Head of Cryptography, MD

State Street•Princeton, NJ

1d•$175,000 - $287,500

About The Position

The Managing Director, Head of Cryptography is a senior leadership role responsible for defining, governing, and advancing the firm's enterprise cryptography, key management, secrets management, and cryptographic modernization strategy. This leader will be accountable for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, and resilience of the firm's critical systems, applications, data, and digital transactions through industry-leading cryptographic controls and services. The role requires a forward-thinking technical executive capable of driving enterprise-scale transformation across cloud, hybrid, and emerging technology environments. The successful candidate will lead the evolution of cryptographic capabilities to support modern architectures, AI-enabled platforms, cloud-native services, machine identities, and future threats, including quantum computing risks. This executive will partner closely with Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, Application Development, Data, Security Architecture, IAM, and Enterprise Architecture teams to ensure cryptography is embedded by design across the organization's technology ecosystem.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in cybersecurity, cryptography, security engineering, or infrastructure security leadership roles.
Demonstrated success leading enterprise cryptography or key management programs within large, highly regulated organizations.
Deep expertise in: Applied cryptography, PKI, Key management, HSM technologies, Secrets management, Certificate lifecycle management, Cloud security architectures.
Experience designing cryptographic controls across cloud-native, hybrid, and distributed environments.
Strong understanding of post-quantum cryptography strategies and emerging cryptographic standards.
Proven track record leading large-scale modernization and transformation initiatives.
Experience engaging with executive leadership, regulators, auditors, and major clients.
Recognized industry expert in cryptography and cryptographic security services.
Strong technical depth combined with executive-level communication skills.
Strategic thinker capable of balancing innovation, resilience, and operational effectiveness.
Passion for automation, simplification, and engineering excellence.
Strong understanding of cloud, identity, infrastructure, and modern application architectures.
Ability to influence enterprise-wide technology decisions.
Risk-focused mindset with strong governance and control discipline.
Trusted leader with a track record of building and scaling high-performing technical organizations.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, CISM, GCFA, or specialized cryptography/security certifications are highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the firm's comprehensive cryptography strategy, roadmap, and governance framework.
Establish enterprise standards and policies covering: Encryption at rest, Encryption in transit, Key management, Secrets management, Certificate management, Digital signatures, Tokenization, Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), Cryptographic agility.
Ensure cryptographic capabilities support business growth, regulatory expectations, cloud transformation, and emerging technology adoption.
Develop executive-level metrics and reporting that provide visibility into cryptographic maturity, risk exposure, and modernization progress.
Lead enterprise initiatives to modernize the firm's cryptographic infrastructure and services.
Drive programs focused on: Cryptographic inventory and visibility, Legacy algorithm remediation, Deprecation of weak cryptographic standards, Secure migration strategies, Cryptographic agility, Automated cryptographic lifecycle management.
Develop a roadmap that reduces operational complexity while improving security resilience across all environments.
Partner with engineering teams to ensure cryptographic controls remain scalable, performant, and developer-friendly.
Establish and operate enterprise-class key management services supporting the firm's most critical systems and data.
Lead strategy and execution across: Enterprise Key Management Systems (KMS), Hardware Security Modules (HSM), Secrets vaults, Machine identity management, Certificate lifecycle management, Service-to-service authentication.
Drive adoption of automated key lifecycle capabilities, including: Automated provisioning, Automated rotation, Revocation, Expiration management, Recovery procedures.
Reduce operational risk through consistent, centralized, and automated cryptographic controls.
Partner with Cloud Engineering, Infrastructure, and Application teams to embed cryptographic controls into enterprise platforms.
Establish secure-by-default cryptographic services that support: Multi-cloud environments, SaaS platforms, Containerized workloads, Kubernetes environments, Modern application architectures, Data platforms, AI and machine learning environments.
Enable engineering teams through reusable services, APIs, automation, and paved-road security patterns.
Develop and modernize the firm's machine identity strategy.
Lead efforts to secure and manage: Certificates, APIs, Service accounts, Workload identities, Non-human identities, Infrastructure identities.
Improve visibility and governance across machine identity ecosystems while reducing risks associated with expired, misconfigured, or unmanaged credentials.
Drive automation to eliminate manual certificate and identity management processes wherever possible.
Lead the firm's post-quantum cryptography strategy.
Develop capabilities to: Inventory cryptographic dependencies, Assess quantum risk exposure, Prioritize remediation efforts, Establish migration roadmaps, Implement cryptographic agility standards.
Partner with Enterprise Architecture and Technology leadership to ensure long-term resilience against emerging cryptographic threats.
Provide executive guidance on evolving industry standards and regulatory expectations related to quantum readiness.
Establish enterprise-wide processes for assessing cryptographic risks and control effectiveness.
Drive initiatives to: Identify cryptographic gaps, Evaluate implementation quality, Assess key management maturity, Measure cryptographic coverage, Prioritize remediation by risk.
Develop governance mechanisms that ensure adherence to enterprise cryptographic standards across all technology domains.
Ensure cryptographic controls align with regulatory, client, and industry expectations.
Support compliance with frameworks including: FFIEC, NIST, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, NYDFS, GDPR, SEC requirements.
Serve as the senior cryptography subject matter expert during regulatory examinations, internal audits, client assessments, and control reviews.
Provide clear and defensible narratives regarding cryptographic controls, key management practices, and risk mitigation strategies.
Serve as a trusted advisor to the CISO, CIO, CTO, Chief Data Officer, and senior technology leadership.
Translate highly technical cryptographic concepts into practical business decisions and investment priorities.
Influence enterprise architecture, platform strategy, cloud adoption, and modernization efforts through cryptographic expertise.
Build strong partnerships across Security, Technology, Infrastructure, Data, Risk, and Compliance organizations.
Build and lead a world-class Cryptography organization responsible for: Cryptography Engineering, Key Management Services, Secrets Management, PKI Operations, Machine Identity Security, Cryptographic Modernization, Post-Quantum Readiness.
Develop technical talent and create a culture focused on engineering excellence, automation, innovation, and operational resilience.
Act as the firm's senior cryptographic authority and mentor for engineering and security leaders.

Benefits

Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits.
Our retirement savings plan (401K) with company match
Insurance coverage including basic life, medical, dental, vision, long-term disability, and other optional additional coverages
Paid-time off including vacation, sick leave, short term disability, and family care responsibilities
Access to our Employee Assistance Program
Incentive compensation including eligibility for annual performance-based awards
Eligibility for certain tax advantaged savings plans
Inclusive development opportunities
Flexible work-life support
Paid volunteer days
Vibrant employee networks