Software Engineer, DevSecOps

Helsing; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote/hybrid work

Medical & travel insurance

Paid time off

Equal opportunity employer

Job summary

Helsing is expanding its US operations and seeks a security-focused Platform Engineer to embed security across the development and delivery pipeline. You will own the security posture of the development environment and drive compliance with NIST/CMMC while building secure CI/CD practices.

You will work with Kubernetes, ArgoCD, GitOps, and shared services to enforce compliance, ship verifiable artifacts, and strengthen the software supply chain across the organization.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in DevSecOps, security engineering, or infrastructure engineering with a security focus
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Cybersecurity, or a related field
• Deep experience with Kubernetes - deployment, networking, RBAC, pod and cluster security, and operational troubleshooting
• Proficiency with ArgoCD or similar GitOps tooling for managing Kubernetes workloads at scale
• Strong experience writing and maintaining Helm charts
• Proficiency in Python and Bash, with experience automating security and compliance workflows
• Understand software supply chain security, including container image hardening, FIPS-validated cryptography, vulnerability scanning, SBOM, and artifact signing
• Hands-on experience implementing security controls from frameworks like NIST 800-171, NIST 800-53, or CMMC
• Comfort with CI/CD pipeline design, particularly building in security gates, policy-as-code, and automated compliance checks
• Working knowledge of AWS and collaboration on infrastructure decisions
• A U.S. citizen eligible to obtain a security clearance

Responsibilities

• Deploying secure Kubernetes workloads via ArgoCD and GitOps workflows
• Building and maintaining secure CI/CD pipelines that enforce policy, scan for vulnerabilities, and produce auditable build artifacts
• Hardening shared services (GitLab, Artifactory, container registries) used across the organization
• Enforcing security controls aligned with CMMC L2, NIST 800-171, and other ATO frameworks
• Securing the software supply chain: image signing, SBOM generation, dependency scanning, provenance tracking
• Conducting threat modeling to surface architectural risks before incidents
• Detecting, investigating, and responding to security incidents across infrastructure and applications
• Collaborating with product teams to ensure workloads meet security and compliance requirements before and after deployment
• Supporting secure hosting of ML/AI workloads, including model training environments and sensitive data handling

Skills

DevSecOps

Security engineering

Kubernetes

ArgoCD

GitOps

Python

Bash

CI/CD pipelines

Policy-as-code

AWS

Security compliance

Threat modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Cybersecurity

Tools

GitLab

Artifactory

Container registries

Helm

SBOM tooling

Image signing

Terraform

Nix

Job description

Helsing develops artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities to protect and defend democracies. We build Altra, an AI-powered drone software platform, and HX-2, our autonomous drone. We are growing our US operations, cultivating an ambitious and committed team of mission-driven professionals to apply their skills to solve challenging problems.

The role

You will join the Platform Engineering team as a security-focused engineer responsible for embedding security into every layer of our developer platform and software delivery pipeline. You will own the security posture of our development environment — ensuring CMMC Level 2 compliance, hardening our software supply chain, and implementing the controls required for product teams to achieve ATO against NIST and other cybersecurity frameworks. You will work closely with platform and product engineers to build secure CI/CD pipelines, enforce policy-as-code, and maintain the shared infrastructure that all teams depend on. This role combines hands-on engineering with deep security expertise: you are not just auditing compliance, you are building the systems that make compliance automatic.

The day-to-day

• Deploying, updating, and securing Kubernetes workloads through ArgoCD and GitOps workflows
• Building and maintaining secure CI/CD pipelines that enforce policy, scan for vulnerabilities, and produce auditable build artifacts
• Maintaining and hardening shared services (GitLab, Artifactory, container registries) that the entire organization depends on
• Implementing and enforcing security controls aligned with CMMC L2, NIST 800-171, and other frameworks required for ATO
• Securing the software supply chain: image signing, SBOM generation, dependency scanning, and provenance tracking
• Conducting threat modeling to surface architectural risks before they become incidents
• Detecting, investigating, and responding to security incidents across infrastructure and applications
• Working with product teams to ensure their workloads meet security and compliance requirements before and after deployment
• Supporting the secure hosting of ML/AI workloads, including model training environments and sensitive data handling

You should apply if you

• Have 5+ years of experience in DevSecOps, security engineering, or infrastructure engineering with a security focus
• Have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Cybersecurity, or a related field
• Have deep experience with Kubernetes - deployment, networking, RBAC, pod and cluster security, and operational troubleshooting
• Are proficient with ArgoCD or similar GitOps tooling for managing Kubernetes workloads at scale
• Have strong experience writing and maintaining Helm charts
• Are proficient in Python and Bash, with experience automating security and compliance workflows
• Understand software supply chain security, including container image hardening, FIPS-validated cryptography, vulnerability scanning, SBOM, and artifact signing
• Have hands-on experience implementing security controls from frameworks like NIST 800-171, NIST 800-53, or CMMC
• Are comfortable with CI/CD pipeline design, particularly building in security gates, policy-as-code, and automated compliance checks
• Have working knowledge of AWS and can collaborate effectively on infrastructure decisions
• Are a U.S. citizen eligible to obtain a security clearance

Nice to have

• Experience with Go or other systems programming languages
• Experience shepherding systems through an ATO process
• Familiarity with DISA STIGs and the Risk Management Framework (RMF)
• Familiarity with Terraform and infrastructure-as-code for cloud resources
• Experience with Nix or NixOS
• Experience with SIEM platforms (e.g., Elastic) and security monitoring/incident response
• Experience securing and deploying ML/AI workloads — GPU environments, training pipelines, data classification
• Red teaming or penetration testing experience
• Certifications such as CKS, Security+, or CISSP
• Experience in defense, intelligence, or other regulated environments

Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields

• Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns
• The work is unique. We operate in a domain that has highly unusual technical requirements and constraints, and where robustness, safety, and ethical considerations are vital. You will face unique Engineering and AI challenges that make a meaningful impact in the world
• Our work frequently takes us right up to the state of the art in technical innovation, be it reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI, or deployment infrastructure. The defense industry is entering the most exciting phase of the technological development curve. Advances in our field of world are not incremental: Helsing is part of, and often leading, historic leaps forward
• In our domain, success is a matter of order-of-magnitude improvements and novel capabilities. This means we take bets, aim high, and focus on big opportunities. Despite being a relatively young company, Helsing has already been selected for multiple significant government contracts
• We actively encourage healthy, proactive, and diverse debate internally about what we do and how we choose to do it. Teams and individual engineers are trusted (and encouraged) to practice responsible autonomy and critical thinking, and to focus on outcomes, not conformity. At Helsing you will have a say in how we (and you!) work, the opportunity to engage on what does and doesn’t work, and to take ownership of aspects of our culture that you care deeply about

What we offer

• A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking
• A generous compensation and benefits package (in addition to base salary) that includes, but may not be limited to, insurance coverage (medical and travel), flexible paid time off, paid holidays, and remote and/or hybrid work available depending on position. All compensation and benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of the underlying plans or programs, as applicable and as may be amended, terminated or superseded from time to time.

Helsing is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetics, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. Please do not submit personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning your health, or data concerning your sexual orientation.

Helsing's Candidate Privacy and Confidentiality Regime can be found here.