Senior Software Engineer - Open Source (RD217)

Defense Unicorns; United States; Remote; USD 149,000 - 201,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company-paid health insurance

HSA (Health Savings Account)

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

401k Retirement Plan

Stock Options

Home Office Budget

Flexible Time Off

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build, maintain, and steward open source products and ecosystems. You’ll work with product managers, designers, and contributors to design and implement cloud-native software for defense environments while mentoring the team.

You’ll help shape OSS strategy, contribute to CNCF/open source communities, and collaborate across languages like Go and Rust.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience with software engineering.
• Experience building or maintaining open source software tools, esp cloud native, software lifecycle, or software supply chain domains.
• Proficient in Go, with interest in learning TypeScript, and contributing across languages such as Rust.
• Strong understanding of system design, libraries and APIs, Kubernetes, and cloud architecture (AWS, Azure).
• Experience contributing to open source projects and participating in open source communities (CNCF/ASF/OpenSSF a plus).
• Familiar with core Kubernetes concepts, including controllers, operators, and CRDs.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with internal engineers and open source contributors on features, fixes, reviews, and releases.
• Engage with open source communities, industry partners, and standards bodies to move projects forward.
• Amplify project voice by delivering end-user experiences and producing case studies, blogs, or talks.
• Identify and resolve ambiguity across product requirements and upstream constraints.
• Thrive in a remote work environment and manage time efficiently.
• Build and integrate secure, cloud native software for defense environments and contribute to OSS upstreams.
• Own architecture decisions and ensure quality across codebases and contributor workflows.
• Stay updated on cloud native, OSS, and secure software supply chain technologies.
• Provide technical mentorship and elevate engineering standards.
• Influence product direction through understanding user needs and system constraints.

Skills

Go language

Cloud native

Open source

Communication

Remote work

Tools

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Senior Software Engineer - Open Source (RD217)

Remote, United States

Role Description:

Defense Unicorns seeks an experienced Software Engineer to help build, maintain, and steward our open source products and the broader ecosystems they depend on. You'll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, engineers, community contributors, and end users to ensure we’re building the right solutions—and building them well.
As an Open Source Software Engineer, you’ll operate at the intersection of community stewardship, product development, and technical execution. You’ll help lead the design, implementation, and maintenance of cloud native software that has direct impact on mission outcomes. You bring strong Golang experience, a love for cloud native technologies and a willingness to learn TypeScript to support our broader OSS ecosystem. Over time, you may also contribute across additional languages and communities, including Rust, as our open source work evolves.

Responsibilities:

• Work with internal engineers and open source community contributors on features, bug fixes, reviews, and releases through clear communication, collaboration, and responsible stewardship
• Engage with open source communities, industry partners, and standards bodies via common platforms (e.g., Slack, GitHub, etc.) to help move our projects and their upstream ecosystems forward, including facilitating community meetings with our internal and external users
• Amplify the voice of our projects within the ecosystem by delivering a mission-focused end-user experience and collaborating with users to produce case studies, blogs, or conference presentations
• Proactively identify and resolve ambiguity across product requirements, community needs, and upstream project constraints
• Comfortable working proactively, managing time efficiently, and thriving in a vibrant remote work environment
• Build and integrate secure, interoperable cloud native software for defense environments while contributing improvements back to relevant open source projects where appropriate
• Own architecture decisions and ensure technical quality across open source codebases, APIs, and contributor workflows
• Stay abreast of emerging cloud native, open source, and secure software supply chain technologies to inform product enhancements and ecosystem contributions
• Provide technical mentorship and elevate engineering standards across the team
• Influence product direction through deep understanding of user needs and system constraints

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:

• 5+ years experience with software engineering
• Experience building or maintaining open source software tools, especially in cloud native, software lifecycle, or software supply chain domains
• Proficient in Go, with interest in learning TypeScript, and contributing across additional modern languages such as Rust
• Strong understanding of system design, library and software APIs, Kubernetes, and cloud architecture (e.g., AWS, Azure)
• Excited to assess intricate problems, propose solutions, and implement them effectively
• Experience contributing to open source projects and participating in open source communities. Involvement with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Apache Software Foundation (ASF), Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), or similar communities is a huge plus
• Familiar with core Kubernetes concepts, including but not limited to controllers, operators, and CRDs
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, comfortable conveying technical concepts to both 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

$148,750 - $201,250 USD

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 enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily.

Who We Serve

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.

What We Work On

• 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

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy

Health:

• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Savings 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)

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.