Sr Software Engineer (HashiCorp Vault)

IBM; Lowell (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software in Lowell, MA seeks an experienced engineer to design, build, and operate Vault as a service across Kubernetes and OpenShift. You will ensure secure, highly available, and compliant secrets management at scale, partnering across teams and customers to deliver reliable cloud-native solutions.

The role blends software development, security engineering, reliability, and cloud platform operations, with hands-on building, automation, and developer experiences for mission-critical

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on experience building production-grade services in Golang.
• Deep experience managing Kubernetes workloads and platform components, including networking, storage, and security.
• Experience designing reliable, scalable, highly available distributed systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP, including disaster recovery strategies.
• Experience operating mission-critical cloud services, including reliability objectives, operational runbooks, monitoring, and incident response.
• Strong DevOps and cloud-native mindset, with hands-on experience implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automation-first operational practices.

Responsibilities

• Apply advanced technical expertise to design, prototype and implement customer-facing product features and tools while ensuring stability and usability
• Deliver creative, effective solutions while understanding cross-functional interdependencies.
• Lead the application of existing products and services, and influence the development of new policies and ideas.
• Own and drive the reliable execution of large projects (typically spanning 4–12 weeks), including end-to-end design, full lifecycle implementation, and troubleshooting.
• Evaluate trade-offs, propose solutions, remove blockers, and communicate progress to stakeholders.
• Collaborate directly with internal teams, customers, and external communities to design solutions based on real-world requirements.
• Advocate for technical roadmap initiatives that improve systems and organizational effectiveness beyond individual projects.
• Debug and resolve complex issues, review code for quality and patterns, and mentor other engineers.
• Guide team collaboration activities such as pairing and knowledge sharing.
• Participate in hiring by leading interviews for junior candidates and contributing to calibration for mid-level roles.
• Participate in on-call rotations, incident management, pairing, and team planning to support production and customer needs.

Skills

Golang

Kubernetes

Distributed systems design

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)

DevOps & IaC

Reliability engineering

Incident response

Education

Master's Degree

Tools

OpenShift

Helm

Kustomize

Terraform

Argo CD

Flux

Job description

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'l have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

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'l have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

Your Role And Responsibilities

We’re looking for a seasoned engineer to design, build, and operate HashiCorp Vault as a service. You’ll be responsible for secure, highly available, and compliant secrets management services, delivered at scale across Kubernetes and OpenShift environments. This is a hands‑on engineering role combining software development, security engineering, reliability, and cloud platform operations. You’ll build the systems, , automation, and developer experiences that enable customers to securely run mission‑critical workloads on the cloud.

• Apply advanced technical expertise to design, prototype and implement customer‑facing product features and tools while ensuring stability and usability
• Deliver creative, effective solutions while understanding cross‑functional interdependencies.
• Lead the application of existing products and services, and influence the development of new policies and ideas.
• Own and drive the reliable execution of large projects (typically spanning 4–12 weeks), including end‑to‑end design, full lifecycle implementation, and troubleshooting.
• Evaluate trade‑offs, propose solutions, remove blockers, and communicate progress to stakeholders.
• Collaborate directly with internal teams, customers, and external communities to design solutions based on real‑world requirements.
• Advocate for technical roadmap initiatives that improve systems and organizational effectiveness beyond individual projects.
• Debug and resolve complex issues, review code for quality and patterns, and mentor other engineers.
• Guide team collaboration activities such as pairing and knowledge sharing.
• Participate in hiring by leading interviews for junior candidates and contributing to calibration for mid‑level roles.
• Participate in on‑call rotations, incident management, pairing, and team planning to support production and customer needs.

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

• Extensive hands‑on experience building production‑grade services in Golang, with strong testing and code quality practices.
• Deep experience managing Kubernetes workloads and platform components, including networking, storage, and security.
• Experience designing reliable, scalable, highly available distributed systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP, including disaster recovery strategies.
• Experience operating mission‑critical cloud services, including reliability objectives, operational runbooks, monitoring, and incident response.
• Strong DevOps and cloud‑native mindset, with hands‑on experience implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automation‑first operational practices.

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Hands‑on experience operating HashiCorp Vault at scale (auth methods, PKI/Transit/KV engines, policies, HA/DR, backups).
• Experience with Openshift, Helm, Kustomize, Terraform, and GitOps workflows (Argo CD/Flux).
• Understanding of TLS/mTLS, certificate management, IAM, and secrets lifecycle.
• Experience with cloud monitoring tools to implement robust observability practices that prioritize metrics, logging and tracing for high reliability and performance.
• Experience partnering with security and compliance teams to build secure‑by‑default platforms and services.