Staff Software Engineer, Certificate Lifecycle Management

Role Description

Keeper Security is hiring a Staff Software Engineer, Certificate Lifecycle Management to help architect and build the next generation of certificate and machine identity security capabilities within the Keeper platform. This is a 100% remote position, with an opportunity to work a hybrid schedule for candidates based in the Chicago, IL or El Dorado Hills, CA metro areas.

As a Staff Software Engineer focused on Certificate Lifecycle Management, you will provide technical leadership for the architecture and development of capabilities that help enterprises discover, issue, deploy, monitor, renew, rotate and revoke digital certificates across complex environments. This is a highly technical, hands-on engineering role for someone with deep experience in PKI, certificate management or machine identity security.

You will work across backend services, APIs, automation workflows and enterprise integrations while helping define the technical direction of Keeper’s certificate management capabilities. You will collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, Security, DevOps and Solutions teams to translate complex certificate and infrastructure requirements into secure, scalable and highly automated systems.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop certificate lifecycle management capabilities spanning discovery, inventory, enrollment, issuance, deployment, renewal, rotation and revocation.
• Design scalable backend services and APIs for managing certificates, machine identities and related cryptographic metadata across enterprise environments.
• Build certificate discovery and automation workflows across cloud platforms, Kubernetes, web servers, load balancers, databases, network devices and other infrastructure.
• Design integrations with public and private certificate authorities and enterprise PKI environments.
• Develop secure workflows for certificate enrollment, key handling, trust validation and certificate deployment.
• Solve complex engineering challenges involving certificate chains, trust stores, expiration, ownership, policy enforcement and cryptographic compliance.
• Design systems that support automated certificate renewal and remediation while minimizing operational disruption.
• Provide technical leadership on PKI architecture, machine identity, cryptographic standards and certificate automation.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership on technical strategy, architecture, requirements and long-term platform direction.
• Lead technical design reviews, mentor engineers and help establish engineering standards for security-sensitive certificate management capabilities.
• Evaluate emerging PKI, machine identity and cryptographic technologies and recommend architectural approaches.
• Use AI-assisted development tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot or similar platforms to improve technical research, software development, debugging, documentation and engineering efficiency.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant experience building backend, infrastructure or security-focused systems.
• Deep hands-on experience with certificate lifecycle management, PKI, machine identity security or a closely related domain.
• Strong understanding of X.509 certificates, certificate authorities, certificate chains, trust stores, private keys and public key cryptography.
• Experience with certificate lifecycle operations including discovery, enrollment, issuance, deployment, renewal, rotation, revocation and expiration management.
• Strong knowledge of certificate and PKI protocols and technologies such as ACME, SCEP, EST, OCSP, CRLs and TLS.
• Strong backend software engineering experience using languages such as Java, Go, Python, C++, C# or similar.
• Experience designing scalable APIs, distributed systems and automation workflows.
• Experience integrating with enterprise PKI systems, certificate authorities, cloud platforms or infrastructure technologies.
• Strong understanding of secure key handling, authentication, authorization and cryptographic trust.
• Experience working with cloud-native and enterprise infrastructure environments.
• Ability to lead architecture discussions and make sound technical tradeoffs across security, scalability, reliability and usability.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and influence technical direction across teams.
• Ability and willingness to use AI-assisted tools effectively to support engineering, research, debugging, prototyping and technical documentation.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building or contributing to a commercial certificate lifecycle management, PKI or machine identity platform.
• Familiarity with platforms such as Keyfactor, DigiCert, Venafi, AppViewX, Sectigo or similar technologies.
• Experience with Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services or other enterprise certificate authority environments.
• Experience automating certificate management across Kubernetes, cloud workloads, CI/CD pipelines, web servers, load balancers or service meshes.
• Familiarity with hardware security modules, key management systems and cloud key management services.
• Experience with cryptographic policy, algorithm transitions and crypto-agility initiatives.
• Experience with non-human identity, secrets management, privileged access management or workload identity.
• Experience building security-sensitive enterprise SaaS products at scale.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental & Vision (inclusive of domestic partnerships).
• Employer Paid Life Insurance & Employee/Spouse/Child Supplemental Life.
• Voluntary Short/Long Term Disability Insurance.
• 401K (Roth/Traditional).
• A generous PTO plan that celebrates your commitment and seniority (including paid Bereavement/Jury Duty, etc.).
• Above-market annual bonuses.