Introduction

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

Build the Foundation of Trust in Modern Infrastructure

Join a team working at the forefront of secrets management, encryption, and identity security, powering mission-critical systems for thousands of organizations worldwide. As a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll play a key role in advancing the cryptographic and security foundations behind products like HashiCorp Vault, designing systems that safeguard sensitive data across cloud and hybrid environments.

This is an opportunity to work deeply in cryptography, secure systems design, and distributed infrastructure, where your work directly enables customers to protect their most critical assets.

What You’ll Do

Design and Build Secure, Cryptography-Driven Systems

• Architect and develop backend services and APIs that power encryption, key management, and secrets lifecycle workflows
• Design and implement systems that leverage modern cryptographic primitives and protocols to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and secure access
• Contribute to and evolve Vault’s core cryptographic capabilities, including encryption engines, key rotation, and identity-based access controls
• Build highly reliable, scalable systems that operate securely at global scale

Lead End-to-End Engineering Efforts

• Own complex initiatives from architecture through production rollout, with a strong focus on security and correctness
• Make architectural decisions that balance performance, cryptographic rigor, usability, and operational resilience
• Drive high-quality implementations that meet stringent security and compliance requirements

Collaborate and Influence

• Partner with Product, Security, and Engineering teams to deliver secure-by-design solutions
• Contribute to design reviews, threat modeling discussions, and security-focused engineering practices
• Mentor engineers and elevate the team’s expertise in secure coding and cryptographic best practices

Strengthen Platform Security & Reliability

• Continuously enhance system security, scalability, and developer experience
• Support production systems with a strong emphasis on availability, observability, and incident response
• Help shape the long-term vision for secure infrastructure platforms

Required education

High School Diploma/GED

Preferred education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Backend & Distributed Systems Expertise
  6+ years building and operating scalable backend or distributed systems with strong fundamentals in reliability, performance, and correctness
• Cryptography & Security (Required)
  Hands-on experience with cryptographic systems, encryption, or key management, plus a solid understanding of core concepts (e.g., TLS, PKI, symmetric/asymmetric encryption, hashing)
• Systems Programming Proficiency
  Strong experience in Golang or a similar systems-level language, with the ability to write clean, efficient, production-grade code
• Cloud & Scalable Infrastructure Experience
  Experience designing and operating resilient systems in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Technical Leadership & Ownership
  Proven ability to lead complex projects, influence architecture decisions, and collaborate effectively across teams

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Secrets & Encryption Workflows
Experience designing or implementing workflows such as secrets management, key management, PKI or certificate issuance, and identity or access-related systems

• HashiCorp Tooling Experience
Hands-on use of tools such as Vault, Boundary, Consul, Terraform, Nomad, Packer, or Waypoint in production environments

• Shared Systems or Infrastructure Experience
Experience building or operating shared services, infrastructure, or internal systems that support multiple teams or workloads