Cybersecurity Engineer - PKI & Secrets Management

Description

The Role
The Cyber Security Engineer – PKI & Secrets Management acts as a senior domain expert for PKI and secrets, providing technical leadership, hands-on engineering, and cross-team guidance for certificate lifecycle management, key management, hardware security modules (HSMs), and enterprise secrets platforms. The role partners closely with Security Services, infrastructure, cloud, application, and product teams to ensure cryptographic services are reliable, scalable, and aligned with GM security standards and regulatory requirements.

What You’ll Do

Serve as the primary subject matter expert for at least one major PKI or secrets platform (e.g., enterprise CAs, HSM-backed key management, or central secrets management platform), including strategy, architecture, and day-to-day engineering

Design, implement, and maintain certificate lifecycle management solutions supporting servers, applications, devices, and services across on‑prem and cloud environments

Engineer, harden, and operate PKI components, including root and subordinate CAs, OCSP/CRL infrastructure, key storage, and associated monitoring and audit capabilities

Lead design and integration of secrets management patterns (e.g., application secrets, API keys, database credentials, service identities), driving standardization and automation for onboarding new use cases

Define and document PKI and secrets management standards, patterns, and reference architectures for use by application and infrastructure teams across GM

Provide technical leadership on Cyber Security projects related to identity, access, encryption, and secure connectivity, ensuring PKI and secrets requirements are captured, implemented, and validated

Collaborate with software, cloud, and infrastructure teams to embed secure-by-default cryptographic practices (e.g., TLS, mutual auth, certificate pinning, key rotation) in platforms and services

Lead root cause analysis and remediation for PKI/secrets-related incidents or outages, driving durable fixes, improved monitoring, and lessons-learned back into standards and runbooks

Develop automation and tooling (e.g., scripting, APIs, workflows) to reduce manual certificate and secrets operations, improve consistency, and increase coverage across fleets and environments

Participate in threat analysis and risk assessment activities where cryptography, keys, and certificates are central controls, translating findings into practical mitigation plans

Mentor and support other engineers on PKI, cryptography, and secrets management topics; provide clear guidance, design reviews, and hands-on assistance to project and platform teams

Represent the PKI & Secrets Management domain in internal forums, architecture reviews, and change control, ensuring changes that impact cryptographic services are well understood and properly evaluated

Contribute to and help own security metrics and KPIs related to certificate hygiene, secrets lifecycle health, coverage, and platform reliability; drive action plans when targets are not met

Lead development and execution of Cyber Security projects where PKI, certificate management, and secrets are primary enablers, from requirements definition through design, implementation, and operational transition

Exercise independent judgment on significant cryptographic and platform decisions, balancing security, reliability, and developer experience, and clearly articulating tradeoffs to stakeholders

Act as a recognized senior Cyber Security engineer with deep expertise in PKI & secrets and broad knowledge of adjacent areas (identity, network security, cloud security, compliance, and risk)

Break complex security and reliability problems into actionable initiatives, orchestrating work across Security Services, infrastructure, and application teams

Champion change management by driving adoption of updated PKI roots/intermediates, new secrets patterns, and improved lifecycle processes across legacy and modern platforms

Serve as a mentor and go‑to resource for junior and mid-level Cyber Security engineers, modeling GM’s behaviors and engineering best practices

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications):

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Security, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, or a closely related field; or equivalent experience

Strong hands-on experience with enterprise PKI concepts and technologies, including: X.509 certificates, key pairs, certificate chains, and trust stores

Certificate issuance, renewal, revocation, CRLs/OCSP, and policy definition

Operating or integrating with certificate authorities and HSM-backed key storage

Practical experience designing or operating secrets management solutions (e.g., application secrets, service identities, API keys, credential rotation patterns) in large-scale environments

Solid understanding of network security and secure communications (TLS, mTLS, cipher suites, protocol hardening, certificate validation)

Demonstrated ability to own and deliver complex security engineering projects end-to-end with minimal direction, including planning, execution, and stakeholder communication

Strong problem-solving skills and experience troubleshooting PKI, certificate, and secrets-related failures in distributed systems

Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both engineers and non-technical partners, and to influence design decisions across teams

Demonstrated alignment with GM behaviors (Think Customer, Be Inclusive, It’s on All of Us, Innovate Now, Look Ahead, One Team, Be Bold, Win with Integrity) in day-to-day work

What Will Give You A Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications):

Experience operating PKI or secrets services in hybrid or multi-cloud environments

Familiarity with identity and access management (IAM) platforms, directory services, and authentication/authorization patterns that depend on PKI and secrets

Experience developing automation for certificate and secrets lifecycle (scripting, APIs, CI/CD integrations, or configuration management tools)

Prior experience in a large enterprise or regulated environment where cryptographic controls support audit, compliance, or regulatory requirements

Experience mentoring other engineers or informally leading technical workstreams within a security or infrastructure team

About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.

Why Join Us 

We believe we all must make a choice every day – individually and collectively – to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.

Total Rewards | Benefits Overview

From day one, we're looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources. 

Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.

All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws. 

We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire.

Accommodations

General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us Show email or call us at Show phone number. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.