Who we are
CryptoNext Security builds the cryptography that protects the world's data once quantum computers can break today's encryption. Founded in 2019 out of 20+ years of research at INRIA, CNRS and Sorbonne, we are recognised by Gartner among the global top 5 PQC vendors and are the first European company selected by NIST's NCCoE on post-quantum migration.
Our R&D team has built the technology that brought us to market. We now need an Engineering Manager to take ownership of how this team works: increase its productivity, set a clear architecture vision, and balance the short-term pressure of shipping features against the long-term need to pay down technical debt.
This is a builder's role. You will report to the CTO (and work closely with Product to ship a roadmap that customers (banks, governments, infrastructure operators) are already buying.
What you'll do
• Lead the R&D team day-to-day. Run 1:1s, set objectives, recruit, and develop people. About 12 engineers today, split across 3 product/infra scopes.
• Own the architecture vision. Make our products scalable as we move from early customers to large-scale deployments. Define the patterns we use, the boundaries between services, and how we evolve our current products) without breaking customer integrations.
• Run the tech-debt-vs-features trade-off. Work with the CTO and Product to decide what we refactor, what we ship, and in what order. Make this explicit, visible and defended to the rest of the company.
• Increase team productivity. Diagnose what slows us down, fix it. CI/CD, observability, code review culture, sprint rituals, ownership boundaries - whatever the bottleneck is, you own it.
• Define and monitor Engineering KPIs and dashboards to track delivery performance, velocity, development efficiency, quality metrics, and team capacity utilization.
• Analyze engineering data to identify bottlenecks, improve predictability and operational efficiency, and support data-driven decision-making
• Partner with Product and Customer-facing teams. Translate customer needs into deliverable engineering work. Shield the team from chaos, but also bring them close enough to customers that they build the right thing.
• Report up to the CTO and exec team. Clear, honest visibility on progress, risks, and resource needs.
Must-have
• 5+ years as a software engineer in B2B SaaS, deeptech, or similar high-complexity products.
• 5+ years as an Engineering Manager, Tech Lead, or equivalent leadership role with direct people management responsibility (5+ engineers).
• Demonstrable architecture authority — you can show concrete decisions you made on system design, scalability, or technical debt that paid off.
• Comfortable navigating the tech-debt-vs-features trade-off as a first-class management responsibility, not as an afterthought.
• Strong written and verbal communication in both French and English.
Strong plus
• AI-savvy. You use AI tools daily in your own work (coding, planning, decision support) and have ideas about how AI can change the way your team operates and the products you build.
• Background in C, C++, low-level systems, or cryptographic libraries (OpenSSL, BoringSSL, mbedTLS, libsodium).
• Experience scaling a team and product from early-stage to multi-customer enterprise deployment.
Nice to have
• Knowledge of cybersecurity fundamentals, especially cryptographic protocols (TLS, IPsec, PKCS, X.509, HSM interfaces).
• Familiarity with regulated B2B environments (finance, government, defense, telco).
• Awareness of post-quantum cryptography as a topic — you don't need to know lattice math, you need to be intellectually curious about it.
What we offer
• Competitive package
• Office in central Paris, hybrid working — 3 days in office minimum, the rest flexible.
• A small, focused team with real customer wins and a clear mission. No corporate fog.
• Direct access to a credible CTO and a research-led culture rooted in INRIA / CNRS / Sorbonne. The intellectual environment is one of CryptoNext's strongest assets.
TECHNICAL & MARKET ANALYSIS | Appended by Quantum.Jobs
The structural evolution of the cybersecurity landscape toward quantum-resilience necessitates a specialized tier of engineering leadership focused on the industrialization of post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) standards. As the global regulatory environment transitions from exploratory assessments to mandatory migration timelines, the role of an Engineering Manager in this domain serves as a critical bridge between academic cryptographic research and enterprise-grade software delivery. This function addresses a significant bottleneck in the "trust enablement" layer of the digital value chain, where theoretical algorithms must be integrated into high-availability production environments without compromising systemic performance. Market signals, including NIST's finalization of PQC standards and the emergence of "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" threats, indicate that the ability to orchestrate these complex architectural transitions is becoming a primary determinant for organizational resilience in the quantum era.
