Senior Platform Engineer - Secure DevSecOps for Govt

AVP; Springfield (VA); On-site; USD 149,000 - 201,000; Full time

Job summary

Defense Unicorns seeks a senior DevSecOps Engineer to embed with a government team and its tech partners, building a secure, automated pipeline for AI-enabled engineering. The role bridges platform engineering, cybersecurity, and software delivery to accelerate development while embedding compliance into the lifecycle.

The ideal candidate will be hands-on with Kubernetes/OpenShift, CI/CD, and RMF/ATO processes, able to translate security requirements into practical engineering controls and

Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance.
• Must reside in or be local to the National Capital Region with onsite work in Springfield, VA as required.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and containerized environments.
• Experience deploying and operating OpenShift and enterprise Kubernetes.
• Strong experience with GitLab CI/CD or similar platforms.
• Strong knowledge of NIST SP 800-53 and RMF.
• Practical understanding of the government ATO process, control implementation and remediation.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, Pulumi, Ansible.
• Strong scripting in Python/Go/Bash.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and improve secure CI/CD and GitOps pipelines for cloud-native software, AI models, and agentic applications.
• Work hands-on with Kubernetes and OpenShift to automate secure build, test, deployment, and lifecycle workflows.
• Translate NIST 800-53 and RMF requirements into practical engineering controls and evidence collection.
• Identify cybersecurity, compliance, and supply-chain risks early in the lifecycle.
• Support the end-to-end ATO/RMF lifecycle including evidence generation and remediation tracking.
• Build and maintain automated security checks across code, containers, infra, and deployments.
• Develop IaC using Terraform, Pulumi, Ansible for repeatable environments.
• Integrate identity management, logging, monitoring, and security tooling into the platform.
• Collaborate with gov personnel and partners to resolve cross-platform security issues.
• Create repeatable patterns for moving software across security domains and into classified environments.

Skills

Kubernetes

OpenShift

CI/CD

NIST 800-53

RMF/ATO

Python/Go/Bash

Linux

Security automation

Cloud knowledge

Tools

GitLab CI/CD

Terraform

Pulumi

Ansible

Helm

Kustomize

GitOps

Trivy

Snyk

Job description

Defense Unicorns seeks a senior DevSecOps Engineer to embed with a government team and its tech partners, building a secure, automated pipeline for AI-enabled engineering. The role bridges platform engineering, cybersecurity, and software delivery to accelerate development while embedding compliance into the lifecycle.

The ideal candidate will be hands-on with Kubernetes/OpenShift, CI/CD, and RMF/ATO processes, able to translate security requirements into practical engineering controls and