every single day.

To find out more about SPHERE and our solutions, please visit www.sphereco.com

SPHERE is an equal-opportunity employer. Applicants will be evaluated without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.