Staff Engineer - PKI Systems

Posting Open Date: Feb. 9, 2026

Anticipated Posting Close Date*: March 2, 2026

*Job posting may close early due to the volume of applicants.

Staff Systems Engineer - Certainly 

As a Staff PKI Systems Engineer, you will help build and operate Certainly, Fastly's publicly-trusted TLS certification authority. Built on Boulder, the same open-source software that powers Let's Encrypt, Certainly delivers widely trusted, short-validity certificates at scale to help secure the internet. You will own the architecture and operational excellence of complex PKI systems while mentoring a dedicated team of engineers. Integrating deep security expertise with software development, you will solve ambiguous, internet-facing engineering challenges to meet strict industry compliance and reliability goals. This is a high-impact role where your designs will directly protect Fastly customers and the broader web.

What You'll Do:

• Own the design and implementation of security-critical PKI infrastructure, including major refactors and new capabilities
• Lead cryptographic operations including key ceremonies, credential management, and multi-datacenter failover procedures
• Drive technical strategy for system hardening, automation, and resilience across ephemeral, containerized microservices and HSM environments
• Investigate and solve complex, ambiguous engineering problems and production incidents, creating proof-of-concepts and performing root cause analysis with a focus on security, automation, observability and stability
• Collaborate with TLS client, SRE, Security, and Product Engineering teams to translate complex business requirements and compliance standards (WebTrust, PCI) and evolve our infrastructure
• Mentor team members and foster a culture of technical excellence, providing guidance on design, performance, and cross-team collaboration

What We're Looking For: 

• Extensive experience designing, implementing, and maintaining distributed systems on Linux with a focus on automation and continuous monitoring. Most Staff Engineers at Fastly have more than 7 years of related experience.
• Strong software development background (Go or similar) with a track record of owning the design phases of broadly scoped work or major refactors
• Deep understanding of applied cryptography, PKI architecture, and standards such as RFC 5280 and RFC 8555 (ACME)
• Proven ability to lead technical decision-making, write clear design documents, and influence architectural discussions across multiple teams
• Experience building highly secure environments, including vulnerability management, system hardening, and intrusion detection
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and help them understand the impact of their work on customers and stakeholders

We’ll be super impressed if you have experience in any of these: 

• Operating a publicly-trusted CA or large-scale PKI, particularly work with ACME
• Hardware Security Module (HSM) configuration and operation
• Go programming with experience debugging production systems
• High-availability database administration
• Container orchestration in security-sensitive environments
• Working in highly regulated environments (WebTrust, SOC 2, PCI)

Work Hours: 

• This position will require you to be available during core business hours in North America and occasional nights and weekends as needed for on call support. 

Work Location(s) & Travel Requirements: 

This position is open to the following office locations:

• San Francisco, CA
• New York, NY
• Denver, CO

Fastly currently embraces a largely hybrid model for most roles which allows employees flexibility to split their time between the office and home. We may consider exceptionally qualified candidates who are remote in the US and Canada. 

This position will require occasional travel (1-2 times/year) as required by your role or requested by your manager.

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

Salary:

The estimated salary range for this position in the US  is $211,370 to $253,644.

Starting salary may vary based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location.

This role may be eligible to participate in Fastly’s equity and discretionary bonus programs.

Benefits:

We care about you. Fastly works hard to create a positive environment for our employees, and we think your life outside of work is important too. We support our teams with great benefits that start on the first day of your employment with Fastly. Curious about our offerings? 

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Family planning, mental health support along with Employee Assistance Program, Insurance (Life, Disability, and Accident), a Flexible Vacation policy and up to 18 days of accrued paid sick leave are there to help support our employees. We also offer 401(k) (including company match) and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. For 2026, we offer 11 paid local holidays, 12 paid company wellness days.