Staff Platform Engineer
Defense Unicorns2 months ago
Remote, United StatesStaff+
Responsibilities
- Architect and maintain scalable runtime production environments across cloud-native and containerized systems, including Kubernetes-friendly applications for bare-metal deployment.
- Own the platform vertical’s technical roadmap, identify gaps, plan initiatives, and align engineering efforts with mission objectives.
- Mentor engineers, raise technical standards, and provide technical leadership across the team.
- Identify technical overlap across projects and guide teams toward efficient delivery.
- Advise Mission Managers on engineering competency, capacity, velocity, and mission alignment.
- Collaborate with product teams and customers on product fit, production usage, and technical roadmaps.
- Advocate for and enforce DevSecOps practices, including security automation, container security, and compliance.
- Evaluate and select methods and products for solving complex business problems.
- Continuously improve CI/CD pipelines, deployment patterns, and operational tooling.
Requirements
- US citizenship and eligibility to obtain a Secret security clearance are required.
- Deep expertise solving highly technical problems spanning multiple knowledge domains is required.
- Deep knowledge in one or two key technologies such as pipelines, GitOps, Kubernetes, or Go is required.
- Demonstrated experience with Kubernetes and container-based systems is required.
- Expertise with YAML is required.
- Proficiency in security automation, API Security, Container Security, and Cloud Security is required.
- Proficiency in architecture security design, monitoring, and performance instrumentation in complex enterprise environments is required.
- Experience with continuous delivery, distributed architectures, everything-as-code, containerization, and cloud services is required.
- Strong independent problem-solving, communication, cross-functional collaboration, and process-improvement abilities are required.
- Experience working with Agile frameworks in a remote environment is required.
- DoD 8570 IAT II certification or ability to obtain it is preferred.
- Department of Defense production ATO experience and familiarity with Big Bang, Iron Bank, or C-ATO processes are preferred.
- Expertise in DevSecOps/DevOps and CI/CD theory and implementation is preferred.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance with premiums 100% company paid
- Health Savings Account, life insurance, and disability insurance
- 401(k) retirement plan, company stock options, and home office budget
- Flexible Time Off, federal holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s
- Paid parental leave
- Reimbursement for approved trainings and subscriptions
- Conference travel, lodging, and fees
- Requires approximately 25% travel
- Requires an active Secret clearance to apply; US citizenship is required
Tech Stack
About Defense Unicorns
Defense Unicorns specializes in platform technologies that enable rapid and reliable delivery of capabilities across a wide range of mission and technology areas. We support open architecture platforms for secure mission systems that provide optionality for the end user, promote scalability, and allow for continuous identification and integration of new products and services while avoiding vendor lock. Our open approach creates partnership opportunities across the software ecosystem. Our people are innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across DoW and the broader federal market. Let's drive change together. Get in touch at hello@defenseunicorns.com