Active Directory SME

About The Job:

• Experience: 10+ years in enterprise infrastructure support, including at least 5 years of hands-on Active Directory administration and troubleshooting (recommended)
• We are seeking an experienced Active Directory & Entra ID Level 3 Subject Matter Expert (SME) to provide advanced technical administration, troubleshooting, maintenance and operational support for the customer's enterprise Active Directory and hybrid identity infrastructure.
• The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring the availability, stability, security, performance and operational resilience of Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), DNS, DHCP, Group Policy and Microsoft Entra ID environments.
• The role requires strong hands-on experience in diagnosing and resolving complex authentication, directory replication, domain controller, DNS resolution, DHCP availability, Group Policy and hybrid identity synchronisation issues.
• The SME will work closely with customer Technology Owners, Kyndryl Infrastructure Technical Leads, Windows Server, Network, Security and Cloud teams to ensure reliable and secure identity infrastructure operations.

Essential Job Functions:
Active Directory Infrastructure Operations and Administration

• Provide L3 technical support for enterprise Active Directory Domain Services across multiple domains, sites and locations.
• Administer and troubleshoot domain controllers, Active Directory forests, domains, trusts, sites and replication topology.
• Diagnose and resolve complex Active Directory replication failures, authentication issues, Kerberos and LDAP-related problems.
• Manage and troubleshoot Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) roles, Global Catalog services and domain controller availability.
• Investigate and resolve Active Directory database, SYSVOL replication, DFSR and domain controller health issues.
• Support domain controller provisioning, upgrades, patching, migration and decommissioning.
• Administer delegated Active Directory Organisational Units (OUs), computer accounts, security groups and permissions.
• Perform proactive Active Directory health checks, performance monitoring and configuration validation.
• Maintain Active Directory infrastructure documentation, operational procedures and recovery runbooks.

DNS Infrastructure Administration and Troubleshooting

• Administer and provide L3 support for enterprise Microsoft DNS infrastructure.
• Troubleshoot complex name resolution issues affecting servers, applications, authentication and network connectivity.
• Manage and troubleshoot DNS zones, conditional forwarders, delegation, recursive queries and DNS replication.
• Investigate Active Directory-integrated DNS issues, including missing or incorrect SRV records and dynamic DNS registration failures.
• Diagnose DNS resolution failures affecting domain controller discovery, authentication and application connectivity.
• Perform DNS configuration changes, health checks, maintenance and performance optimisation.
• Work with Network and Application teams to resolve DNS-related infrastructure incidents.

DHCP Infrastructure Administration and Troubleshooting

• Administer and troubleshoot Microsoft DHCP Server infrastructure.
• Manage DHCP scopes, reservations, exclusions, options and lease configurations.
• Diagnose DHCP address allocation failures, scope exhaustion, lease renewal issues and IP address conflicts.
• Configure, monitor and troubleshoot DHCP failover and high-availability arrangements.
• Investigate DHCP relay and IP helper-related issues in collaboration with Network teams.
• Monitor DHCP service health, scope utilisation and capacity requirements.
• Support DHCP server migrations, configuration updates and disaster recovery activities.

Microsoft Entra ID and Hybrid Identity Support

• Provide advanced technical support for Microsoft Entra ID and hybrid identity environments.
• Troubleshoot hybrid identity synchronisation issues between on-premises Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID.
• Investigate Microsoft Entra Connect Sync / Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync failures, where deployed.
• Diagnose user authentication, sign-in, account synchronisation and identity-related access issues.
• Troubleshoot Single Sign-On (SSO), federation and hybrid authentication problems.
• Investigate issues involving Conditional Access, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and identity security policies.
• Support identity lifecycle activities, including provisioning, deprovisioning, account enablement and access troubleshooting.
• Analyse Microsoft Entra sign-in logs, audit logs and identity-related security events.
• Collaborate with Cloud, Security and Application teams on complex hybrid identity incidents.

Group Policy Administration and Troubleshooting

• Administer and troubleshoot Group Policy Objects (GPOs) across enterprise Windows Server environments.
• Investigate GPO processing failures, policy conflicts, replication issues and inconsistent policy application.
• Troubleshoot Group Policy inheritance, security filtering, WMI filtering and loopback processing.
• Analyse Group Policy operational logs, Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) and GPResult outputs.
• Support controlled deployment, modification, validation and rollback of Group Policy changes.
• Maintain secure configuration baselines and ensure Group Policy compliance with customer standards.

Incident, Problem and Change Management

• Act as the Level 3 escalation point for complex Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and Entra ID incidents.
• Provide technical support during P1/P2 incidents affecting enterprise authentication, identity services and core infrastructure.
• Diagnose service outages, domain controller failures, DNS resolution problems and hybrid authentication disruptions.
• Conduct detailed root cause analysis (RCA) and implement corrective and preventive actions.
• Work with Microsoft Support and relevant technical teams to resolve complex infrastructure issues.
• Execute approved infrastructure changes, patches, upgrades and configuration modifications.
• Ensure incidents, problems, service requests and changes are recorded and managed through ServiceNow.
• Participate in major incident bridges and coordinate technical restoration activities.

