Hire the Best Kerberos Specialists

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Sardar A.

Islamabad, Pakistan

$50/hr
5.0
6 jobs

I help startups, product teams, and engineering companies turn embedded product ideas into working hardware, firmware, connected IoT systems, AI-enabled devices, and mobile/cloud platforms. I lead MHTechFusion, an embedded systems and IoT engineering team with hands-on experience in PCB design, firmware development, BLE, hardware bring-up, prototyping, wireless connectivity, AI/computer vision integration, LLM/RAG applications, mobile app integration, and end-to-end product development. We support clients from early concept and feasibility stage to schematic design, PCB layout, firmware development, testing, manufacturing files, and prototype validation. Core areas I can support: -Embedded Hardware & PCB Design: ESP32, STM32, nRF52, Raspberry Pi, sensor boards, wearable electronics, power circuits, communication interfaces, multilayer PCB design, Gerbers, BOM, Pick and Place files, and DFM support. -Firmware Development: C/C++, FreeRTOS, Zephyr, BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, CAN, OBD-II, UART, SPI, I2C, ADC, bootloaders, OTA updates, low-power firmware, and hardware bring-up. -IoT & Connected Products: Cloud dashboards, mobile app integration, device communication, MQTT, REST APIs, data logging, alerts, and remote monitoring systems. -AI, Computer Vision & LLM/RAG: Computer vision pipelines, AI-assisted inspection, object detection, OCR/ANPR-style systems, edge AI integration, LLM-based assistants, RAG systems, document intelligence, approval workflows, and AI-enabled dashboards. -Mobile & Web Applications: iOS and Android companion apps, Flutter/mobile app integration, device configuration apps, BLE/Wi-Fi device pairing, dashboards, admin panels, backend APIs, and cloud-connected product interfaces. -Testing & Prototyping: Prototype assembly coordination, lab testing, debugging, firmware flashing, signal validation, and product iteration. Recent project experience includes wearable electronics, smartwatch PCB and firmware, automotive CAN/OBD-II tools, LoRaWAN monitoring systems, industrial control boards, ESP32/STM32 firmware, custom PCBs, AI/computer vision systems, LLM/RAG platforms, iOS/Android apps, and cloud-connected IoT products. My working style is practical and milestone-based. I first understand the technical requirements, identify risks early, and then break the project into clear phases so the client knows exactly what will be delivered at each step. If you need reliable support for embedded systems, hardware, firmware, BLE, IoT, AI-enabled products, mobile apps, or cloud-connected product development, I would be happy to discuss your project.

  • Embedded C
  • Firmware
  • PCB Design
  • Internet of Things
  • Bluetooth LE
  • ESP32
  • STM32
  • Raspberry Pi
  • nRF51
  • MSP430
  • FreeRTOS
  • Zephyr
  • Altium Designer
  • KiCad
  • Wearable Technology
  • CAD
  • Product Design
  • Circuit Design
  • Machine Learning
  • Computer Vision
Abdurrahman M.

Karachi, Pakistan

$20/hr
5.0
2 jobs

PCB Designer and Embedded Hardware Engineer with hands-on experience with STM32, ESP32, SAMD21, and ATMEGA architectures and IoT product development, along with firmware development. I design PCBs in KiCad and Altium with full JLCPCB and PCBway production support. I will turn your ideas into a real, manufacturable product or a hobbyist project by providing professional-level PCB layouts, schematic designs, BOMs, pick-and-place files, and even enclosure STL or STEP files. Services I provide: PCB design for ESP32, STM32, ATMEGA, or any ARM-based architecture system Schematic design and multilayer PCB layout in Altium and KiCad IoT hardware design with sensors, power management, and connectivity Design for manufacturing and JLCPCB- and PCBway-ready Gerbers Hardware debugging and prototype improvement PCB review services Enclosure design in FUSION360 I focus on practical engineering, not just producing design files. My goal is to deliver PCBs that work reliably in real hardware, are easy to manufacture, and are optimized for cost, performance, and long-term reliability. Whether you're building an IoT device, embedded system, or custom electronic product, I can help take your idea from concept to a production-ready prototype efficiently.

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Arduino IDE
  • Arduino Firmware
  • STM32
  • PCB Design
  • Multilayer PCB
  • KiCad
  • Altium Designer
  • ESP32
  • Circuit Design
  • Schematic
  • Embedded System
Ahmed E.