The quantum-safe ecosystem is currently navigating a period of rapid institutionalization, characterized by the convergence of national security mandates and the commercial necessity for crypto-agility. Within this environment, the software security domain represents a high-priority transition point, as existing public-key infrastructures (PKI) face deterministic obsolescence. However, a persistent gap remains between the availability of standardized PQC algorithms and the operational readiness of heterogeneous enterprise stacks. Addressing this maturity mismatch requires a strategic emphasis on the "secure-by-design" lifecycle, ensuring that quantum-resistant libraries are not only mathematically sound but also architecturally scalable across multi-cloud and edge environments.
Macro-level analysis of the cybersecurity workforce reveals that while cryptographic expertise is growing, a critical shortage exists for leaders capable of managing the high-complexity trade-offs inherent in deep-tech software evolution. Organizations are increasingly shifting from isolated proof-of-concepts to integrated migration programs that must account for significant technical debt in legacy protocols. This transition is driven by the need to synchronize internal R&D efforts with evolving global standards, such as those led by NIST and ETSI, where interoperability and performance overheads are the primary technical hurdles.
Furthermore, the integration of PQC into critical infrastructure—such as banking, defense, and telecommunications—has become a sovereign strategic imperative for major economies. This trend favors the development of modular, crypto-agile software architectures that can facilitate the rapid replacement of compromised kernels without disrupting business continuity. As standardizing efforts mature, the industry's focus at Cryptonext Security and similar firms is pivoting toward establishing delivery excellence and performance benchmarking that ensure long-term stability in the face of evolving cryptanalytic capabilities.
The capability architecture for this role type centers on the synchronization of low-level systems programming with high-level architectural governance. At the foundational layer, mastery of cryptographic implementation—specifically the integration of lattice-based or hash-based signatures into existing TLS and PKI frameworks—is essential for maintaining data integrity during the migration phase. This technical proficiency is coupled with a deep understanding of engineering productivity metrics, where the acceleration of CI/CD pipelines for high-security codebases directly influences the reliability of large-scale deployments. These capabilities are critical for the structural throughput of PQC adoption, as they mitigate the risks of implementation errors that could lead to systemic vulnerabilities.
Beyond technical orchestration, the role facilitates a high-level coupling between product roadmap execution and the mitigation of architectural entropy. This interface ensures that the pressure to deliver customer-facing features is balanced against the long-term sustainability of the cryptographic stack. By standardizing the use of automated observability and rigorous code review cultures, these managers enable a level of operational excellence that allows organizations to navigate the transition toward quantum-resistant security without incurring prohibitive performance costs. This strategic alignment is vital for maintaining the competitive trajectory of firms operating at the forefront of the deep-tech security sector.
Accelerates the deterministic progression of technology readiness levels for enterprise-grade post-quantum cryptographic solutions.
Mitigates systemic risks associated with premature technology adoption by establishing rigorous benchmarking for quantum-resistant algorithms.
Facilitates the transition from theoretical research to standardized commercial-grade security software across critical global industries.
Reduces iteration friction in high-complexity software delivery through the implementation of advanced engineering productivity frameworks.
Strengthens the long-term competitive positioning of digital economies by securing early-mover expertise in crypto-agile architectures.
Harmonizes abstract cryptographic research with the practical requirements of scalable B2B SaaS and deep-tech products.
Optimizes the lifecycle of security-critical systems through the management of technical debt and architectural vision.
Supports the scaling of quantum-safe adoption by identifying high-impact integration points across diverse industrial value chains.
Shortens the time-to-market for PQC-compliant products by ensuring infrastructure alignment with global standardization roadmaps.
Improves the reliability of multi-stakeholder security initiatives through the application of architectural best practices and standardized protocols.
Protects capital-intensive investments in digital infrastructure by providing expert technical validation of emerging security standards.
Enables the strategic orchestration of R\&D efforts across large-scale networks of internal engineers and external regulatory partners.
Industry Tags: Post-Quantum Cryptography, Crypto-Agility, Software Architecture, Engineering Leadership, NIST PQC Standards, Cyber Resilience, Deep-Tech Engineering, B2B SaaS Security, Cryptographic Migration
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