Technical Lead / Senior Technical Lead – Secure Connectivity & VPN

Our client builds a commercial quantum-safe secure connectivity platform, combining post-quantum cryptography, QKD and QRNG, deployed across defence and enterprise customers. They are scaling the team to deliver the next generation of the platform, including quantum-safe SD-WAN and SASE capabilities.

The role

Own the design, development and delivery of core VPN and secure connectivity modules. Lead a team of four to five engineers, work closely with the Product Architect, and deliver production-grade features end to end. This is a hands-on role: you code, review, debug and make architecture calls. Title and seniority are mapped to demonstrated depth.

What you will own

• Design and development of IPsec and TLS VPN data and control planes, including integration with the crypto layer
• End-to-end feature delivery: design docs, code, tests, release notes, production support and readiness for security certifications
• Team leadership for four to five engineers, covering code reviews, sprint ownership and mentoring
• Close collaboration with the Architect, peer Tech Leads, QA and L3 support
• Customer-facing debugging and root-cause analysis for production issues

Must have

• 8 to 12 years in software engineering, with 5+ years in VPN or secure connectivity product development
• Hands-on VPN protocol development. You have built or contributed to a commercial VPN codebase such as strongSwan, OpenVPN, WireGuard or proprietary. Protocol-level code, not configuration or operations.
• Proven high-productivity use of AI coding tools, with measurable output gains you can demonstrate and teach
• Deep IPsec knowledge: IKEv2, ESP, AES-GCM, PFS, DPD, X.509 authentication, tunnel lifecycle
• Applied crypto experience, classical (RSA, AES-256, TLS 1.3) or post-quantum (ML-KEM, ML-DSA)
• Security certification experience: FIPS 140-2 or 140-3, Common Criteria or equivalent
• Strong C/C++ for the data plane and Python or Go for the control plane
• Linux networking internals: netfilter/nftables, XFRM, routing, namespaces, packet flow
• Appliance development experience: build, debug, upgrade, factory workflows
• NMS/EMS integration: SNMP v2/v3, NETCONF, RESTconf or gRPC telemetry
• Team leadership experience, having led four or more engineers with sprint and code-review ownership

Nice to have

• SD-WAN (link monitoring, path selection, policy routing) or SASE exposure
• Deeper post-quantum crypto work: hybrid key exchange, crypto-agility frameworks
• RHEL-based product development; ICSA Labs or defence-grade certification experience

Not a fit

VPN administration or operations, cloud VPN configuration roles, or generalist full-stack backgrounds without protocol-level development.

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