Senior Software Engineer

Defense Unicorns; United States; On-site; USD 123,250 - 201,250; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Reimbursement Account

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

401k Retirement Plan

Company Stock Options

Home Office Budget

Flexible Time Off

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking Software Engineers (Mid and Senior) to join our UDS Product Engineering team. The role includes coding, system design, and collaboration with product management and users. Applicants should have 3+ years for Mid or 5+ years for Senior roles, with strong skills in Go, system architecture, and cloud environments. The position offers a remote work option and a competitive salary range of $123,250 - $201,250 USD, along with excellent benefits including health insurance and flexible time off.

Qualifications

• Experience in building tools focused on software lifecycle and delivery.
• Strong understanding of system design, APIs, databases, and cloud environments.

Responsibilities

• Build, ship, and maintain features and systems that support mission-critical environments.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and design teams to translate requirements into scalable solutions.
• Debug, optimize, and support production systems.

Skills

Proficiency in Go or other modern programming languages

Strong communication and collaboration skills

Ability to solve complex problems

Strong understanding of system design, APIs, databases, cloud environments

Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts

Experience with supply chain security

Experience contributing to open source projects

Education

3+ years (Mid) or 5+ years (Senior) experience in software engineering

Job description

Defense Unicorns is seeking Software Engineers (Mid and Senior) to join our UDS Product Engineering team. You’ll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and end users to ensure we’re building the right solutions, and building them well. As a Software Engineer, you’ll operate at the intersection of product development and technical execution. You’ll contribute to and, at times, lead the design, implementation, and deployment of features and systems that have direct impact on mission outcomes. Our engineers work across a portfolio that includes

• UDS Registry — reliably manage and deploy UDS packages to any mission environment
• Zarf — an open source tool enabling continuous software delivery on disconnected systems
• Fleet — manage distributed systems across Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) and fully airgapped environments
• UDS Image Factory — developer tooling for composing complete, mission-ready system images (OS, Kubernetes, applications, configuration) into a single deployable artifact
• UDS Foundation — core platform and tooling that power UDS, serving Platform Engineers building and operating UDS across environments

The UDS Product Engineering team values action, ownership, and focus, taking initiative to see work through from idea to impact.

How You’ll Contribute:

Mid-level Software Engineer:

• Deliver high-quality, production-ready code with strong testing and reliability practices
• Own well-scoped features and systems end-to-end
• Contribute to design discussions and implementation decisions
• Navigate ambiguity with increasing independence
• Build deep understanding of the systems and domains you work in

Senior Software Engineer:

• Lead design and implementation of complex systems across teams
• Own and be accountable for systems or major components end-to-end
• Drive technical direction and influence product decisions
• Operate effectively in ambiguity and define clear paths forward
• Mentor other engineers and elevate engineering standards

Responsibilities:

• Build, ship, and maintain features and systems that support mission-critical environments
• Contribute to system design, architecture, and implementation decisions
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and design to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Identify and reduce ambiguity in product and technical requirements
• Debug, optimize, and support production systems (including on‑call rotation)
• Integrate with existing defense systems while ensuring interoperability and security compliance
• Contribute to and support the open source ecosystems we depend on
• Develop and maintain technical documentation (designs, runbooks, user guides)
• Participate in a shared 24x7 on‑call rotation, owning incident response, troubleshooting, and coordination to ensure reliable production systems

Additionally, Senior Software Engineers will:

• Own architectural decisions and ensure technical quality across systems
• Lead cross-team initiatives and complex technical efforts
• Influence product direction through deep user and system understanding
• Provide mentorship and raise the bar for engineering practices

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.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications:

• 3+ years (Mid) or 5+ years (Senior) experience in software engineering
• Proficiency in Go or other modern programming languages
• Strong understanding of system design, APIs, databases, and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, etc.)
• Experience building tools focused on software lifecycle and delivery
• Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts (Controllers, Operators, CRDs)
• Experience with supply chain security (SBOMs, signing, scanning, etc.)
• Experience contributing to open source projects (CNCF, ASF, OpenSSF, etc.) is a strong plus
• Ability to solve complex problems and deliver pragmatic, scalable solutions
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical audiences

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

$123,250 - $201,250 USD

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy

Health:

• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Reimbursement Account
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• 401k Retirement Plan
• Company Stock Options
• Home Office Budget

Leave:

• 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

Learning:

• Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
• Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)

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.