Systems Engineering & Identity Responsibility (SEIR-I)
A 1.5-Year Applied Program in Cloud Infrastructure, Identity, and Federated Trust
Infrastructure decides what can exist. Identity decides who is trusted. This program teaches both — responsibly.
2️⃣ Program Length
18 months (1.5 years) Designed as an apprenticeship-style program, not a sprint. Identity systems take time to understand because mistakes are irreversible.
Systems Engineering & Identity Responsibility (SEIR-I) is a 18 month applied program focused on how identity, access, and trust are designed and operated in modern cloud environments. While many programs treat identity as a configuration detail, this program treats identity as a primary system of responsibility. Students learn how access is granted, extended, audited, and recovered across cloud platforms.
This program uses Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as the primary infrastructure environment, with Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory) as the identity authority. Students learn how identity is extended from Microsoft into GCP using federation, SSO, and modern authentication protocols. The emphasis is not on setup alone, but on understanding failure modes, blast radius, and recovery.
Students are trained to work with identity systems carefully and deliberately. Identity changes are slow by design, difficult to reverse, and often high impact. This program teaches how to reason about identity decisions before they are made, how to verify trust relationships, and how to debug access failures using evidence rather than guesswork.
Automation plays a central role. Students use PowerShell and infrastructure-as-code to manage identity and access at scale. They learn how to automate safely, how to log identity events, and how to produce audit-ready artifacts. AI tools are introduced as bounded assistants for analysis and summarization, never as decision makers.
SEIR-I is designed for students who want to be trusted with systems that control access to people, data, and infrastructure. A college degree is not required. What matters is patience, consistency, and respect for responsibility. This program is not fast, not easy, and not casual — it is real.
3️⃣ Summary of Skills to Be Learned This program focuses on who is allowed to do what, where, and why — across clouds.
Core Cloud & Infrastructure Skills Google Cloud Platform (GCP) infrastructure design Networking, compute, and platform services in GCP Infrastructure-as-Code with Terraform CI/CD and automation pipelines Evidence-based debugging and operational reasoning
Identity & Access Management (Primary Focus) Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory) architecture (Microsoft Azure Active Directory) Identity lifecycle management Extending identity from Microsoft to Google Cloud (Google Cloud Platform) Federation using SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect Single Sign-On (SSO) design and enforcement Cross-cloud trust boundaries Least privilege and blast-radius control
Automation & Tooling PowerShell for identity and infrastructure automation Secure scripting practices Change control for identity systems Logging and audit artifacts for identity events
AI (Used Correctly) Using AI (OpenAI) and Vertex as a bounded assistant AI for analysis and summarization, not authority Human-in-the-loop enforcement for identity decisions
4️⃣ Relevance to the Job Market
Identity is no longer a side skill. It is the control plane of modern systems. This program prepares students for roles where trust, access, and failure matter.
Relevant Job Roles Identity & Access Management (IAM) Engineer Cloud Identity Engineer Platform Engineer (Identity-focused) Security Engineer (IAM / Federation) Enterprise Systems Engineer Cloud Infrastructure Engineer with IAM ownership
Why This Skill Set Is in Demand Multi-cloud environments are now normal Identity failures cause the most expensive incidents Federation mistakes are hard to reverse Companies need engineers who understand trust, not just tools
Graduates are trained to: design identity systems that scale debug access failures without panic explain identity risk to non-technical leadership operate under audit and compliance pressure
These skills are rare and increasingly well-paid.
5️⃣ Description of Challenge Labs Engineered Difficulty for Identity Systems Identity labs are not demos. They are controlled encounters with risk.
Challenge Lab Examples “The Lockout Lab” Automation succeeds. Access fails. Students must recover identity access without breaking trust boundaries.
Teaches: Recovery discipline Why identity changes must be slow and deliberate
“Federation That Worked Yesterday” SSO breaks after a seemingly unrelated change. Students must prove where trust failed across clouds.
Teaches: Federation fragility Evidence-based debugging Cross-team communication
“Blast Radius of Identity” A permissions change works as intended — and exposes too much.
Teaches: Least privilege Why identity errors are more dangerous than infrastructure errors
“AI Was Confident — and Wrong” AI summarizes identity risk incorrectly. Logs and audit trails disagree.
Teaches: Human accountability Evidence over confidence Guardrails for AI use
Midpoint Identity Suffering Week A structured sequence of identity failures: access denial federation breakage conditional access conflicts
With built-in recovery and reflection.
Teaches: Calm under pressure Respect for identity systems Professional judgment
Optional: Relevant Certifications (Not Required, Not the Goal) Certifications are supporting tools, not outcomes. Students may optionally pursue: Microsoft SC-300 (Identity and Access Administrator) Microsoft AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer Google Professional Cloud Architect
These certifications align naturally with the curriculum but are not substitutes for judgment.
