Overview
Cryptography and Certificate Services Specialist
Department of Public Health·State of California
Hiring Manager: Johanna McGillivray
$9,507 – $12,740/month
Junior LevelSacramento, CAHybridCloses 10/28/2026·21 d
About this Role
All California Department of Public Health (CDPH) employees perform work that is of the utmost importance, where each employee is important in supporting and promoting an environment of equity, diversity, and inclusivity, essential to the delivery of the department’s mission. All employees are valued and should understand that their contributions and the contributions of their team members derive from different cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences, supporting innovations in public health services and programs for California.
Job Summary
This position supports the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) mission and strategic plan by creating customer focused solutions that are responsive and agile; supporting a modern infrastructure, tools, architecture, and standards; to effectively provide efficient services following service level agreements. The Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) leverages data and technology to create sustainability across CDPH by creating efficient solutions that meet customer expectations and reduce waste. As well as, creating innovative solutions, strengthening partnerships and collaborations, and embracing technology.
Key Responsibilities
25% Plans, develops, and documents policies, procedures, requirements, and methodologies; implement security and privacy controls across multiple information technology disciplines; conduct presentations or briefings to executive management; contribute in the planning of the overall organizational information technology strategy and direction, identify current and emerging trends in technology and recommend appropriate courses of action, and advise management and executive level staff on governance and policy that support forward movement, aligning with technological modernization strategies in support of CDPH programs.
25% Serves as CDPH’s technical lead for preparing the enterprise’s transition to Quantum-Resistant (post-quantum) Cryptography in alignment with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized standards – Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 203 (ML-KEM), FIPS 204 (ML-DSA), and FIPS 205 (SLH-DSA) and applicable federal and state migration timelines. Supports and monitors for compliance with emerging standards and deadlines. Develops and maintains an enterprise cryptographic inventory / Cryptographic Bill of Materials (CBOM). Identifies uses of quantum‑vulnerable public‑key algorithms (RSA, ECC, and Diffie‑Hellman) across applications, certificates, protocols, code repositories, and infrastructure. Assesses and prioritizes systems by risk and data‑confidentiality longevity, mitigating the “harvest-now, decrypt-later” threat, and develops a phased, risk‑based QRC migration roadmap. Designs and pilot’s hybrid (composite) certificate deployments and quantum‑safe algorithms in non‑production environments, validating performance, interoperability, and backward compatibility before production rollout. Establishes cryptographic governance, standards, and a crypto‑agile architecture that enables, CDPH to measure and change cryptographic algorithms efficiently as standards evolve. Advises executive leadership on emerging quantum‑computing threats and post‑quantum cryptography strategy.
25% Leads the issuance, automation, renewal, and governance of digital certificates across all CDPH on‑premises and cloud platforms, ensuring the Department meets the CA/Browser Forum reduction of SSL/TLS certificate lifetimes. Architects, deploys, and supports automated certificate lifecycle management. Integrates certificate services with cloud platforms (Sectigo Certificate Manager with Microsoft Azure Key Vault and Microsoft Entra ID), managing SCEP/ACME endpoints, RA certificates, managed identities, and automated CSR generation, storage, and rotation. Automates certificate operations via REST API’s and PowerShell and manages certificate provisioning for on‑premises VMs and Azure Enterprise Applications including installation, export, thumbprint management, and scheduled‑task automation. Monitors certificate health, expiration, and agent activity using Azure Monitor / Microsoft Sentinel, maintaining an accurate enterprise certificate inventory to prevent outages, security incidents, and compliance gaps. Collaborates with the Information Security Office (ISO), NetOps, IAM, and Server Architecture teams to deliver the enterprise automated certificate management effort, and provide guidance, documentation, and proof‑of‑concept testing to ITSD staff.
20% Acts as the Expert Advisor for all other cryptography and certificate‑based needs across CDPH, ensuring compliance with NIST 800‑53, FIPS 140‑2/140‑3, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and State Administrative Manual (SAM)/SIMM requirements. Administers Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services, obtaining public key certificates from ISO approved providers and enforces defined key activation/deactivation dates and rotation policies. Establishes and enforces on key vaults (Azure Key Vault), and relevant cryptographic standards including Role‑based Access Control (RBAC)/least‑privilege access, managed identities, expiry times, auto‑rotation through partnered Certificate Authorities, purge protection, and diagnostic/audit logging. Supports secure key, secret, and certificate management for code signing, S/MIME, device/user certificates, TLS termination, and transmission confidentiality/integrity across on‑premises and hybrid‑cloud environments. Provides expert consultation to programs, project teams, and executive leadership on cryptographic controls. Develops policies, standards, and procedures. Represents Technology Integration Services in enterprise architecture, security, and change‑control forums.
5% Performs other work‑related duties as assigned.
Qualifications
All employees shall possess the general qualifications, as described in California Code of Regulations Title 2, Section 172, which include, but are not limited to integrity, honesty, dependability, thoroughness, accuracy, good judgment, initiative, resourcefulness, and the ability to work cooperatively with others.
Conflict of Interest (COI)
Background Check and/or Fingerprinting Clearance
Medical Clearance
Travel
Bilingual: Pass a State written and/or verbal proficiency exam in
License/Certification
Other:
About California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
CDPH works to protect the public's health in the Golden State and helps shape positive health outcomes for individuals, families and communities. The Department's programs and services, implemented in collaboration with local health departments and state, federal and private partners, touch the lives of every Californian and visitor to the state 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Our Shared Vision
CDPH public health professionals, researchers, scientists, doctors, nurses, and other staff members have a shared vision to protect and improve the health of all Californians. We are dedicated to public service and passionate about our work and the people and communities we serve and protect.
Diversity Statement
At CDPH, equity, diversity, and inclusion are at the core of our mission to advance the health and well-being of California’s diverse people and communities. We are genuinely and strongly committed to cultivating and preserving a culture of inclusion and connectedness where we can grow and learn together with a diverse team of employees. In recruiting for team members, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring to us and the work we do.
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