One Identity, a prominent provider of unified identity security solutions, has appointed Gihan Munasinghe as its Chief Technology Officer, effective February 2026. This leadership change replaces interim CTO Andrew Hartnett and aims to sharpen the company’s focus on engineering excellence, SaaS acceleration, and customer-driven innovation in identity governance, privileged access management (PAM), and access management (AM). Munasinghe, with more than 15 years of experience leading global engineering teams, will oversee the engineering organization and define the technology roadmap to meet evolving enterprise demands for secure, scalable identity platforms.

CEO Praerit Garg described the hire as essential for execution: “Gihan brings the right combination of technical depth, operational discipline, and customer-first thinking to help us continue innovating and evolving our core platforms, while accelerating our SaaS delivery model that customers increasingly demand.” Munasinghe added, “This is a pivotal moment for One Identity and the identity security industry. Customers expect products that are not only innovative, but also reliable, secure, and easy to consume.” Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, and backed by Clearlake Capital since 2022, One Identity protects over 500 million identities for 11,000 organizations worldwide.

Gihan Munasinghe’s Leadership Pedigree

Munasinghe’s career is marked by transformative roles in enterprise software. Most recently at Smartsheet, he served as Senior Vice President of Engineering for eight years, scaling platforms for work management and collaboration. Previously, he held senior positions at Omada as Chief Product Officer, focusing on identity governance and administration (IGA), and at Quest Software—One Identity’s parent—along with ForgeRock, where he drove product strategy amid acquisitions and cloud migrations.

His expertise lies in modernizing legacy systems, building high-performance cultures, and delivering scalable solutions for distributed environments. At Omada, Munasinghe advanced compliance workflows and access certifications; at ForgeRock, he integrated identity platforms post-EQT acquisition. This background equips him to unify One Identity’s portfolio, addressing hybrid cloud challenges where identities span humans, machines, and APIs.​

Core Challenges in Identity Security Today

Enterprises face unprecedented identity sprawl: non-human accounts have surged 300% in cloud-native setups, fueling ransomware via stolen credentials—up 25% in 2025. Regulatory mandates like GDPR, CCPA, and India’s DPDP Act demand rigorous auditing, while zero-trust models require seamless governance across IGA, PAM, and AM. One Identity’s tools, such as Safeguard for PAM and Password Manager, bridge these gaps, but customers increasingly favor SaaS for agility and lower TCO.​

Munasinghe’s arrival accelerates this shift. His mandate prioritizes AI-powered risk analytics for anomaly detection, predictive access modeling, and automated compliance—reducing breach surfaces proactively. In multi-cloud ecosystems, unified orchestration will minimize silos, supporting endpoints from Active Directory to AWS IAM.​

One Identity’s Platform Strengths and Evolution

One Identity differentiates through integration: a single pane for governance unlike point solutions from CyberArk or Okta. Offerings include flexible deployment—self-managed to fully managed SaaS—ensuring compliance without complexity. The company leads in PAM, preventing lateral movement in breaches, and IGA for automated reviews.

Under Munasinghe, roadmaps will emphasize velocity: quarterly releases informed by customer feedback, cutting deployment times by 50%. This responds to hybrid work’s permanence and AI threats, where machine identities (bots, APIs) outnumber humans 10:1 in some firms.

2026 Tech Ecosystem Context

This appointment mirrors 2026’s leadership pivots amid innovation pressures. PayPal’s shift to HP’s Enrique Lores targets AI-personalized payments, underscoring secure identities for commerce. Climate tech surges, like Varaha’s $45M Series B led by WestBridge for carbon credits, blend sustainability with tech verification—paralleling IAM’s MRV rigor. AI funds, such as Spring Marketing Capital’s INR 500 crore vehicle, fuel tools needing identity layers.

President Donald Trump’s policies since January 2025 inauguration deregulate AI and cloud, boosting U.S.-India ties. Indore and Gurugram emerge as IAM hubs, customizing solutions for SMEs in manufacturing and fintech—40% cheaper than Bangalore. Madhya Pradesh’s startup policy amplifies this, positioning local IT for global exports.​

Strategic Roadmap Under Munasinghe

Expect five pillars:

SaaS Transformation: Full migration of core platforms, enhancing scalability for Fortune 500 scale.

AI Augmentation: ML for privileged session monitoring and threat hunting, preempting attacks.

Zero-Trust Fabric: Holistic coverage for human/machine identities, enforcing least-privilege dynamically.

APAC Expansion: India-centric development for data sovereignty, tapping 24/7 talent pools.

Operational Excellence: Metrics-driven engineering, ensuring 99.99% uptime and rapid iteration.

Challenges—vendor interoperability, quantum risks, talent gaps—persist, but Munasinghe’s turnarounds provide resilience.

Enterprise and Partner Benefits

CISOs gain fortified defenses against insider threats and supply chains, with ROI from averted breaches (average $4.5M per IBM). Partners integrate via robust APIs, co-developing with SIEMs like Splunk. In India, Indore firms secure ERP systems, aligning with agritech like Varaha.

IAM market growth to $25B by 2027 favors unifiers like One Identity, especially post-consolidations.

Competitive Landscape and Risks

Rivals—Okta, Ping, SailPoint—push AI, but One Identity’s PAM edge and Clearlake backing enable aggressive R&D. Risks include open-source disruption and regulation, mitigated by Munasinghe’s pragmatism.

Outlook: Leadership for 2027 and Beyond

By 2027, 40% IAM SaaS adoption looms; One Identity targets dominance via Munasinghe’s execution. This hire embodies 2026’s ethos: operators blending innovation with reliability amid AI booms, green tech, and fintech shifts.