10th of Ramadan City, Egypt

$10/hr
5.0
21 jobs

About Me I am a professional PCB Designer with extensive Altium, Kicad and EasyEDA experience, delivering commercial and non-commercial hardware projects . I create reliable, production-ready, and cost-optimized multilayer PCB designs tailored to client requirements, while ensuring signal integrity, power integrity, controlled impedance, and EMI mitigation. All files are manufacturing-ready for JLCPCB and other PCB factories, including Gerbers, BOMs, and assembly files. I focus on providing efficient, high-quality solutions that meet both technical and budgetary requirements. 🔑My Key Services ✅ Complete Schematic Design based on client requirements ✅ Multilayer PCB Layout with industry best practices (EMI/EMC, impedance control, spacing rules) ✅ BOM Creation + Cost Optimization while keeping parts available and affordable ✅ PCB designs compatible with JLCPCB and other manufacturers, with BOM & CPL files ready for assembly. ✅ Prototyping Support and design review ✅ RF, Antenna, and High-Speed PCB design ✅ Designing a PCB from a problem statement (from concept → prototype → production) ✅ Support in placing PCB & PCBA orders on JLCPCB and other Manufactories Projects I Have Completed ✅ ESP32 and ESP8266 development boards ✅ STM32 custom boards (Blue Pill, Black Pill, Maple, custom designs) ✅ ATmega-based commercial products ✅ Buck/Boost power supply designs ✅ USB 2.0 / 3.0 hardware ✅ Motor drivers, relays, sensors, IoT controllers Applications & Special Expertise ✔ I2C, SPI, UART ✔ RF & Antenna tuning ✔ DC-DC converters (Buck/Boost/LDO design) ✔ Low-noise analog design ✔ Power integrity & thermal optimization Final Deliverables ☑ Source files (PCB + Schematic) ☑ Gerber files for manufacturing ☑ BOM (cost-optimized + alternatives) ☑ Pick & Place files ☑ PDF documentation

  • PCB Design
  • Altium Designer
  • Electronic Design
  • KiCad
  • Electronics
  • Electronic Circuit Design
  • ESP32
  • STM32
  • Hardware Design
  • Circuit Design
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Embedded System
  • Multilayer PCB
  • Arduino
  • Digital Electronics
Pahan M.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

$35/hr
5.0
8 jobs

I design high density, ultra compact, high-speed, RF and power PCBs in Altium or KiCad, then assemble and bring them, test up in my own lab — so you get a board that's already been powered, probed and proven, with no three-week wait on a contract assembler in between. 6+ years designing production hardware. 50+ PCB designs, 300+ boards shipped. ✅ DESIGN Multilayer layout to 12 layers with controlled impedance and length matching. DDR4, USB 3.1, HDMI, PCIe. Power electronics to 50A with PDN and thermal analysis. RF and antenna integration for BLE, Wi-Fi, and LoRa. Precision analog and mixed-signal partitioning. Rigid-flex. Hierarchical, documented schematics your team can actually debug. ✅BUILD In-house SMT pick-and-place line for 1–100 unit runs. DFM audit against 100+ manufacturing rules before release. SMD Reworking and assembly facilities. BOM scrubbing for cost, lead time, and part lifecycle. ✅PROVE Bring-up and bench validation: every rail verified, critical signals probed, thermals mapped. 500 MHz 4-channel scope, 3.2 GHz spectrum analyzer, logic analyzer, thermal camera with a fully equipped lab. 🎯You receive source files, a full manufacturing pack, and a bring-up guide your firmware team can work from on day one. 🎯Also: EMI/EMC troubleshooting on boards that failed testing, and reverse engineering of obsolete designs onto current parts. 🔧Tools: Altium Designer (primary), KiCad, EasyEDA, LTspice, SolidWorks, Onshape. 🤝Good fit if you're a startup that needs working hardware rather than a folder of Gerbers, you have a high-complexity design that punishes sloppy layout, or you have a board failing EMC and need it diagnosed properly. I keep a daily overlap window for clients in the US, UK, and Australia — send feedback at end of day, wake up to progress. Tell me about your board.

  • Hardware Design
  • Electronic Design
  • Electronic Circuit Design
  • Power Electronics
  • Altium Designer
  • KiCad
  • Hardware Testing
  • Analog Electronics
  • Circuit Design
  • Printed Circuit Board
  • PCB Design
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Electrical Design
  • Embedded System
  • ESP32
  • STM32
  • Electronics
  • Firmware
  • Product Design
  • Product Development
LAP V.

Tam Ky, Vietnam

$25/hr
4.9
108 jobs

I am mechatronics engineer from Việt Nam with 7+ years of experience in designing PCBs. I am familiar with various CAD tools including tools preferred by Manufacturers. I am interested in doing this project with you. I have experience with Circuit Board designing and modification jobs. Handling circuits and PCB is my daily job. I would like to talk about this project in details please message in the inbox to discuss more. Expertise in: 1. KiCAD (main), Cr5000, EasyEDA, EAGLE, Altium, and other CAD tools. 2. PCB layout designing. 3. Design 3D model: Freecad, solidworks, CAD ... 4. Embedded device programming: Arduino, Avr, Esp8266, Esp32, Stm8,raspberry ... 5. Circuit Designing from Scratch. 6. Multilayer,Highspeed PCB design. 7. Python,labview software design

  • Embedded C
  • Multilayer PCB
  • KiCad
  • PCB Design
  • Arduino Firmware
  • Arduino
  • Arduino IDE
  • Electromechanics
  • C++
  • CNC Programming
  • AVR Microcontroller
  • Software Design
  • Software Development
  • Microsoft Visual C++
  • CMake
Keith C.

