Senior Platform Engineer

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to join our Army team, focused on building and operating product-aligned platform capabilities that enable how our software is developed, validated, and experienced.

This role is responsible for creating and owning persistent, always-on environments and integration layers across the UDS platform, including Fleet Management, Edge Management, and system-level components. These environments power internal dogfooding, UX validation, and customer demos, reducing reliance on ad-hoc local setups and enabling scalable, repeatable, and delightful product experiences.

Today, engineers are frequently pulled into demo setup and environment management, creating context switching and slowing product delivery. This role exists to solve that problem by establishing reliable, self-service environments and tighter system integration, allowing engineering teams to focus on building while improving overall product quality and usability.

You will operate at the intersection of platform engineering and product development, ensuring that the systems we build can be continuously exercised, validated, and experienced in real-world conditions. You will be responsible for advocating for a delightful customer product experience as the integrator of the product portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

Design and operate always-on product environments for customer demos, internal use, and stakeholder access
Build feature branch and preview environments to support UX and rapid feedback loops
Enable internal dogfooding through real, long-running deployments of UDS products
Integrate core system components across Fleet Management, Edge Management, OS, and related services
Reduce reliance on local environments by creating shared, reproducible infrastructure
Support pathways toward self-service demo and trial environments
Improve system reliability by enabling continuous, real-world usage and validation
Partner with engineering, product, and UX to ensure environments reflect real user scenarios
Contribute to platform and product architecture decisions where environments and integration are concerned

Travel required: Up to 25%

Required Qualifications

US citizenship and eligibility to obtain a clearance
Strong experience in platform engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure-focused software engineering
Hands-on experience with cloud environments, specifically Azure
Deep familiarity with Kubernetes and container-based systems
Experience with Helm, GitOps workflows, and Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi)
Experience building and operating shared or multi-tenant environments
Strong understanding of CI/CD and deployment pipelines
Experience integrating distributed systems across multiple services
Comfortable working across system boundaries (application, infrastructure, networking)
Proficiency with Linux/Unix systems
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments
Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and UX

Preferred Qualifications

Active Secret clearance
System image/architecture and deployment experience
Familiarity with the Army, Army Software Factory, or similar DoD software organizations
Experience with Zarf or UDS

Compensation: $148,750 to $201,250 (full compensation packages are based on candidate experience; ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States)

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.

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