Engineer

Raft Company Website; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Holidays

Job summary

Raft, a U.S.-based defense tech company, seeks a Platform Engineer with an active TS/SCI clearance to automate and orchestrate our critical infrastructure. Based in San Diego, CA, you will deploy, manage, and optimize large-scale systems using IaC, Kubernetes, and GitOps practices to support national security projects.

You will design and maintain CI/CD pipelines, collaborate with software and cybersecurity teams, and drive governance across environments.

Qualifications

• Active Top Secret security clearance.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain SCI access.
• Degree + experience requirements as stated.
• 5+ years automating with Ansible.
• Experience with IaC and configuration management.
• Experience with Kubernetes-based environments.
• GitOps methodologies and Git-based workflows.
• CI/CD pipelines with GitLab CI/CD or similar.
• Helm and Kubernetes container orchestration.
• Systems engineering principles and SDLC.
• Strong analytical and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain IaC and automation solutions with Ansible and GitOps.
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines for enterprise deployments.
• Develop automation to deploy and manage Kubernetes-based apps and services.
• Support onboarding through development, testing, staging, and production environments.
• Create GitOps workflows for lifecycle management and deployments.
• Improve governance for promotion across environments.
• Automate DevSecOps to improve deployment reliability and efficiency.
• Collaborate with vendors and dev teams to integrate apps into the platform.
• Automate OS config, provisioning, app deployment, and validation.
• Apply systems engineering principles to improve platform quality.
• Work with Platform Eng, Cybersecurity, Software, and Ops teams for secure deployments.
• Troubleshoot failures and build automated resiliency solutions.
• Prepare technical docs and operation procedures.

Skills

Active Top Secret clearance

SCI access eligibility

Ansible

IaC

Kubernetes

GitOps

CI/CD

GitLab CI/CD

Helm

Puppet

Terraform

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering

Master’s degree in related technical discipline

15 years of relevant experience in lieu of a degree

Tools

Harbor

OCI container registries

Job description

This is a U.S. based position. All of the programs we support require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. All work must be conducted within the continental U.S.

Who we are:

Raft (https://TeamRaft.com ) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional defense tech company dedicated to empowering U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. We are a leader in autonomous data fusion and Agentic AI, with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development. With headquarters in McLean, VA, our range of clients includes innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting-edge tech stack, and cloud-native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

About the Role:

We are seeking an Platform Engineer with an active Top Secret/SCI clearance to play a pivotal role in automating and orchestrating our critical infrastructure. This position is ideal for a technical expert passionate about deploying, managing, and optimizing system infrastructures using the latest technologies in system automation, container orchestration, and open-source applications. You'll be based in San Diego, CA and work on projects vital to national security and technological advancement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and automation solutions utilizing Ansible, GitOps principles, and declarative configuration management.
• Design, implement, and maintain automated Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines supporting enterprise platform deployments.
• Develop automation to deploy, configure, validate, and maintain Kubernetes-based applications and supporting platform services.
• Support application onboarding through development, integration, testing, staging, and production environments utilizing automated deployment pipelines.
• Develop and maintain GitOps workflows supporting application lifecycle management and platform deployments.
• Establish and improve governance processes supporting application promotion across engineering environments.
• Identify inefficiencies within existing DevSecOps workflows and develop automation to improve deployment reliability, consistency, and operational efficiency.
• Collaborate with application vendors and software development teams to integrate new applications into the enterprise platform.
• Develop automation supporting Configuration Management activities and improve visibility into configuration compliance across multiple environments.
• Develop and maintain automation supporting operating system configuration, platform provisioning, application deployment and infrastructure validation.
• Implement systems engineering principles throughout the software development lifecycle to improve platform quality and reliability.
• Collaborate with Platform Engineering, Cybersecurity, Software Development, and Operations teams to ensure secure, repeatable, and automated platform deployments.
• Troubleshoot deployment failures and develop automated solutions to improve platform resiliency.
• Prepare technical documentation, implementation guides, architecture documentation, and operational procedures supporting developed automation.

Required Qualifications:

• Active Top Secret (TS) security clearance.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access.
• Bachelor’s degreein Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline andten (10) yearsof relevant professional experience;or Master’s degreein a related technical discipline andfive (5) yearsof relevant professional experience;or fifteen (15) yearsof relevant professional experience in lieu of a degree.
• Minimum five (5) years of experience developing automation utilizingAnsible.
• Experience developing Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and configuration management solutions.
• Experience supporting Kubernetes-based environments and containerized applications.
• Experience with GitOps methodologies and Git-based development workflows.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines utilizing GitLab CI/CD or similar technologies.
• Experience with Helm, Kubernetes, and container orchestration technologies.
• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles and software development lifecycle methodologies.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience supporting classified or disconnected environments.
• Experience with GitLab CI/CD.
• Experience with ArgoCD or similar GitOps platforms.
• Experience with Harbor or other OCI container registries.
• Experience developing automation utilizing Puppet and Terraform.
• Experience supporting enterprise Platform Engineering teams.
• Experience with RKE2 or other enterprise Kubernetes distributions.
• Familiarity with RMF, DISA STIGs, JSIG, DevSecOps Reference Design, and secure software supply chain practices.
• DoD 8570 IAT Level II certification (or ability to obtain within required timeframe if permitted by contract).

Clearance Requirements:

• Active Top Secret with ability to obtain and maintain SCI

Work Type:

• Relocation provided
• May require up to 10% travel

Salary Range: $100,000 - $185000

• The determination of compensation is predicated upon a candidate's comprehensive experience, demonstrated skill, and proven abilities

What we will offer you:

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) with company match
• Take as you need PTO + 14 paid holidays
• And More!

Our Vision Statement:

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession withthemission.

Our Customer Obsession:

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there?

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking,and collaboration is a norm.

Raft’s core philosophy isUbuntu: IAm, BecauseWe are. We support ourby elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.

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