Urbana, Illinois

$100/hr
4.3
11 jobs

Do you care about the reliability, security, performance, testability, maintainability, and cost of your software/hardware solution? I know how to deliver what you care about with over 15 years of broad experience in software and compute hardware design, development, testing, debugging, and deployment. I get the job done right the first time so you can focus on your larger mission: 1. Reliability: I can help you triage the possible failure scenarios for your system. I can recommend migitations to reduce or eliminate the probability and severity of said failure scenarios. I use simple architectures and programming paradigms that avoid entire classes of bugs. I consider the failure scenarios for every line of code I write. 2. Security: This concern is like reliability, but with a random adversary leveled up to an intelligent, malicious one. I can help you triage potential adversaries and their motivations. I can define a watertight security architecture for your solution with minimal complexity. I avoid entire classes of security vulnerabilities with smart architectural decisions and secure-by-construction code. 3. Performance: Do you care about the latency of your system? Do you care about throughput? Maybe you have concerns about both? I focus my optimization effort on what counts. My hardware background gives me deep knowledge of performance, including multi-core/vector CPU hardware and GPU accelerators. I can optimize at all stack levels from algorithms to machine code to hardware pipelines. 4. Testability: I implement automated, generative tests that perform thousands of operations for the highest confidence in system deployment. To accelerate testing and debugging, I implement _debuggable_ software with a custom visualizer of key internal outputs. 5. Maintainability: I design modular architectures with well-defined interfaces to enable simple component upgrades. I deliver as-simple-as-possible, readable code and high-level documentation. I write self-explanatory code to avoid outdated code comments. 6. Cost: This concern includes development cost, hardware cost, and ongoing operating costs. I minimize development cost by avoiding unnecessary complexity. I build custom software around the lowest-cost compute hardware (CPU or GPU) needed for the job, resulting in hardware costs that are a fraction of the "cookie-cutter" solutions. I fix problems in the design and early testing phases where they are cheap to fix, before they become expensive problems impacting customers in deployment. Specialties: high-performance/embedded, neural networks, computer vision, computer networks, security, reliability Software Languages: SQL, Python, Javascript, Rust, C++, C, CUDA, OpenCL Machine Code: ARM Hardware Languages: SystemC, Verilog A typical consultation involves three steps: 1. Define the Problem: I will work with you to understand the problem space as well as solutions you have tried or are considering. I will respect your time by only asking key questions. 2. Design, Implement, and Test: This typically involves multiple iterations. I will provide updates/metrics/demos at each iteration to ensure that I am converging on a deployable solution. Real test cases from the live system will enable me to catch unforseen problems before deployment. 3. Deploy: I will work with your team to deploy the solution. I will address any deployment issues (typically minor) with additional upgrades.

  • Automation
  • Python
  • CUDA
  • SQL
  • Performance Optimization
  • Deep Neural Network
  • Linux
  • OpenCL
  • TensorFlow
  • Computer Vision
  • C++
  • Assembly Language
  • C
  • Software Architecture & Design
  • JavaScript

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Don't just take our word for it

What does a Kerberos specialist do?

A Kerberos specialist secures network authentication by administering the Key Distribution Center and managing cryptographic keys for ticket-based access. This role focuses on maintaining the integrity of the Kerberos realm through precise configuration of principals and policies. The specialist resolves complex identity mapping issues between services and directory accounts to prevent unauthorized access.

  • Administer the Kerberos database by creating, updating, and securing principals and their associated policies using command-line tools like kadmin or kadmin.local. This work involves defining strict password policies and expiration rules to maintain the security posture of the realm while ensuring legitimate users retain uninterrupted access to network resources.
  • Generate and manage key material for services by exporting principals to keytab files that applications use to authenticate without storing plain-text passwords. The specialist verifies these keytab files contain the correct encryption types and ensures they are distributed securely to the appropriate service hosts to enable seamless ticket acquisition.
  • Configure and troubleshoot Service Principal Names in Active Directory to map service identities to the correct user or computer accounts for proper Kerberos authentication. This task requires using utilities such as setspn.exe to register, modify, or delete SPN entries and diagnosing ticket acquisition failures when the directory service cannot locate the correct principal for a requested service.

