Platform Engineer

Empleora; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 123,000 - 167,000; Full time

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Platform Engineer to join our team. The role requires expertise in Kubernetes and platform engineering to support the production environment and bridge between application development and platform teams.

You will work on automating the runtime Production Environment, guide junior engineers, and collaborate with cross-functional teams. A strong understanding of system architecture and problem-solving is essential, with travel anticipated at 10–25%.

Qualifications

• Experience with Kubernetes and platform engineering.
• Ability to guide junior engineers and collaborate with dev teams.
• Strong understanding of system architecture and problem solving.
• Experience automating runtime production environments.

Responsibilities

• Validate Solutions/Implementations: ensure alignment with tasks and requirements.
• Independently problem solve and develop small components.
• Understand medium-level tasking and cross-functional integration.
• Estimate time and effort for medium-sized tasks and assist planning.
• Demonstrate programming language proficiency and decide when to use code vs. shell.
• Bridge between Applications Development and Production Environment.

Skills

Kubernetes

IaC

Security

Automation

Platform Eng

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Docker

Job description

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION WILL REQUIRE AN ACTIVE SECRET CLEARANCE TO APPLY.

Role Description

We are seeking a talented and experienced Platform Engineer to join our team. Possessing strong proficiency with Kubernetes, the ideal candidate will play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of our platform, demonstrating a strong understanding of system architecture, problem-solving skills, and the ability to guide junior engineers.

As a Platform Engineer within our organization, you will join a team of dedicated unicorns who are focused on advancing freedom and independence globally. Our teams work on various different technical baselines depending on specific engagements. We focus our Products on the Platform layer, but to deliver for our Heroes, we also work IaC automation, security, and implementation.

Responsibilities:

You will help us automate and build a runtime Production Environment and serve as a link between the Applications, either custom development, COTS, or OSS, and that environment, advocating best practices and facilitating communication between the application teams and platform teams.

In this position, you will be expected to:

• Validate Solutions/Implementations: Ensure that solutions and implementations align with the outlined tasks and business requirements. Conduct thorough validations to maintain the integrity and efficiency of the platform.
• Independently Problem Solve: Demonstrate the ability to identify and solve business problems independently. Develop small components to address specific challenges without relying on explicit architecture diagrams.
• Understand Medium-Level Tasking: Comprehend how medium-level tasks contribute to the achievement of overall goals. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate various components into a cohesive and functional platform.
• Estimate Time and Effort: Provide accurate time and effort estimates for medium-sized tasks. Assist in project planning and resource allocation based on estimated timelines.
• Demonstrate Programming Language Proficiency: Possess familiarity with at least one programming language. Exhibit a basic understanding of when to use a programming language versus a shell for efficient task execution.
• Own the bridge between the Application Development team(s) and the Production Environment

Travel Expectations: 10%-25%

The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise.

Mid Platform Engineer: $123,250 - $166,750

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 enter