Senior Cryptographic Architecture Lead (Post-Quantum Ready)

American Express; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

American Express Technology seeks a senior cryptographic architect to design enterprise cryptographic architecture across payment and non‑payment environments, APIs, databases and cloud platforms. You will lead post‑quantum readiness, cryptographic inventory and key management, and collaborate with engineering, risk, and product teams to translate security requirements into reusable patterns and code.

This role blends strategy with hands‑on engineering, emphasizes security telemetry in the SDLC,

Qualifications

• Significant experience in cryptographic engineering, cybersecurity architecture, applied cryptography or security engineering in a large-scale technology environment.
• Deep knowledge of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, encryption, digital signatures, hashing, TLS, key establishment and exchange, and modern cryptographic protocols.
• Strong experience with HSMs, enterprise key-management systems, PKI, certificates and cryptographic key lifecycle management.
• Experience designing encryption solutions across applications, APIs, databases, infrastructure and cloud environments.
• Demonstrated ability to translate security requirements into working technical architectures and reusable engineering patterns.
• Software engineering or automation capability sufficient to develop prototypes, integrations, policy or architecture-as-code and technical reference implementations.
• Experience working across engineering, architecture, product and cybersecurity organizations.
• Ability to communicate complex cryptographic concepts, risks and architecture decisions to engineering teams and senior leadership.
• Post-quantum cryptography (PQC), NIST PQC standards and enterprise crypto-agility programs.
• Experience within financial services or another highly regulated environment.
• Cloud KMS and HSM architectures across AWS, Azure and/or GCP.
• Large-scale cryptographic migrations or modernization programs.
• Payment cryptography, payment HSMs, payment key management and PCI requirements.

Responsibilities

• Define enterprise cryptographic architecture and strategic patterns across payment and non-payment environments, applications, APIs, databases, cloud platforms and infrastructure.
• Lead post‑quantum cryptography readiness and crypto‑agility, including cryptographic inventory and CBOM, identification of quantum‑vulnerable implementations, migration patterns and modernization roadmaps.
• Provide architecture leadership for payment cryptography, including payment HSMs, payment key management, cryptographic key hierarchies and applicable PCI requirements.
• Design modern approaches for enterprise encryption, key management, HSM/HSMaaS, PKI and certificates, digital signatures and cloud‑native cryptography.
• Evaluate emerging cryptographic technologies and use cases, including blockchain and distributed ledgers, advanced digital‑signature approaches and other modern cryptographic techniques.
• Translate Data Security standards into architecture‑as‑code, reusable engineering patterns, reference implementations, APIs and automated guardrails.
• Partner directly with engineering teams to prototype, validate and implement cryptographic solutions rather than relying solely on architecture documentation.
• Integrate cryptographic requirements and security telemetry into the SDLC and Permit to Operate, enabling earlier identification and enforcement of security requirements.
• Drive adoption of strategic enterprise cryptographic services and identify opportunities to simplify or retire fragmented and legacy implementations.
• Assess cryptographic risk based on algorithm strength, key protection, data sensitivity, threat exposure, implementation architecture and evolving industry standards.
• Provide senior technical leadership for significant cryptographic vulnerabilities, incidents, architecture decisions and technology transformations.
• Mentor architects and engineers and raise cryptographic engineering capability across the organization.

Skills

Cryptographic engineering

Cybersecurity architecture

Applied cryptography

Security engineering

HSMs and key management

PKI and certificates

Cloud KMS

Post-quantum cryptography

Tools

HSMs

PKI tooling

Cloud KMS

Job description

American Express Technology seeks a senior cryptographic architect to design enterprise cryptographic architecture across payment and non‑payment environments, APIs, databases and cloud platforms. You will lead post‑quantum readiness, cryptographic inventory and key management, and collaborate with engineering, risk, and product teams to translate security requirements into reusable patterns and code.

This role blends strategy with hands‑on engineering, emphasizes security telemetry in the SDLC,