Security, Compliance and Identity Protection

• Maintain Active Directory and Entra ID security configurations in accordance with customer security policies.
• Apply least-privilege access principles and secure administrative permissions.
• Support privileged access management and identity security controls.
• Review and troubleshoot account lockouts, authentication failures and suspicious directory activity.
• Maintain domain controller security configurations, patching and hardening baselines.
• Support periodic access reviews, security assessments and compliance audits.
• Identify and remediate security vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
• Ensure identity infrastructure complies with applicable information security standards.

Automation and Operational Improvement

• Develop and maintain PowerShell scripts for Active Directory administration, health checks and operational reporting.
• Automate repetitive activities involving account administration, group membership, DNS records and infrastructure monitoring.
• Develop scripts to identify Active Directory replication failures, inactive accounts and configuration inconsistencies.
• Support automation of incident remediation, service requests and infrastructure health monitoring.
• Integrate approved automation workflows with ServiceNow and enterprise operational tooling.
• Identify opportunities to improve service reliability, reduce manual effort and prevent recurring incidents.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives and infrastructure operational efficiency.

Disaster Recovery and Infrastructure Resilience

• Support backup, recovery and disaster recovery procedures for Active Directory Domain Services.
• Participate in domain controller recovery, system state restoration and directory service recovery testing.
• Maintain and validate procedures for authoritative and non-authoritative Active Directory recovery.
• Support DNS and DHCP service recovery and high-availability testing.
• Validate identity infrastructure dependencies during disaster recovery exercises.
• Maintain technical documentation, recovery procedures and operational runbooks.

Qualifications:
Mandatory Technical Skills

Active Directory Domain Services

• Strong hands-on expertise in Windows Server Active Directory Domain Services.
• Deep understanding of forests, domains, trusts, FSMO roles, sites, replication and Global Catalog services.
• Proven experience troubleshooting AD replication, Kerberos, LDAP, authentication and domain controller issues.
• Experience with tools such as DCDiag, Repadmin, Event Viewer and PowerShell.

DNS

• Advanced troubleshooting experience with Microsoft DNS Server.
• Strong understanding of DNS zones, conditional forwarding, delegation, dynamic DNS and Active Directory-integrated DNS.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex DNS resolution and domain controller discovery issues.

DHCP

• Experience administering and troubleshooting Microsoft DHCP services.
• Strong understanding of DHCP scopes, reservations, options, leases and failover.
• Ability to diagnose address allocation failures, scope exhaustion and DHCP relay issues.

Microsoft Entra ID

• Hands-on experience supporting Microsoft Entra ID and hybrid Active Directory environments.
• Experience troubleshooting directory synchronisation and cloud authentication issues.
• Understanding of MFA, Conditional Access, SSO and hybrid identity integration.
• Experience investigating sign-in failures and identity-related security events.

Group Policy

• Strong experience in GPO administration, configuration and troubleshooting.
• Knowledge of Group Policy inheritance, security filtering, WMI filtering and policy processing.

PowerShell and Automation

• Strong PowerShell scripting skills for Active Directory and Windows infrastructure administration.
• Ability to develop scripts for monitoring, administration, troubleshooting and reporting.

Infrastructure Operations

• Strong L3 troubleshooting experience within complex enterprise environments.
• Experience supporting Windows Server infrastructure and core infrastructure services.
• Incident, problem and change management experience using ServiceNow or equivalent ITSM tooling.
• Experience preparing technical RCA reports and supporting critical production incidents.

Desirable Skills

• Microsoft Entra Connect Sync and Cloud Sync implementation experience.
• Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
• Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS).
• Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM).
• Microsoft Entra Identity Protection.
• Experience with multi-forest and multi-domain enterprise environments.
• Active Directory migration and consolidation experience.
• Experience supporting geographically distributed and hybrid cloud infrastructure.
• Familiarity with Azure, AWS and cloud-hosted Windows Server environments.

Qualifications and Certifications

Preferred certifications:

• Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate, or relevant successor certification.
• Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300).
• ITIL Foundation certification (advantageous).

Expected Outcomes

• Maintain stable, secure and reliable Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and hybrid identity services.
• Provide effective L3 troubleshooting and resolution of complex identity infrastructure incidents.
• Support timely restoration of authentication and directory services during critical incidents.
• Reduce recurring Active Directory replication, DNS, DHCP and authentication failures.
• Maintain infrastructure compliance with customer security and operational standards.
• Improve proactive monitoring, health checks and infrastructure reliability.
• Increase automation of routine directory administration and troubleshooting tasks.
• Support successful disaster recovery and infrastructure resilience testing.
• Maintain accurate operational documentation, technical runbooks and RCA records.
• Contribute to measurable service stability and operational efficiency improvements.

How to Apply:Interested candidates are encouraged to respond/submit their updated resumes, and for additional job opportunities, please visitJobs In India – VARITE.

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About VARITE: VARITE is a global staffing and IT consulting company providing technical consulting and team augmentation services to Fortune 500 Companies in USA, UK, CANADA and INDIA. VARITE is currently a primary and direct vendor to the leading corporations in the verticals of Networking, Cloud Infrastructure, Hardware and Software, Digital Marketing and Media Solutions, Clinical Diagnostics, Utilities, Gaming and Entertainment, and Financial Services.

Equal Opportunity Employer:
VARITE is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.