Principal Security Engineer

Verizon•Irving, TX

8d•$120,500 - $231,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As a member of the Security Engineering & Operations team, you will be responsible for the end-to-end administration, maintenance, and day-to-day operation of Verizon’s enterprise Public/Private Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Identity & Access Management (IAM) systems. In this role, you will act as a primary operational subject matter expert, interfacing directly with enterprise customer teams to integrate, support, and maintain fully functional, highly available PKI services while driving key forward-looking security initiatives. You will handle all operational duties necessary to keep our PKI infrastructure operating smoothly—including certificate lifecycle automation, key management, system upgrades, and platform health monitoring—while acting as a customer-oriented operations engineer who excels at bridging technical infrastructure with client integration needs. You bring strong technical knowledge of PKI protocols, solid Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) administration skills, and a practical approach to troubleshooting end-to-end service workflows. You will thrive in this role by combining direct customer technical support with modern engineering tools, RHEL systems administration, Python scripting, and operational AI tools/agents to develop solutions for PKI and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), automate routine maintenance, streamline incident response, proactively manage vulnerabilities, and deliver seamless security operations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or four or more years of work experience.
Six or more years of relevant experience required, demonstrated through one or a combination of work and/or military experience, or specialized training.
Experience developing AI tools, scripts, or agents (e.g., Python AI/ML libraries, LLM APIs, automated diagnostic agents) to build custom solutions and tools for PKI or security operations.
Experience with RESTful API integration, management, and troubleshooting for client environments.
Willingness to travel up to 25% or less of the time.

Nice To Haves

Strong background in customer-facing technical support, troubleshooting custom application integrations, managing tickets (e.g., Jira), and maintaining service SLAs/KPIs.
Hands-on operational experience with core PKI protocols and standards: X.509, PKCS, OCSP, TLS/SSL, S/MIME, IPsec, and LDAP.
Demonstrated experience administering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) environments in a production setting.
Proficiency in writing and modifying operational scripts for task automation using Python, Shell/Bash, Java, or PHP.
Ability to participate in scheduled on-call coverage (including evenings/weekends during assigned rotation).
Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
Familiarity or experience with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standards, algorithms, and transition strategies.
Background or experience in Systems Engineering principles (e.g., infrastructure design, reliability, capacity planning, system architecture).
Hands-on experience or familiarity with cloud security and infrastructure platforms, specifically Amazon Web Services (AWS) (e.g., Cloud HSMs, AWS Private CA, KMS, IAM, EC2).
Familiarity with enterprise ticketing, incident tracking, and project management tools such as Jira, ServiceNow, or Confluence.
Knowledge of or hands-on experience with modern PKI platform engines and certificate management platforms such as EJBCA, Keyfactor, DigiCert, RSA, OpenXPKI, or Microsoft CA.
Practical experience deploying, managing, and supporting Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) such as Entrust (nShield), Thales/Luna, or Utimaco.
Experience with system monitoring, performance metrics, and alerting tools such as Nagios, Zabbix, or Prometheus.
Experience with web servers/containers (Apache, Tomcat, Nginx) and Windows Server administration.
Working knowledge of database management for operational triage (Oracle, SQL, PostgreSQL).
Relevant industry certifications such as Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), AWS Certified Security / SysOps, CISSP, CISA, or ITIL v3/v4.

Responsibilities

Leading operational execution and defining end-to-end test plans for the PKI Vendor Platform Migration.
Serving as a primary technical point of contact for enterprise customer teams, guiding them through application cutovers, front-end customization, and back-end integration with the new vendor platform.
Supporting the full client communication lifecycle: logging, tracking, and prioritizing technical queries through ticketing platforms (e.g., Jira), troubleshooting customer integration issues, conducting root-cause analysis, and delivering patches/hotfixes to meet customer needs.
Facilitating software delivery and interoperability testing for clients PKI-enabling their custom applications to ensure compliance with specifications and security policies.
Maintaining customer-facing SLAs and operational KPIs for service delivery while leveraging customer query databases to build knowledge books and improve service readiness.
Replicating customer-reported issues in a test lab environment to validate bug fixes and execute corrective operational actions.
Developing AI-driven tools, custom algorithms, and intelligent agents to automate diagnostic workflows, customer query triage, log analysis, and certificate management for PKI and PQC systems.
Building and deploying automated software solutions to prepare enterprise security platforms for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) readiness and migration.
Administering and supporting RESTful APIs used by customers for automated certificate enrollment and infrastructure integration.
Authoring, updating, and maintaining operational runbooks, systems engineering documentation, and customer integration guides to ensure service consistency.
Overseeing end-to-end operational readiness for all PKI environments, ensuring all core Certificate Authorities (CAs), Registration Authorities (RAs), and Key Management systems remain fully functional.
Installing, configuring, maintaining, and supporting enterprise Hardware Security Modules (HSMs).
Managing complete certificate lifecycles—including automated issuance, discovery, renewal, revocation, and deployment across client applications, APIs, cloud environments (AWS), servers, and network devices.
Executing routine system patching, OS maintenance, capacity planning, and proactive vulnerability remediation across PKI host servers.
Participating in an on-call rotation to provide rapid tier-3 operational support, incident triage, and escalation resolution for critical service disruptions.