FDE Data Engineer- Space
Defense Unicorns5 months ago
Remote, United StatesSenior
Base Salary
$123k - $167k/yr
Responsibilities
- Deploy and harden UDS Data Capability, including UDS Store, UDS Transit, UDS Govern, and UDS Connect, in mission environments.
- Integrate the platform with Big Bang, Oracle, SQL Server, flat files, SOAP/REST endpoints, message buses, object storage, Keycloak, and mission-side SSO.
- Build data pipelines across classification boundaries, including ingestion, transformation, catalog registration, model and dataset packaging, and cross-domain transit.
- Operate deployed systems through capacity and performance management, backup and restore, observability, incident response, and upgrades.
- Produce STIG evidence, cATO documentation, FIPS validation notes, and policy mappings for IL4/IL5 accreditation.
- Represent mission-user needs to product and engineering through issue filing, postmortems, and operator improvement proposals.
- Create runbooks and architecture documentation, conduct knowledge transfer, and train mission teams.
- Mentor junior Data Engineer FDEs through pairing, design reviews, and technical guidance.
Requirements
- Production experience with Apache Iceberg or Delta/Hudi, Ceph or S3-compatible object storage, Postgres and extensions such as pgvector, and a columnar or OLAP engine such as Trino, DuckDB, ClickHouse, or Spark SQL.
- Experience with Kafka, preferably Strimzi on Kubernetes, Flink or equivalent stream processing, CDC patterns such as Debezium, and integration of legacy systems.
- Experience with Airflow, Dagster, Argo Workflows, or similar orchestration tools for production data pipelines.
- Knowledge of REST catalogs, Polaris, Gravitino, Nessie, ABAC/RBAC, OIDC/OAuth, data lineage, and audit capabilities.
- Fluency in SQL and experience designing schemas for analytical and operational workloads.
- Production Kubernetes experience with deployments, operators, CRDs, storage classes, and networking, plus Linux, containers, networking, TLS, and secrets management fundamentals.
- Experience with Terraform, Pulumi, or similar infrastructure-as-code tools and Flux, ArgoCD, or similar GitOps tooling.
- Familiarity with the CNCF ecosystem and the ability to debug unfamiliar production environments.
- Active DoD security clearance is required; active Secret is the minimum, with the ability to obtain TS/SCI and TS/SCI preferred.
- Ability to work in SCIFs and other restricted spaces when required, communicate with technical and non-technical stakeholders, work independently, prioritize delivery, and mentor junior engineers.
- U.S. citizenship is required.
Benefits
- Remote-USA work arrangement with 10–25% travel and occasional on-site work in SCIFs or other restricted spaces.
- 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, plus conference travel, lodging, and fees.
Tech Stack
Apache AirflowApache FlinkApache KafkaApache SparkAWSAzureClickHouseGoogle Cloud PlatformHelmKubernetesLinuxMicrosoft SQL ServerPostgreSQLSOAPTerraform
Categories
Forward Deployed
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.