Senior Platform Engineer New United States - Remote
Defense Unicorns
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Defense Unicorns is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to own the platform that moves AI applications from code to secure production. You will lead release workflows, container image management, and Kubernetes deployments in a remote US-based team serving government missions.
You will implement CI/CD pipelines, manage cloud infrastructure in AWS, and troubleshoot production issues while collaborating across engineering roles. DoD clearance eligibility is required.
Qualifications
- Must deploy and maintain production apps in Kubernetes.
- Experience with Docker and container-image lifecycle management.
- CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or similar tools.
- AWS or equivalent cloud environments experience.
- Proficiency in Python and shell scripting.
- Ability to troubleshoot across code, infra, networking and deployment config.
- Familiarity with vulnerability remediation and container security.
- Independent ownership of complex technical work and risk management.
- Ability to communicate risks and decisions clearly, with stakeholders.
Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end release workflows from build to production release.
- Build and publish container images; address vulnerabilities; manage updates.
- Develop CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions and GitLab; maintain pipelines.
- Configure, deploy, scale, and maintain apps in Kubernetes.
- Maintain Zarf packages and declarative deployment artifacts.
- Support AI and GPU workloads deployment and troubleshooting.
- Investigate production issues across app code and infrastructure.
- Collaborate with engineers to plan deployments and improve delivery.
- Identify security and reliability improvements in releases.
- Communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs to partners.
- Diagnose and resolve high-impact production issues affecting mission users.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
We are seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to join a team developing AI applications that help users understand and act on complex Naval engineering records. Using a Forward Deployed Engineering model, our team works closely with mission users to understand how they work, identify friction in their daily tasks, and deliver functional improvements based on rapid feedback.
You will serve as the team’s primary platform engineering owner, responsible for the systems and processes that move our applications from source code into secure, production‑ready environments. Your work will span release workflows, CI/CD pipelines, container images, Kubernetes configurations, cloud infrastructure, application deployments, and production troubleshooting.
This is a hands‑on senior individual contributor role. You will independently own significant platform work, make technical decisions across systems, anticipate risks and dependencies, and collaborate with application engineers and platform teams across the company.
In this position, you will:
- Own and improve end‑to‑end release workflows for the team’s AI applications, from building container images through creating production‑ready release packages.
- Build and publish container images, address or document vulnerabilities, manage dependency updates, and maintain release artifacts.
- Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, GitHub runners, and GitLab workflows.
- Configure, deploy, scale, and maintain production applications running in Kubernetes.
- Maintain Zarf packages, Kubernetes configurations, and other declarative deployment artifacts.
- Support the deployment and troubleshooting of AI and GPU‑enabled workloads.
- Investigate data‑ingestion and production issues across application code, infrastructure, system access, and deployment configuration.
- Partner with application engineers and platform teams to plan deployments, resolve technical issues, and improve delivery practices.
- Identify opportunities to make releases and deployments more secure, reliable, repeatable, and observable.
- Clearly communicate technical decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to both technical and nontechnical partners.
- Help diagnose and resolve high‑impact production issues affecting mission users.
Travel Expectations: Occasional travel is expected, typically including at least one customer onsite and one to two company events per year. Engineers may have additional opportunities to participate in customer visits and observe users working in their operational environment.
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.
- Significant experience deploying and maintaining production applications in Kubernetes.
- Experience with Docker, container registries, and container‑image lifecycle management.
- Experience building or maintaining CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or comparable tools.
- Experience deploying and operating workloads in AWS or comparable cloud environments.
- Proficiency in Python and familiarity with shell scripting.
- Experience troubleshooting problems across application code, infrastructure, networking, access, and deployment configuration.
- Familiarity with vulnerability remediation, dependency management, and container‑security practices.
- Ability to independently own complex technical work, navigate ambiguity, and make sound decisions without requiring a fully prescribed solution.
- Ability to anticipate technical risks and dependencies and communicate them effectively.
- Strong collaboration skills and experience working across engineering teams.
- Eligibility to apply for a security clearance or an active Top Secret/SCI security clearance.
- Experience with Zarf.
- Experience deploying AI, machine‑learning, or GPU‑enabled applications.
- Familiarity with GPU scheduling, allocation, and troubleshooting in Kubernetes, including NVIDIA GPU Operator or related components.
- Familiarity with Chainguard images.
- Experience with declarative deployments and infrastructure as code.
- Experience with security automation, container security, API security, or cloud security.
- Experience supporting a production system operating under a Department of Defense Authority to Operate.
- Current DoD 8570 IAT II certification.
- Experience working in an Agile, remote engineering environment.
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
$148,750 - $201,250 USD
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.
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.
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.
- Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
- Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
- GitOps
- Containers
- CNCF projects and open source products and packages
- Building and improving security delivery
- Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications
- Premiums are 100% Company Paid
- Health Savings Account
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Company Stock Options
- Home Office Budget
- 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
- 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.
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.
As set forth in Defense Unicorns’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.
If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:
A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service‑connected disability.
A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.
An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.
An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.
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