Senior Backend Engineer (Cryptography) - Hashicorp Vault

Introduction

As an individual contributor in the Vault Cryptosec team, you will be part of a high-performing team responsible for advancing Vault's security, scalability, and enterprise readiness for our self-managed offerings. You will drive Engineering projects that deliver on cryptographic workflows, including PKI and HSM related functionality.

At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world's leading AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You'll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM's product and technology landscape. Here, you'll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

Your role and responsibilities

We’re looking for Senior Engineers with a deep backend focus and experience with cryptographic services to join our team. In this role, you can expect to:

• Lead large‑scale initiatives end‑to‑end, from architecture and design through implementation and issue resolution, ensuring reliable, high‑quality delivery for on‑premise, self‑managed software.

• Collaborate cross‑functionally with internal teams, customers, and external partners to deliver solutions aligned with requirements and customer needs.

• Act as a technical authority in Golang, reviewing code for design quality, performance, and adherence to best practices.

• Assess tradeoffs and unblock execution, proactively communicating progress, risks, and milestones to stakeholders.

• Drive strategic technical initiatives that advance the long‑term roadmap and improve system effectiveness across teams.

• Resolve complex technical issues to improve product stability, reliability, and overall quality.

• Mentor and develop engineers, promoting strong engineering practices and effective knowledge sharing.

• Foster team collaboration through code pairing, group troubleshooting, and shared ownership.

• Support production reliability, including participation in an on‑call rotation.

• Champion engineering excellence through maintainable code, automated testing, and robust delivery practices.

Required technical and professional expertise

• You have at least 6+ years of experience as an engineer

• You have professional experience developing with modern programming languages and frameworks, and are interested in working in Golang specifically

• You have experience working with distributed systems, and cloud provider such as AWS, Azure or GCP, with a focus on scalability, resilience and security.

• Emerging ability to direct work and influence others, with a strategic approach to problem-solving and decision-making in a collaborative environment

• Demonstrated business acumen and customer focus, with a readiness for change and adaptability in dynamic situations

• Intentional focus on stakeholder management and effective communication, fostering trust and relationship-building across diverse teams

• Integrated skills in critical thinking and data-driven analysis, promoting a growth mindset and continuous improvement to support high-quality outcomes

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Hands‑on experience designing, building, or operating cryptographic systems and services such as PKI, HSMs, TLS, key management, identity and access management (IAM), secure enclaves / trusted execution environments, or related confidentiality and trust technologies

• You have experience using HashiCorp products (Terraform, Packer, Waypoint, Nomad, Vault, Boundary, Consul).

• You are an expert in Go development

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.