Cryptography Engineer

Job Family: JF-SECENG — Security Engineering Job Level Range: L1-L4 (CERG Grade S1-S4) CERG Canonical Role: Cryptography Engineer (CERG-GOV-OM-001 §6.1)

1. Role Summary

The Cryptography Engineer owns cryptography and key management: the key management platforms, the certificate authority hierarchy, the transport security posture, and FIPS compliance. They ensure that encryption is correctly implemented, keys are protected, certificates do not expire unexpectedly, and cryptographic standards are met across the estate.

2. NICE Workforce Framework Mapping

NICE Work Role Definition: See JF-002 for the official NICE Work Role definition and complete CERG-to-NICE mapping. The NICE TKS database is available at https://www.nist.gov/nice/framework/.

3. Job Family & Level Placement

4. Key Responsibilities

4.1 Core Responsibilities (All Grades)

• Design, implement, and maintain the enterprise key management infrastructure (HSM, cloud KMS, secrets vaults) - Govern the certificate authority (CA) hierarchy: internal CA, public CA integrations, certificate lifecycle automation - Define and enforce transport security requirements: TLS versions, cipher suites, certificate validation - Manage secrets rotation for machine identities, API keys, and service accounts - Ensure FIPS 140-2/140-3 compliance for cryptographic modules in regulated environments - Conduct cryptographic assessments of new systems, applications, and vendor products - Support the rotation of exposed secrets during incident response - Contribute to the Cryptography and Key Management Standard and maintain its technical requirements - Advise Engineering and IT teams on cryptographic design decisions

4.2 Grade-Level Responsibility Differentiation

Grade-level responsibility differentiation for this role is defined in JA-001 §7 (Role-to-Grade Mapping). The grade definitions (S1-S4 SME Track, M1-M4 Management Track) and leveling dimensions are in CERG-GOV-JA-001 §4-5. Behavioral anchors at each grade are in CMP-001.

5. Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)

5.1 Domain Expertise

• Deep expertise in cryptographic principles: symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hashing, digital signatures, key agreement protocols - PKI architecture and certificate lifecycle management - Key management platforms: HashiCorp Vault, cloud-native KMS, Thales/CipherTrust, Utimaco - Hardware security modules (HSMs) - TLS/PKI tools and protocols: ACME, OCSP, CRL, S/MIME, code signing - FIPS 140-2/140-3 and Common Criteria standards - Post-quantum cryptography awareness (preparing for transition, not yet implementing)

5.2 Technical Skills

Technical skills for this role are documented in the original JD-001 content extracted into this file (see §5.1 Domain Expertise). Additional technical skill definitions aligned to NICE Skill Statements are maintained in JF-002.

5.3 CERG-Specific Knowledge

CERG-specific knowledge requirements for this role are defined in OM-001 §6 (Canonical Role Roster) and RAC-001 §7 (Role Descriptions). See §12 (Related CERG Documents) for the complete list of standards and procedures relevant to this role.

6. NICE TKS Statement References

The following Task, Knowledge, and Skill statements are extracted from the NIST NICE Framework v2.2.0 Work Role [DD-WRL-001 — Cryptography Engineer primary mapping] and filtered by relevance to this CERG role. The full TKS database is maintained at https://www.nist.gov/nice/framework/.

Full TKS Reference: The complete TKS statement set for the primary NICE Work Role (SP-ARC-001 → DD-WRL-001) is in the NICE Framework Components v2.2.0 dataset (download). JF-002 contains the complete CERG-to-NICE crosswalk with secondary role mappings.

7. Typical Qualifications

7.1 Education

• 5-15+ years in cybersecurity, with 3+ years focused on cryptography or PKI - Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, or a related field - Relevant certifications: CISSP, CISM, vendor-specific HSM/KMS certifications, or equivalent

7.2 Certifications

Certifications for this role are defined in TRN-001 §3 (Certification Matrix). The matrix specifies Required, Recommended, and Aspirational certifications per role and grade.

7.3 Experience

Typical experience ranges by grade are defined in JA-001 §4-5. See §7.1 (Education) above for education requirements.

8. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs for this role are defined in MTR-001 (Metrics, Dashboard, and CISO/Board Reporting). KPI allocation by job family and grade-level thresholds are documented in PERF-001. Each role’s evaluation criteria are embedded in the per-role JD document structure defined by JF-001.

9. Competency Expectations by Grade

Competency expectations for this role follow the Engineering pillar behavioral anchors from CERG-GOV-CMP-001. Each cell describes observable behavior demonstrating the competency at that grade. Anchors are cumulative: an L3 expectation includes the L1 and L2 anchors.

Full Reference: See CERG-GOV-CMP-001 for the complete competency model, including the Management Track addendum (§7) and guidance on using the model for hiring, development, and promotion (§8).

10. Success Profile

A Cryptography Engineer is successful when the organization’s cryptographic posture is correct by design and sustainable over time. Key indicators: all cryptographic keys are managed through a centralized key management system with full lifecycle tracking; certificate expiry is never an emergency; TLS configurations across the estate score A+ on every assessment; cryptographic algorithms and key lengths are consistent with current best practice. The engineer makes crypto “boring” — it works correctly, automatically, and nobody has to think about it.

11. Career Path

11.1 Within-Family Progression

Within JF-SECENG, progression follows the Security Engineering level ladder in JF-001 §9.1: L1 Associate Engineer/S1, L2 Engineer/S2, L3 Senior or Staff Engineer/S3, and L4 Principal Engineer/S4. Promotion evidence should show increasing autonomy in secure design and implementation, ownership of engineering work streams, authorship or improvement of standards and reference architectures, cross-pillar influence, and mentoring of less experienced engineers. The grade definitions and progression dimensions are maintained in JA-001 §4.

11.2 Cross-Family Movement

Cross-family movement options are defined in the Family-to-Family Career Lattice (JF-001 §4). The Left-Right Knowledge Model (FRM-001 §9.2) and cross-training expectations (OM-001 §10.4) operationalize cross-family career movement.

11.3 Management Track Option

At L3+ (SME track), a Management track option may be available per CERG-GOV-JA-001 §8.1 (SME to Management Transition). Readiness indicators include: consistently sought out for guidance by junior team members, leading cross-functional initiatives without formal authority, and communicating clearly with non-technical stakeholders. The transition is a track change, not a grade promotion — an S3 Advisor moving to M1 Manager carries their technical credibility into the management role. Management competencies are defined in CERG-GOV-CMP-001 §7. See CERG-GOV-JA-001 §5 for Management grade definitions (M1-M4) and §9 (Span of Control and Team Design) for when to create a management role.

12. Related CERG Documents

13. Document Control

Revision History

Review Triggers

• Change to this role’s definition in CERG-GOV-OM-001 §6.1
• Change to this role’s NICE Work Role mapping in JF-002
• Change to this role’s grade range in CERG-GOV-JA-001 §7
• Direction from the CISO

Governance owns this document. The Governance Pillar Leader (Policy & Standards) is responsible for initiating reviews, managing the revision cycle, and obtaining approval for all changes.

Related Documents

Source: roles/jf-seceng/CERG-GOV-JD-SECENG-006_Cryptography_Engineer.md · Download .md · View on GitHub