PKI Software Engineer

PKI SOFTWARE ENGINEER 

Ft. Meade, MD - Full Time (Hybrid) Salary: 140-170K

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 

Requirements: 

• 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) 

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