Preparation for the Post-Quantum Certified Manager Exam
PQC migration is not a purely technical exercise. It requires program governance, regulatory awareness, cross-functional coordination, vendor management, budget justification, and executive communication. The organizations that migrate successfully will be led by managers who understand both the technical requirements and the organizational machinery needed to execute a multi-year cryptographic transition.
PQCM Manager Training prepares experienced professionals to lead PQC migration programs from assessment through execution and ongoing compliance. The curriculum is aligned with the PQC Migration Framework, providing a structured methodology that maps program governance activities to each phase of the migration lifecycle.
This course goes beyond the technical competencies covered in PQCS Training. Where PQCS teaches you what needs to change and why, PQCM teaches you how to make it happen within an organization: the governance structures, the stakeholder management, the vendor coordination, and the regulatory compliance that determine whether a migration program succeeds or stalls.
Who Should Take This Course
CISOs, security managers, program managers, project managers, compliance managers, risk managers, and senior technical leaders who are responsible — or will be responsible — for overseeing PQC migration within their organizations. Also appropriate for consultants and advisors who guide clients through PQC transitions.
You should take this course if you:
- Are accountable for delivering a PQC migration program on time and within budget
- Need to build a business case and secure funding for PQC migration
- Must coordinate migration across security, engineering, IT operations, procurement, legal, and business units
- Are responsible for regulatory compliance related to quantum readiness
- Need to communicate quantum risk to executive leadership and board-level audiences
- Manage vendor relationships where PQC readiness is becoming a contractual requirement
What You Will Learn
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Design a PQC migration governance structure aligned with the PQC Migration Framework phases
- Map regulatory requirements (CNSA 2.0, EU directives, DORA, NIS2, sector-specific mandates) to concrete migration activities and compliance milestones
- Conduct organizational readiness assessments covering people, processes, technology, and vendor dependencies
- Build and lead cross-functional migration teams spanning security, engineering, operations, procurement, legal, and executive leadership
- Translate quantum risk into business language using HNDL and TNFL threat models for board briefings, distinguishing evidence-based urgency from Q-FUD
- Justify migration budgets using cost modeling, regulatory compliance framing, and risk quantification
- Assess vendor PQC readiness and manage third-party cryptographic dependencies through contractual and technical mechanisms
- Design pilot programs, define migration wave sequencing, and manage production deployment with rollback planning
- Establish metrics, KPIs, and reporting for ongoing migration tracking and compliance demonstration
Course Outline
Module 1 — PQC Program Governance and Framework Alignment
Establishing the governance structure for a multi-year PQC migration program. Mapping the PQC Migration Framework phases to organizational program management. Defining roles and responsibilities: who owns the migration, who approves technical decisions, who manages vendor relationships, who reports to the board. Standing up a program office versus embedding migration into existing security program structures. Reporting cadence and escalation paths.
Module 2 — Regulatory Landscape and Compliance Mapping
The regulatory requirements driving PQC migration across jurisdictions and sectors. CNSA 2.0 and the US federal timeline (including the January 2027 acquisition gate). EU quantum-readiness initiatives and the NIS2 connection. DORA and its crypto-agility requirements for financial services. Sector-specific mandates and how they differ. Mapping each requirement to specific migration activities and deliverables. Building a compliance calendar that keeps the program on track.
Module 3 — Organizational Readiness Assessment
Assessing whether your organization is ready to migrate — not just technically, but operationally. People: do you have the skills, and if not, what training or hiring is needed? Processes: are change management, testing, and deployment processes ready for cryptographic changes? Technology: is your tooling sufficient for discovery, migration, and verification? Vendors: which third-party dependencies gate your timeline? Identifying blockers and accelerators. Producing a readiness assessment that drives the program plan.
Module 4 — Cross-Functional Program Execution
Building and managing a migration team that spans organizational boundaries. Coordinating across security, engineering, IT operations, procurement, legal, and business units when each has competing priorities. Managing the tension between migration urgency and operational stability. Change management: how to move an organization that has never thought about cryptographic migration into a multi-year program without losing momentum. Practical techniques for maintaining executive sponsorship.
Module 5 — Risk Communication and Executive Engagement
Translating quantum risk into language that resonates with executive leadership and board members. Using the HNDL and TNFL threat models in board briefings: the harvest scenario for confidentiality risk, the forgery scenario for authenticity and trust risk. The balance between urgency and accuracy. Avoiding fear-based communication while conveying genuine risk. Distinguishing Q-FUD (vendor-driven quantum panic) from evidence-based urgency. Budget justification and ROI framing: how to present migration as risk reduction, regulatory compliance, and competitive positioning rather than a pure cost center.
Module 6 — Vendor and Supply Chain Management
Assessing vendor PQC migration plans and readiness. Contractual requirements for cryptographic transition: what to include in new contracts and how to address existing agreements. Managing third-party cryptographic dependencies when your migration timeline depends on vendors who have not yet shipped PQC support. Criticality tiering: which vendor dependencies are blocking and which can be bridged. Software supply chain considerations and SBOM/CBOM integration. The 62% problem: the majority of organizations expect vendors to handle PQC for them, and why that assumption fails.
Module 7 — Migration Execution and Lifecycle Management
Pilot program design: selecting the right systems, defining success criteria, and building organizational confidence. Testing and validation requirements at each stage. Rollback planning: ensuring every migration step can be reversed if problems emerge. Production migration sequencing: which systems migrate first and why. Post-migration monitoring: detecting issues that only appear under production load. Ongoing cryptographic health assessment: migration is not a one-time project but a permanent operational capability. Recertification and compliance maintenance.
Format and Delivery
This program is available online on-demand, live online, in person, and as private team training; current prices for each format are in the booking section below. Live online and in-person sessions include 180 days of access to the online on-demand course. Training format and exam format are independent: however you train, the exam is delivered through proctored assessment, online or at authorized testing centers.
Prerequisites
- Active PQCS — Post-Quantum Certified Specialist certification
What Comes Next
After completing this course, you are eligible to sit for the PQCM certification exam. Earn PQCM + PQCA + PQCV → automatically awarded PQCX — Post-Quantum Certified Expert.
Pricing
| Option | Price |
|---|---|
| Online (self-paced) | US$2,499 |
| Live online (instructor-led) | US$2,999 |
| In-person (instructor-led) | US$3,499 |
| Online training + PQCM exam bundle | US$2,999 |
| In-person training + PQCM exam bundle | US$3,999 |
All prices are in US dollars.