DevOps, Core Platform

Harmattan AI; Paris; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Harmattan AI is building software infrastructure for autonomous defense, delivering secure, self-contained deployments that run in customer data centers with no internet access. You will own zero-downtime upgrades and packaging across disconnnected sites, enabling repeatable installations and maintainable releases.

You’ll join the core platform team, contribute hands-on coding, and influence how services are packaged, deployed, and upgraded for real defense deployments.

Qualifications

• Experience in backend or infrastructure engineering for products with many services and deployments.
• Strong coding skills in at least one language (Go, Rust, Python, Java).
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and containers, Helm, GitOps (Argo CD or Flux) and CI systems.
• Built tools that deploy or run software, not just used them.
• Production experience with upgrades/deployments, metrics, health checks and logs.
• Degree in computer science or software engineering or equivalent experience.
• Clear written and spoken English.

Responsibilities

• Delivery: move a change from CI to a running system on a customer site with repeatable steps.
• Safe upgrades: upgrade step-by-step with zero downtime and automatic alerts.
• Disconnected sites: install/upgrade without internet using signed, self-contained packages.
• Release checks: ensure all services work together in CI and at release time.
• Collaboration: work with platform architects and forward deployed engineers to package and deploy services.
• Documentation: write customer-site procedures for self-service use.
• Growth: streamline tooling to speed shipping to customer sites.

Skills

Backend engineering

Infrastructure engineering

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

Go/Python/Java

CI/CD tooling

GitOps

Education

BSc in CS or equivalent

Tools

Kubernetes

Helm

Argo CD

Flux

CI systems

Job description

About Us

Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces.

Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.

About the role

We are building software infrastructure to power AI development and delivery for operational use cases in defense. Our software needs to run in customers' data centers, on their hardware, often with no internet connection. You will own the continuous deployment of our software in these environments. That covers installations, upgrades with no downtime, and keeping track of dependencies between the services that make up the software.

This role involves hands-on coding. You will join the core platform team, with broad ownership and a direct effect on real defense deployments.

Responsibilities

• Delivery: Take a change from a commit in CI to a running system on a customer site, and keep every step repeatable.
• Safe upgrades: Roll out upgrades step by step with no downtime, watch the system as it changes, and stop and alert the team automatically when something goes wrong.
• Disconnected sites: Make installs and upgrades work with no internet, using signed, self-contained packages.
• Release checks: Work on the release system that checks that all our services work together, in CI and at release time.
• Collaboration: Work with platform architects and developers so every new service is easy to package, deploy and upgrade. Work with our forward deployed engineers, who install and run the software at customer sites, so the same tools run in development and at the customer.
• Documentation: Write the procedures that a person at a customer site can follow without our help.
• Growth: Make it easier and faster for our engineers to ship changes to customer sites.

Candidate requirements

• Experience: Several years of backend or infrastructure engineering, ideally on a product with many services and many deployments.
• Coding: Strong skills in at least one language (Rust, Go, Python, Java).
• Kubernetes and delivery: Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and containers, and with Helm, GitOps (Argo CD or Flux) and CI systems.
• Builder: You have built, not just used, tools that deploy or run software.
• Production: You have run or debugged upgrades or deployments in production, and you know the basics of metrics, health checks and logs.
• Educational background: Degree in computer science, software engineering or a similar field. Equivalent professional experience is equally valued.
• Language: Clear written and spoken English.

Nice to have

• Writing Kubernetes operators or controllers.
• Signing and supply-chain tools, such as Sigstore/cosign and SBOMs.
• Packaging software for air-gapped sites, for example with Zarf and registry mirrors such as Harbor.
• Bare-metal Kubernetes (OpenShift, RKE2 or Talos) with Ceph or MinIO.

Mindset

• Pragmatic engineering: You choose simple solutions and proven tools first.
• Attention to detail: You obsess over edge cases and robustness before you ship a change.
• User-oriented: You treat other engineers as your users. You take care designing APIs and tools that are simple and pleasant to use.
• Ownership: You take responsibility for ensuring the project works regardless of your job description.

We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.