Payments environments are defined by high availability, high throughput, strict compliance, and extensive third-party connectivity. Quantum-safe readiness in payments often becomes real engineering quickly: certificate ecosystems, gateway/API cryptography, key management, signing, and device/payment channel trust anchors.
About Applied Quantum
Applied Quantum is a company specializing in safeguarding organizations against emerging quantum computing threats. We provide advanced quantum-safe security solutions - from post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD) to crypto-agility strategies - to help our clients achieve resilience in the quantum era. Our team of experts in cybersecurity, cryptography, and quantum technology works at the forefront of the quantum security revolution, ensuring businesses, critical infrastructure, and governments stay secure as quantum technology evolves.
Role Summary
As a Quantum-Safe Security Engineer (Payments), you will work with payments providers (processors, gateways, PSPs, fintechs, and payment-adjacent platforms) on cryptographic discovery, crypto-agility foundations, and PQC migration planning/pilots. This role is for engineers who can operate in “always-on” environments and deliver secure changes without disrupting transaction flows.
Key Responsibilities
Crypto inventory across payment platforms:
Identify cryptography across APIs, gateways, tokenization services, mobile/SDK components, certificates, mTLS, VPNs, key stores, HSM integrations, and signing workflows. Map cryptographic dependencies across internal services and external partners.
Performance-aware engineering:
Evaluate the real-world impact of cryptographic changes on latency, throughput, and availability; design rollouts that preserve service SLOs.
Crypto-agility patterns & automation:
Implement or advise on architecture patterns that reduce lock-in to a single algorithm/provider; automate certificate/key lifecycle tasks to reduce operational risk.
Vendor and partner coordination:
Support technical alignment with payment networks, acquirers, issuers, and platform vendors where cryptographic dependencies are shared and changes require coordination.
Secure implementation delivery:
Contribute to controlled pilots, integration testing, canary rollouts, and incident-ready operationalization.
Documentation for compliance and assurance:
Produce clear, audit-friendly documentation of cryptographic inventory, migration decisions, and residual risk.
Required Qualifications and Experience
- Payments industry experience: Prior hands-on experience in payments processing, gateways, PSP environments, or payment security engineering.
- Applied cryptography: Strong understanding of how cryptography shows up in real systems (TLS/mTLS, PKI, signing, key management, secrets management).
- Engineering leadership: Demonstrated experience leading or owning complex security/infrastructure changes in production systems.
- Discovery capability: Able to build inventories from code/config/network evidence—beyond “what a diagram says.”
- DevOps and scale mindset: Comfort with automation and modern delivery environments (CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, containerized services).
Preferred Skills or Attributes
- Familiarity with PCI-driven environments and security controls commonly used in payment ecosystems.
- Exposure to HSM operations, key ceremony processes, certificate lifecycle at scale.
- PQC awareness or willingness to learn quickly (training provided).
Location and Travel Expectations
- Locations: Canada, United States, United Kingdom, European Union, ASEAN
- Work model: Remote with occasional travel for workshops, cutover planning, or critical implementation milestones.
Engagement Model
- Full-time and contract options available depending on client needs and your preference.
Project Timing and Hiring Process Transparency
We are assembling a payments-focused quantum-safe delivery bench for engagements that are expected to start soon but are still awaiting final client start-date confirmation. It is possible that the process pauses briefly between stages; we will provide updates to avoid any perception of “radio silence.”
How to Apply
Submit a resume with emphasis on:
- payment platform/security engineering experience,
- cryptographic implementations you have owned (PKI/TLS, signing, key management), and
- examples of high-availability changes delivered safely.
