Platform Engineer - Secret/Top Secret

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION WILL REQUIRES AN ACTIVE SECRET OR TOP SECRET SECURITY CLEARANCE. 

Role Description

Defense Unicorns is seeking talented and versatile Platform Engineers to join a team of dedicated unicorns advancing freedom and independence globally. In this role, you will help build and sustain a self-managed production environment — serving as the crucial link between application developers and the platform that supports them — while contributing to the growth of Defense Unicorns' capabilities and open source products.

Our teams work across varied technical baselines depending on engagement, with a focus on the Platform layer. To deliver for our Mission Heroes, we also work across IaC automation, security hardening, and implementation. Depending on your level, you'll either be executing with excellence on that platform or helping shape its long-term direction.

Responsibilities

All Platform Engineers are expected to:

Operate and maintain Production UDS Cloud Environments (Kubernetes and the UDS baseline of tools we deliver to Mission Heroes/Customers), supporting teams operating within that environment

Develop and maintain a secure, scalable, and observable environment based on Infrastructure-as-Code, leveraging Terraform/OpenTofu across various Kubernetes distributions (EKS, RKE2, and others)

Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines supporting the full software development lifecycle — compiling, scanning, containerizing, testing, linting, deploying, monitoring, and releasing

Leverage a diverse set of cloud and on-prem IaaS providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, vSphere, Proxmox, LXD) to build robust, scalable systems for cloud, on-prem, and hybrid architectures

Design and implement observability tooling — particularly stacks built on Prometheus, Loki, and Grafana — to help teams diagnose and resolve production-impacting incidents

Participate in on-call rotation to address production-impacting incidents (business hours only for now)

Identify and articulate gaps in existing processes, contributing insights to the product backlog

Communicate complex technical concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Work within an Agile framework in a remote environment

Senior Platform Engineers are additionally expected to:

Solve highly technical problems spanning 2–3 knowledge domains and contribute expertise across Defense Unicorns' open source projects and product repositories

Demonstrate expert knowledge in 2–3 key technologies (CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes, Go, or others) and serve as a technical resource for the broader team

Bring deep Linux/Unix systems administration skills: automate the process of securing, configuring, deploying, and distributing machines to support services including DHCP, DNS, NTP, PXE, IPSec, and others

Lead security hardening automation efforts (STIGs, FIPS, CIS Benchmarks) across the platform

Work with Mission Heroes to define a technical roadmap aligned to mission objectives

Envision and articulate the long-term vision for our products, contributing to strategic planning that aligns technological advancement with mission goals

The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive; additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

For all candidates:

3+ years of experience operating production cloud-native systems within the Kubernetes ecosystem

Proficiency in IaC, particularly Terraform or OpenTofu

Experience with automation in Go, Python, Bash, or similar languages

Experience with CI/CD methodologies and systems such as GitLab Runners or GitHub Actions

Experience designing, deploying, and maintaining cloud infrastructure in AWS, Azure, or GCP environments

Experience building and operating observability platforms, particularly those built on OpenSearch/ELK, Prometheus, Loki, and Grafana

Understanding of NIST 800-171/800-53 and FedRAMP requirements

Experience in an on-call capacity for platform reliability; ability to monitor, improve, and restore operations within a DevSecOps team

Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work both independently and collaboratively

Active DoD Security Clearance (Secret minimum, Top Secret preferred)

CompTIA Security+, comparable certification, or ability to obtain within 3 months of hire

Additional qualifications expected at the Senior level:

Demonstrated ability to solve highly technical problems spanning multiple knowledge domains

Expert-level knowledge in 2–3 key technologies such as Kubernetes (operations, customization, integrations, troubleshooting, operators, webhooks, security), CI/CD, Go, or others

Deep familiarity with Linux/Unix operating systems and systems administration at scale

Proficiency with security hardening automation (STIGs, FIPS, CIS Benchmarks)

Experience architecting and implementing platforms across an array of IaaS providers

Experience working with customers or stakeholders to define a technical roadmap aligned to mission objectives

DoD 8570 IAT II certification (or ability to obtain)

Travel expectations: 10%

Nice to Haves

Fluency in authentication workflows and constructs such as SAML, OIDC, OAuth, JWTs, and zero-trust identity patterns

Understanding of policy-as-code engines such as Kyverno, or OPA

Experience with software supply chain tooling including SBOM, Sigstore, and SLSA

Experience with or understanding of UDS/Zarf and its applications

Experience with DoD platform tooling such as PlatformOne (Big Bang, Iron Bank, Party Bus)

Experience in air-gapped environments

Experience building, testing, and exercising Backup, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity Plans

Experience on a production Authority to Operate (ATO'd) system, including Big Bang, Iron Bank, and/or C-ATO processes

A passion for continuous improvement through retrospectives, post-incident reviews, and iterating to better ways of working

Full compensation packages are based on candidate experience. Compensation ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States. 

Remote - USA
$123,250—$201,250 USD

Who We Are

Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market.

What We Do

We create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily.

Who We Serve

Defense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products.

What We Work On

Kubernetes

Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)

Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)

Continuous Delivery and automation tooling

GitOps

Containers

CNCF projects and open source products and packages

Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping

Building and improving security delivery

Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy

Health:

Medical/Dental/Vision

Premiums are 100% Company Paid

Health Savings Account

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Financial:

401k Retirement Plan

Company Stock Options

Home Office Budget

Leave:

We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s

Paid Parental Leave

Learning:

Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions

Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)

Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed. 

At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

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