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)
Skills Required
- Active Secret clearance minimum (Top Secret preferred)
- Local to the DMV area with ability to work on site at Fort Meade as requested
- Five (5)+ years of professional software engineering experience (flexible for 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 (comparable enterprise CA platforms considered)
- DoD 8570/8140 IAT Level II certification (Security+ or equivalent)
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- 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, 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)
What We Do
August Schell is dedicated to delivering agile and innovative cybersecurity solutions to proactively defend and protect organization’s data against cyber attacks. Through our proven expertise with cybersecurity services and solutions, we are masters at designing, deploying and implementing highly secure solutions for on-premise and cloud based computing environments. We offer a wide range of next-generation products and services for: - Enterprise-Scale Identity Management, including Derived Credentials for Mobility - Big Data, including Security and Visualization related to Big Data Network Security and Visibility - Operational Intelligence - Data Center Security, including Firewalls, Endpoint Awareness/Management, and Virtualization - Cloud Security and Visibility - Application and Data Security - Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC), including Compute, Storage, Network & Backup We understand how critically important it is to defend critical digital assets and sensitive data from the constant threat of cyber attacks. We do not take this responsibility lightly and it’s with integrity that August Schell has defined our approach to our customers, without boundaries.
