Senior Software Engineer - Virtual Machines (RD222)
Defense Unicorns3 days ago
Remote, United StatesSenior
Base Salary
$149k - $201k/yr
Responsibilities
- Design, implement, test, and deliver complex software features and systems.
- Build Kubernetes tooling and APIs for orchestrating and managing virtual machine workloads.
- Develop tooling to inspect, convert, prepare, and package VM images for disconnected delivery.
- Create VM management workflows for inventory, status, power controls, and console access.
- Integrate virtual machine workloads with networking, observability, security, storage, and image distribution capabilities.
- Drive technical decisions and contribute to architecture across product components.
- Debug issues involving Kubernetes, virtualization, storage, networking, and operating systems.
- Improve software reliability, security, performance, observability, and maintainability.
- Review code, mentor teammates, document technical decisions, and establish engineering practices.
- Collaborate with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes to translate operational needs into product capabilities.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience.
- Strong proficiency in Go or another modern programming language, with interest in developing Go-based systems.
- Experience designing and building software that interacts with Kubernetes or other distributed systems.
- Strong understanding of APIs, system design, and software architecture.
- Experience developing backend services, controllers, operators, or developer tooling.
- Familiarity with Linux systems, containers, and operating system concepts.
- Experience building, testing, and operating production software.
- Ability to navigate ambiguity, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and independently drive complex work.
- Strong problem-solving, debugging, communication, collaboration, and mentoring skills.
- Preferred: experience with KubeVirt, QEMU/KVM, Kubernetes operators, controllers, custom resource definitions, Windows virtual machines, VM image formats and lifecycle management, Kubernetes networking and storage, Go CLI tools, Zarf, OCI artifacts, software packaging, air-gapped or regulated environments, CNCF open-source projects, and security-focused software or identity, access control, and observability platforms.
- U.S. citizenship is required.
Benefits
- Remote position in the USA.
- 5–10% travel expected.
- 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 training and subscriptions.
- Conference coverage including travel, lodging, and fees.
Tech Stack
Categories
About Defense Unicorns
Defense Unicorns builds platform software and services that streamline secure, cloud-native delivery for defense and federal programs, with emphasis on DevSecOps, Kubernetes, and air‑gapped environments. It provides software and professional services under government contracts to deploy open-architecture platforms and CI/CD pipelines across classified and disconnected systems. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, the privately held company serves U.S. defense and national security agencies.