Software Engineering Architect, PKI & Trust Services

100 Salesforce, Inc.; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 218,000 - 365,000; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce is seeking an Architect to define strategy and technical direction for certificate lifecycles, trust, and cryptographic identities across workloads and AI agents. You will own the multi-year architecture and drive globally available, scalable trust infrastructure on cloud platforms such as AWS and GCP, with a focus on zero-downtime migrations and security standards.

You’ll stay hands-on, prototyping and coding critical paths, while presenting proposals to executives and mentoring

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in distributed-systems architecture, reliability, and performance at scale.
• Hands-on experience operating mission-critical, highly available services on public cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP, including Kubernetes and service mesh.
• Security domain experience in identity and authorization, applied cryptography, or infrastructure security.
• Knowledge of PKI, X.509 certificates, mutual TLS, and key management.
• Proven leadership in aligning cross-organizational initiatives without direct authority.
• Strong communication skills with a track record of presenting architecture proposals to engineers and executives.

Responsibilities

• Own target architecture and multi-year strategy for certificate lifecycle, trust distribution, and cryptographic identity across workloads and AI agents.
• Architect highly available, globally scalable trust infrastructure with measurable SLAs and fleet-wide automated renewal.
• Drive automation-first, cost-effective architecture with zero-touch lifecycle operations and zero-downtime migrations.
• Establish standards for interfaces between the trust platform and dependent infrastructure and guide teams through trade-offs.
• Stay hands-on by prototyping, writing critical-path code, and validating architecture in live systems.
• Present investment and architecture proposals to senior leadership and mentor engineering leads.

Skills

Distributed systems

PKI

Security architecture

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP)

Kubernetes

mTLS

Leadership

Education

Related technical degree

Tools

AWS

GCP

Kubernetes

Job description

To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword— it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all. Ready to level‑up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

The Experience

Every service on a global, multi‑cloud platform rests on one foundation: trust. The systems that issue certificates, establish workload and AI agent identity, and protect cryptographic keys let millions of services prove their identity to one another. As an Architect, you define the strategy and technical direction for this foundation as the industry moves to shorter certificate lifetimes, fully automated lifecycle management, and post‑quantum cryptography. This is a hands‑on architecture role for a distributed‑systems leader with strong security depth. You design for continuous global availability, guide the evolution of our cryptography without disrupting dependent services, and implement working systems across multiple engineering teams. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and key‑management expertise are strong advantages, but deep distributed‑systems and security judgment matter most.

What You’ll Actually Be Doing

• Own the target architecture and multi‑year strategy for certificate lifecycle, trust distribution, and cryptographic identity across workloads and AI agents, and lead execution through production.
• Architect highly available, globally scalable trust infrastructure with measurable Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and fleet‑wide automated certificate renewal capabilities.
• Drive automation‑first, cost‑effective architecture focused on zero‑touch lifecycle operations, zero‑downtime migrations, and data‑driven build‑versus‑buy decisions.
• Establish architectural and security standards for the interfaces between the trust platform and dependent infrastructure, and guide teams through complex design trade‑offs.
• Stay hands‑on by prototyping, writing critical‑path code, and validating architecture in live systems.
• Present investment and architecture proposals to senior leadership, mentor engineering leads, and scale technical expertise across the organization.

You're Our Person If...

• You have 12+ years of experience designing and operating large‑scale distributed systems or infrastructure services, with a proven track record of driving multi‑team technical strategy into production.
• You have deep expertise in distributed‑systems architecture, reliability, and performance at scale.
• You have hands‑on experience operating mission‑critical, highly available services on public cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), including Kubernetes and service mesh.
• You have security domain experience in identity and authorization, applied cryptography, or infrastructure security.
• You have working knowledge of PKI, X.509 certificates, mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS), and key management.
• You have proven leadership in aligning cross‑organizational initiatives without direct authority.
• You have strong communication skills, with a track record of authoring adopted architecture proposals and presenting effectively to both engineers and executives.
• You bring a demonstrated, genuine AI‑first approach to engineering, using AI to move faster, build fluency across the stack, and contribute well beyond your core specialty.
• You have experience using AI tools (for example, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, or Cursor) in development workflows.
• You hold a related technical degree.

Even Better If...

• You have built or operated certificate, identity, or key‑management services at scale.
• You are familiar with workload identity standards (for example, Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone (SPIFFE)) and short‑lived credentials.
• You know post‑quantum cryptography (PQC) standards, such as Module‑Lattice‑Based Key‑Encapsulation Mechanism (ML‑KEM), Module‑Lattice‑Based Digital Signature Algorithm (ML‑DSA), and hybrid key exchange in TLS 1.3, as well as emerging approaches like Merkle Tree Certificates and crypto‑agility design principles.
• You have contributed to technical standards bodies (for example, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the CA/Browser Forum, or the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) or to major open‑source projects.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form. Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non‑discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education. In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits.

Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including:

• time off programs
• medical
• dental
• vision
• mental health support
• paid parental leave
• life and disability insurance
• 401(k)
• an employee stock purchasing program

More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.

The typical base salary range for this position is $218,400 – $365,200 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $263,200 – $401,400 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.

We're Salesforce, the Customer Company, inspiring the future of business with AI + Data + CRM. Leading with our core values, we help companies across every industry blaze new trails and connect with customers in a whole new way. And, we empower you to be a Trailblazer, too — driving your performance and career growth, charting new paths, and improving the state of the world.