PKI Software Engineer

August Schell is looking for a PKI Software Engineer to join our team in support of DoD enterprise PKI modernization with our DISA customer. The engineer will work hand-in-hand with commercial product engineering and government teams on the next generation of Public Key Infrastructure capabilities - including post-quantum cryptography (PQC) migration - within Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Certificate System, and the upstream Dogtag PKI open-source project.

Individuals in this role must be able to work hybrid and go on site at Fort Meade as requested.

Responsibilities Include: -Design, develop, test, and maintain high-quality PKI software components across Red Hat Certificate System (RHCS) and Dogtag PKI

-Work software fixes and feature development directly with product engineering teams and the government development lab - owning issues end-to-end from requirements through testing and verification

-Support the program's post-quantum cryptography migration, including PQC algorithm integration (ML-DSA) and legacy version transition planning

-Develop and troubleshoot HSM integrations supporting CA operations and key escrow

-Support certificate lifecycle automation (ACME) as the program transitions to shorter-lived certificates at higher issuance volume

-Practice defensive programming and contribute to testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and release quality

-Communicate clearly across government stakeholders, commercial vendor engineering, and program contractors - translating technical status into program-level clarity

-Proactively identify, document, and escalate risks and blockers before they impact program schedule

Active Secret clearance minimum (Top Secret preferred and may be required)

-Local to the DMV area with the ability to work on site at Fort Meade as requested

-Five (5)+ years of professional software engineering experience (flexible for candidates with exceptional PKI depth)

-Java and/or Rust programming experience

-Strong knowledge of Linux and its development tools

-Knowledge or experience with Linux containers and container orchestration (Podman / Docker) and VMs (KVM)

-Hands-on experience with PKI, x.509, cryptography, and system/software security technologies

-Direct experience with Red Hat Certificate System or Dogtag PKI (the upstream open-source project of the deployed DoD code base) - comparable enterprise CA platform experience considered (EJBCA, Microsoft AD CS, Entrust Authority, ISC CertAgent, or similar)

-DoD 8570/8140 IAT Level II certification (Security+ or equivalent)

-Strong written and verbal communication skills

Stand out with:

-Post-quantum cryptography familiarity (ML-DSA/Dilithium, Kyber, CNSA 2.0 timelines)

-HSM integration experience (Entrust nShield, Thales Luna)

-ACME protocol and certificate automation at scale

-Prior DISA or DoD PKI program experience (Purebred, derived credentials, RA/CRL/OCSP operations)

-Directory Server / LDAP experience

-Experience using AI agents to accelerate development efforts

-Python, Bash, or similar scripting languages

-Package maintenance on Fedora/RHEL

-Agile development methodologies (Scrum, JIRA)