Senior Engagement Lead, Cryptographic Modernization (2026-0211)

As a Senior Engagement Lead, Cryptographic Modernization at Acclaim Technical Services, you serve as the senior leader accountable for customer engagement, integrated delivery, contract performance, and identification of follow-on opportunities on a complex Federal cybersecurity engagement supporting a national-security customer in Northern Virginia. You combine strong Federal cybersecurity and program-delivery experience with sufficient depth in cryptographic modernization and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to credibly lead customer discussions, challenge technical approaches, and translate engineering findings into mission, schedule, resource, funding, and migration implications. You work closely with the Senior PQC/Cryptography Architect and other technical subject matter experts while maintaining accountability for the overall customer outcome.

What you'll do

• Serve as the primary senior ATS point of contact for customer executives, mission owners, security leaders, engineering stakeholders, and program leadership.
• Build and sustain trusted relationships across the customer organization and understand customer mission priorities, constraints, decision authorities, and modernization objectives.
• Lead executive briefings, technical reviews, decision forums, working groups, and program reviews.
• Translate complex cryptographic and cybersecurity findings into actionable executive decisions, mission risk, resource requirements, sequencing, and investment priorities.
• Ensure customer decisions, dependencies, and actions are captured and driven to closure.
• Own overall execution of contract scope, deliverables, milestones, quality, risk, staffing, and customer commitments.
• Coordinate technical workstreams spanning cryptographic discovery, inventory and CBOM (cryptographic bill of materials) development, architecture assessment, risk prioritization, crypto-agility, and PQC migration planning.
• Partner with the Senior PQC/Cryptography Architect to ensure technical approaches are defensible, executable, and aligned with applicable NIST and Federal cybersecurity requirements.
• Maintain an integrated view of schedule, dependencies, risks, decisions, staffing, customer actions, and deliverable status.
• Establish delivery governance, performance measures, escalation mechanisms, and quality controls.
• Ensure technical and analytic products clearly communicate findings, evidence, mission impact, migration priorities, and recommended actions.
• Drive issues and blockers to resolution before they affect mission outcomes or customer confidence.
• Lead and coordinate a multidisciplinary team of cryptography subject matter experts, cybersecurity engineers, architects, analysts, and other technical personnel.
• Establish expectations for technical quality, responsiveness, collaboration, accountability, and customer service.
• Work with technical leads to balance workload, priorities, and resource requirements.
• Coach task leads and develop future customer-facing and technical leaders.
• Partner with ATS leadership and Recruiting to identify and secure cleared personnel with the appropriate technical skill mix.
• Monitor contract performance, labor utilization, burn, margin, subcontractor performance, staffing, and forecast-to-complete.
• Identify schedule, staffing, technical, financial, and contractual risks early and implement appropriate corrective action.
• Ensure timely and accurate contract reporting and support internal program and executive reviews.
• Coordinate with Contracts, Finance, Security, and other corporate functions to ensure engagement compliance and sound execution.
• Identify adjacent customer needs, follow-on requirements, and modernization opportunities that emerge through delivery.
• Partner with Growth and Capture teams on on-contract growth, option periods, recompetes, and targeted new work.
• Provide customer insight, technical context, competitive intelligence, and mission understanding to account and capture strategies.
• Support white papers, technical solutioning, demonstrations, proposals, and executive engagement where appropriate.
• Help position ATS as a long-term partner in cryptographic modernization, post-quantum readiness, and broader cybersecurity transformation.

What you bring

• An active TS/SCI clearance.
• 10+ years of Federal cybersecurity, technology, engineering, or mission-delivery experience.
• 5+ years leading complex technical engagements, programs, or major workstreams.
• Demonstrated experience supporting Federal national-security, Intelligence Community, or Department of Defense customers.
• Proven success as a senior customer-facing leader on high-visibility technical engagements.
• Strong program-management skills spanning scope, schedule, staffing, risk, quality, dependencies, and stakeholder management.
• Working knowledge of post-quantum cryptography migration, cryptographic discovery and inventory, CBOM concepts, crypto-agility, NIST cybersecurity and cryptography frameworks, and Federal cyber governance.
• Ability to translate complex technical findings into mission impact, migration priorities, schedule, resource needs, funding implications, and executive decisions.
• Experience coordinating multidisciplinary technical teams and subject matter experts.
• Strong executive communication, briefing, facilitation, and technical-writing skills.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with senior Government stakeholders.
• Ability to work on-site at the required customer cadence in Northern Virginia.

Nice to have

• PMP, CISSP, CGRC, or similar certification.
• Experience leading cryptographic modernization, PQC readiness, PKI modernization, or crypto-agility initiatives.
• Experience supporting enterprise cybersecurity modernization, Zero Trust, or other large-scale Federal transformation programs.
• Familiarity with cryptographic inventory, CBOM, migration roadmaps, and risk-prioritization methodologies.
• Experience managing subcontractors and integrated contractor teams.
• Experience supporting recompetes, on-contract growth, capture, or technical proposal development.
• Experience presenting cybersecurity modernization strategies to CIO, CISO, engineering, mission, or other executive stakeholders.

What we offer

• Salary range of $150,000 to $180,000, subject to confirmation against final scope and required experience.
• Comprehensive benefits package including healthcare, wellness, financial, retirement, family support, continuing education, and time off benefits.
• Career growth and learning and development opportunities.

About Acclaim Technical Services

Founded in 2000, Acclaim Technical Services is a leading provider of cyber operations, intelligence solutions, network infrastructure and engineering, and business enablement supporting a wide range of U.S. Federal agencies. ATS is consistently recognized as a top workplace in the Washington, D.C. region and combines deep mission expertise with responsive, high-quality technical delivery.