How to hire a Kerberos specialist on Upwork

Step 1: Post a job

Describe your authentication infrastructure needs in a few sentences and let Job Post Generator powered by Uma™, Upwork's Mindful AI draft a precise job post for the role. You can write a new post, update a saved draft, or reuse an existing post to start finding candidates quickly.

  • Specify experience with MIT Kerberos kadmin or kadmin.local interfaces to manage realm principals and policies within your specific environment.
  • Request proven ability to generate and export service keys to keytab files using ktadd for secure application integration.
  • Include requirements for configuring Service Principal Names (SPNs) in Active Directory using setspn.exe to map service identities correctly.

Step 2: Evaluate candidates

Look for portfolios that demonstrate successful troubleshooting of ticket acquisition failures and corrected SPN mappings in complex Windows or Linux environments. Uma can run instant video interviews and build shortlists with side-by-side comparisons to help you identify the most qualified specialists.

  • Verify hands-on experience querying and creating principals in the Kerberos database through standard administration command interfaces.
  • Check for documented examples of resolving authentication issues related to incorrect principal attributes or missing key material.
  • Assess their familiarity with maintaining KDC and KADM5 admin access while adhering to strict security protocols for cryptographic keys.

Step 3: Interview your top choices

Discuss specific scenarios involving Kerberos realm maintenance and service account configuration to gauge their practical problem-solving skills. Interviews can be scheduled and conducted within Upwork Messages with an immediate transcript and summary after each one.

  • Ask how they diagnose failures when a service cannot locate the correct SPN or principal during the ticket granting process.
  • Question their approach to updating keytab files without disrupting active services that rely on those specific credentials.
  • Inquire about their method for documenting remediation steps for future reference when fixing complex authentication chain errors.

Step 4: Agree on scope and begin work

Define clear deliverables such as updated realm principals, generated keytab files, and corrected AD SPN mappings before starting the engagement. Use Upwork Messages and the contract workroom for communication and project management, plus identity verification, payment protection, hourly tracking, and project funds for security.

  • Milestone one should include a full audit of existing principals and policies with a plan for necessary updates or cleanups.
  • Milestone two requires the generation and secure delivery of new keytab files for all specified service accounts.
  • Final milestone involves verifying all SPN configurations in Active Directory and submitting operational documentation for the changes.

Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.

The rates and information provided in this article are based on current data and industry sources available at the time of publication. Freelance rates can vary depending on factors such as experience, location, project scope, and market conditions. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research to confirm current rates and trends, as this information may change over time.

How much does hiring a Kerberos specialist cost?

$500-$1,500 per project is a typical range for focused Kerberos specialist work. Final pricing depends on scope, technical complexity, required integrations, source-material quality, revision needs, and the freelancer's experience level.

Principal and policy audit

$500-$1,200/project

Entry-level to mid-level
  • Inventory of existing principals and policies
  • Assessment of key rotation and policy compliance
  • Prioritized steps to fix configuration gaps

Keytab generation and management

$1,200-$2,500/project

Mid-level
  • Exported service keys for application use
  • Created or modified database entries for services
  • Instructions for installing keys on target servers

Active Directory SPN configuration

$2,500-$4,500/project

Mid-level to senior-level
  • Registered service principal names in Active Directory
  • Associated SPNs with correct service accounts
  • Proof of successful ticket acquisition tests

KDC administration and hardening

$4,500-$7,000/project

Senior-level
  • Secured Key Distribution Center settings and access
  • Implemented password and lockout rules in realm
  • Configured kadmin privileges for authorized staff

Authentication troubleshooting and repair

$7,000-$10,000/project

Expert-level
  • Diagnosis of ticket failure or SPN mismatch issues
  • Corrected principal attributes and directory properties
  • Troubleshooting notes and prevention strategies

Frequently asked questions

Is hiring a Kerberos specialist worth it?

For most businesses, yes: hiring a Kerberos specialist is worthwhile. Complex authentication environments require precise management of principals and cryptographic keys to prevent access failures. A dedicated expert configures keytab files and Service Principal Names correctly, which reduces downtime caused by ticket acquisition errors.

How do I evaluate Kerberos specialist candidates?

Evaluate candidates by asking them to describe how they troubleshoot a failed ticket request due to an incorrect Service Principal Name. Look for specific mentions of using setspn.exe to verify directory properties or kadmin to check principal attributes in the realm database. Strong candidates explain how they export keys to keytab files securely without exposing raw credentials.

What tools does a Kerberos specialist use?

A Kerberos specialist uses MIT Kerberos admin interfaces like kadmin and kadmin.local to manage realm objects. They also use Windows setspn.exe to configure Active Directory Service Principal Names and ktadd to generate service keytab files.

What deliverables should I expect from a Kerberos specialist?

You should receive updated Kerberos realm principals and policies within the central database. The specialist will also generate service keytab files for your applications and correct any Active Directory SPN mappings that block authentication.