Enterprise PKI Specialist (Contractor)

Enterprise PKI Specialist (Fixed Term Contract)

 
The Enterprise PKI Specialist is a senior technical specialist responsible for the design, implementation, governance, and evolution of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services across Qube Research & Technologies (QRT). 
 
The successful candidate will serve as the organisation's primary PKI subject matter expert, providing strategic guidance, architectural leadership, hands-on engineering expertise, and technical governance across all PKI-related initiatives. 
 
This is a highly specialised role requiring extensive experience designing, building, and modernising PKI environments within large enterprises. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of delivering PKI programmes from initial requirements gathering and architecture design through to implementation, operationalisation, and long-term governance. 

PKI Architecture & Delivery

• Design and deliver enterprise grade PKI architecture and supporting operational model.

• Design and implement root and issuing Certificate Authority (CA) hierarchies.

• Define certificate policies, certificate profiles, naming standards, trust models, and operational controls.

• Design resilient, highly available PKI infrastructure and supporting services.

• Lead the implementation and migration of PKI platforms, tooling, and supporting infrastructure.

• Define disaster recovery, backup, recovery, and key protection requirements for PKI services.

• Design and oversee Hardware Security Module (HSM) integration and key management processes.

• Establish operational procedures for certificate issuance, renewal, revocation, recovery, and lifecycle management.

• Ensure solutions are scalable, supportable, and aligned with security and regulatory requirements.

PKI Subject Matter Expertise

• Act as the organisation'srecognised PKI authority and trusted advisor.

• Provide expert guidance on certificate authority design, trust models, certificate lifecycle management, revocation strategies, and key protection.

• Advise engineering and platform teams on PKI integration requirements and best practices.

• Review proposed solutions and ensure alignment with established PKI standards and architectural principles.

• Provide technical leadership for complex PKI-related initiatives and problem resolution.

Machine Identity & Certificate Lifecycle Management

• Develop enterprise approaches for managing machine identities at scale.

• Design and implement automated certificate issuance, renewal, rotation, and revocation processes.

• Support certificate management across infrastructure, cloud, container, networking, and application environments.

• Reduce operational risk associated with certificate expiry and trust failures.

• Define standards for certificate discovery, inventory, monitoring, and reporting.

Stakeholder Engagement & Governance

• Work closely with infrastructure, engineering, cloud, security, risk, and operational teams.

• Translate complex PKI and cryptographic concepts into clear business and technical recommendations.

• Develop PKI standards, policies, procedures, and governance documentation.

• Support audits and regulatory reviews relating to cryptographic and PKI controls.

• Influence technical direction and ensure PKI considerations are embedded within strategic initiatives.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven experience designing and delivering enterprise PKI environments from inception through production operation.

• Extensive experience designing Root CA, Intermediate CA, and Issuing CA architectures.

• 10+ years of experience working with enterprise PKI, trust services, or cryptographic infrastructure.

• Strong understanding of offline Root CA designs, trust hierarchy models, certificate policy development, and PKI governance.

• Experience implementing and operating HSM-backed PKI environments.

• Deep knowledge of X.509 certificates, PKCS standards, CRLs, OCSP, certificate validation, and trust chains.

• Proven experience leading PKI programmes or transformations across multiple organisations.

• Ability to engage effectively with senior stakeholders, architects, engineers, auditors, and operational teams.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Experience with Venafi, Keyfactor, DigiCert Trust Lifecycle Manager, Sectigo, EJBCA, HashiCorp Vault, or equivalent platforms.

• Experience with Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) design and migration programmes.

• Experience implementing PKI within AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, and hybrid cloud environments.

• Experience supporting financial services, regulated industries, or large-scale enterprise environments.

• Relevant industry certifications in security, architecture, cloud, or cryptography.

Contract Details

• Fixed Term Contract

• Hybrid working model

• London-based role

• Competitive package dependent on experience