Cryptography Hardware Engineer

Job description / Role

If you’ve built crypto systems where failure isn’t an option — strict controls, real threat models, and audited engineering — this role is in that lane.

We’re hiring a Cryptography Engineer with military/defense experience to join a high-performing team in Abu Dhabi, working on security-critical systems that demand rigor, traceability, and clean implementation.

What you’ll be doing
- Design and implement cryptographic components for secure systems (at rest / in transit / key lifecycle)
- Work with product + engineering to translate security requirements into practical crypto designs
- Build and review implementations with a focus on correctness, side-channel resistance, and secure coding
- Own key management approaches (generation, storage, rotation, revocation) and integration patterns
- Support security testing: code reviews, threat modelling, protocol review, and incident/root-cause analysis
- Produce high-quality documentation (design decisions, assumptions, test evidence) suitable for regulated environments

What we’re looking for
- Proven experience in defense/military, aerospace, intelligence, or similarly high-assurance environments
- Strong fundamentals: applied cryptography, protocols, authentication, secure key handling
- Experience implementing crypto in real systems (not just academic)
- Comfortable working under strict process: change control, traceability, secure environments
- Clear communicator who can explain trade-offs to engineers and non-crypto stakeholders

Nice to have (not mandatory)
- Experience with HSMs, PKI, secure enclaves, or hardware-backed key storage
- Familiarity with FIPS 140-2/140-3, Common Criteria, or equivalent assurance frameworks
- Experience with secure protocol design/review (e.g., TLS internals, custom protocols, constrained environments)
- Exposure to embedded or low-level environments where timing/side-channel risks matter

You’re a Cryptography Engineer who’s done this in the real world — ideally in military/defense, aerospace, intelligence, or another high-assurance environment where security isn’t a feature, it’s the product. You’ve worked on systems that need to stand up to serious threat models, and you’re comfortable operating with strict process, secure environments, and the kind of documentation and traceability that comes with regulated programs.

You’re strong on applied cryptography fundamentals (encryption, signatures, key exchange, authentication, secure key lifecycle) and you know how to translate requirements into designs that engineers can actually build and maintain. You’ve implemented cryptography in production systems (not just selected algorithms), and you’re careful about the details that break security in practice — key handling, randomness, protocol misuse, unsafe defaults, and side-channel risks. You’re the person people trust to review a design, spot the weak assumptions, and propose a pragmatic fix without overcomplicating the system.

You’re hands-on: you can write and review secure code, work closely with software/firmware/hardware teams, and you’re comfortable supporting verification and assurance work — from test evidence and code review to threat modelling and incident/root-cause analysis. You communicate clearly, you document decisions well, and you can explain trade-offs to stakeholders who aren’t cryptographers.

You’re open to relocating to Abu Dhabi, and you’re motivated by building security-critical systems where engineering discipline matters and your work has real-world impact.

Salary:
AED 50,000 to 60,000 per month inclusive of fixed allowances.

About the Company

eMagine Solutions is one of the leading authorities on leadership and talent globally. Our combined resources of over 100 years professional experience mean that our clients trust us with finding them the top talent globally and candidates trust us to find them the right opportunity in a timely and confidential manner.

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