Access Governance & Compliance Operations Consultant

G MASS are seeking an Access Governance & Compliance Operations Consultant to join the Legal & Compliance function of a leading global financial services firm, operating across both its hedge fund and broker-dealer entities. This is an embedded, programme ownership role covering access governance, entitlements management, and compliance control monitoring across the firm. The successful candidate will take full day-to-day ownership of a well-established programme, running it independently from day one. The programme is mature with strong controls and significant automation already in place; the new hire will inherit a functioning operation rather than build one from scratch. The role requires someone assertive enough to chase resolution across a large organisation, comfortable engaging engineers and technology teams on systems and access management, and organised enough to manage a broad and varied BAU workload concurrently. This is not a short-term assignment: significant institutional knowledge is required, and the end goal is for the successful candidate to own the programme outright. You'll be joining a close-knit three-person compliance team at one of the most prominent names in global finance, with genuine long-term progression on offer. After year one, there is the opportunity to convert to a full-time employee. The role is based five days per week on-site in Midtown, New York. The target start date is August 2026. Responsibilities Own the end-to-end management of access controls separating two distinct entities within the same firm, ensuring all controls remain accurate and fit for purpose Coordinate the rollout of new access control groupings across systems and teams, following an established playbook and ensuring all relevant parties are engaged through to completion Monitor daily exception reports, investigating anomalies with system owners and determining whether activity constitutes a control breach or misconfiguration Administer access controls across Active Directory, Unix groups, JIRA, SharePoint, and service accounts, ensuring permissions accurately reflect required separations Manage physical access controls including badge and door access, floor and building separation, and weekly desk move approvals Review employee transfers across divisions, assessing whether a control boundary is crossed, and deactivating and reissuing system access accordingly Administer new department access assignments, reviewing and approving configurations for new teams as they are created Manage a shared resources tracking process for technology infrastructure shared between two related entities, reviewing new requests, maintaining existing entries, and removing resources no longer in use Review and approve new software requests from a compliance and access perspective, as one of three reviewers alongside information security and engineering Administer entitlements across the Legal and Compliance function, ensuring access rights are granted at the appropriate level within internal access management systems Conduct annual audits of access control groups and shared resource tracking on a sampling basis to confirm controls remain fit for purpose Perform periodic testing of Active Directory and Unix access groups to verify that technical controls are functioning as intended Track workstreams and report on team accomplishments to senior leadership via JIRA, and act as a central coordination figure within the team Background in identity and access management (IAM), access governance, control room compliance, or compliance operations; candidates need not come from a hedge fund or broker-dealer environment Experience administering or reviewing access controls within a regulated or enterprise environment, financial services or otherwise Comfortable engaging engineers and technology teams on systems architecture, logical access separation, and entitlement configuration without needing a technical background Proven ability to operate with persistence across a large, matrixed organisation, chasing resolution from senior and diverse stakeholders across business, technology, risk, and operations Highly organised with the ability to manage a broad, concurrent BAU workload without dropping detail Confident enough to flag violations and hold the line on control requirements across the firm Familiarity with JIRA is advantageous but not essential Pay: $1,000-1,100/d Length: initial 12-months, with the potential to be made permanent