Staff Platform Engineer (FedD144)

Defense Unicorns; United States; Remote; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Premium company-paid benefits

HSA

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401k

Stock options

Home office budget

Paid time off

Parental leave

Training & conferences

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Staff Platform Engineer to design, build, and own the runtime production environment that bridges applications to the underlying platform.

You will drive platform architecture decisions, set engineering standards, and mentor engineers across the team in a hands-on, high-impact role requiring an active Secret clearance and US citizenship.

Qualifications

• Citizenship and eligibility to obtain a Secret security clearance.
• Expertise in solving highly technical problems spanning multiple domains.
• Deep knowledge in 1–2 technologies such as pipelines, GitOps, Kubernetes, or Go.
• Demonstrated experience with Kubernetes and container-based systems.
• Proficient with YAML and infrastructure-as-code practices.
• Security automation experience including API, container, and cloud security.
• Strong architecture security design, monitoring, and performance instrumentation.
• Experience with CI/CD, distributed architectures, and everything-as-code.
• Ability to articulate gaps in processes and iterate toward better ways of working.
• Proven track record evaluating methods to solve complex business problems.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Experience in an Agile environment, including remote work.

Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain scalable runtime production environments across cloud-native and containerized systems, including transforming apps to Kubernetes-ready formats for bare-metal deployment.
• Own the platform roadmap, identify gaps, plan initiatives, and align engineering with mission objectives.
• Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar across the team.
• Identify overlaps across projects and guide teams to collaborate efficiently.
• Work with Mission Managers to provide insights on engineering capacity, velocity, and alignment with mission goals.
• Collaborate with product teams and provide feedback on product fit and direction based on production usage.
• Work with customers to define technical roadmaps aligned to mission objectives.
• Advocate for DevSecOps practices across the platform layer, including security automation and container security.
• Evaluate new products and methods for potential impact on mission objectives.
• Drive CI/CD improvements, deployment patterns, and operational tooling.

Skills

Kubernetes

GitOps

Go

YAML

Security automation

Container security

CI/CD

Cloud security

Communication

Agile

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Pulumi

CI/CD tools

Helm

Kustomize

Job description

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION WILL REQUIRE AN ACTIVE SECRET CLEARANCE TO APPLY.

Staff Platform Engineer

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Staff Platform Engineer to join our team. This role is responsible for designing, building, and owning the runtime production environment that bridges applications (custom development, COTS, and OSS) to the underlying platform. You will drive platform architecture decisions, set engineering standards, and serve as the technical anchor between application teams and platform teams.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will own platform strategy and implementation end-to-end: defining technical roadmaps, solving complex problems that span multiple domains, driving cross-team delivery efficiency, and mentoring engineers across the team. We are looking for someone who builds and owns platforms, not someone who operates within infrastructure others have designed.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain scalable runtime production environments across cloud-native and containerized systems, including transforming applications into Kubernetes-friendly formats for bare-metal deployment
• Own the technical roadmap for the platform vertical, identifying gaps, planning initiatives, and aligning engineering effort to mission objectives
• Provide mentorship to engineers across the team, fostering professional development and raising the technical bar
• Identify technical overlap across projects and guide teams on leveraging each other for efficient delivery
• Work closely with Mission Managers, providing insights on engineering competency, capacity, velocity, and alignment with mission objectives
• Collaborate with product teams, providing feedback on product fit and contributing to product direction based on production usage
• Work with customers to define technical roadmaps that align to mission objectives
• Advocate for and enforce DevSecOps practices across the platform layer, including security automation, container security, and compliance
• Evaluate and select optimal methods for solving complex business problems, assessing new products and their potential impact on mission objectives
• Drive continuous improvement in CI/CD pipelines, deployment patterns, and operational tooling

Travel requirements: 25% travel

Required Qualifications

• US citizenship and eligible to obtain a Secret security clearance
• Expertise in solving highly technical problems that span multiple knowledge domains
• Deep knowledge in 1-2 key technologies such as pipelines, GitOps, Kubernetes, or Go
• Demonstrated experience with Kubernetes and container-based systems
• Expert with YAML
• Proficient with security automation and familiarity with API Security, Container Security, and Cloud Security
• Proficient in architecture security design, monitoring, and performance instrumentation in complex enterprise environments
• Experience with continuous delivery, distributed architectures, everything-as-code, containerization, and cloud services
• Proficient in identifying and articulating gaps in existing processes and iterating toward better ways of working
• Proven track record of evaluating and selecting optimal methods for solving complex business problems
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams
• Experience working on a team following an Agile framework in a remote environment

Preferred Qualifications

• DoD 8570 IAT II certification or ability to obtain
• Experience in Department of Defense work, specifically on a production ATO system
• Experience with Big Bang, Iron Bank, and/or C-ATO processes
• Expert in DevSecOps/DevOps and CI/CD theory and implementation

The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization.

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

• Kubernetes
• Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
• Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)
• Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
• GitOps
• Containers
• CNCF projects and open source products and packages
• Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping
• Building and improving security delivery
• Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy

Health:

• Medical/Dental/Vision
• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Savings Account
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance

Financial:

• 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
• Paid Parental Leave

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.

CCPA DISCLOSURE