Platform Engineer, Defense Unicorns
$180-279.2k
+ Company Stock Options
Software for national security systems
Job no longer available
Software for national security systems
101-200 employees
Job no longer available
$180-279.2k
+ Company Stock Options
101-200 employees
Company mission
To create software to solve the unique challenges experienced by the government.
Role
Who you are
- This position requires demonstrating a strong understanding of system architecture, problem-solving skills, and the ability to guide junior to mid-level engineers
- Strong open source presence with a track record of contribution or maintenance or projects in the CNCF, OpenSSF or other foundations
- Demonstrated ability to develop software in Go, TypeScript, or similar languages
- Experience managing platform and infrastructure with terraform or equivalent technologies
- Proven systems thinking applied to strong CI/CD strategies for efficient software delivery
- Experience working in a remote environment that encourages asynchronous PR reviews and strong GitOps practices
- Familiarity with core technologies we leverage such as: Grafana, Istio, Loki, Neuvector, Pepr, Prometheus, Promtail, Authservice, Keycloak, Velero and Zarf
- Proven experience in creating collaborative engineering environments that encourage idea sharing
What the job involves
- We are actively seeking a skilled and motivated Senior or Staff-Level Platform Engineer to join our team. The ideal candidate will play a crucial role in the development, maintenance, and user/community engagement of our platform and its upstream open source dependencies
- As a Senior or Staff Platform Engineer within our organization, you will join a team of dedicated unicorns who are focused on advancing freedom and independence globally
- You will create and maintain tools that are the crucial link between Application (Capability) Providers and disparate Production Environments
- Create and nurture an engineering environment that fosters collaboration, sharing of ideas, and cross-functional teamwork
- Actively participate in Defense Unicorns' all-remote environment, contributing to the open source presence and engaging with the team
- Productize solutions to ensure their reusability across different runtime environments
- Manage and contribute to projects that improve the delivery of mission value through effective planning, development, testing, and version support
- Track and evaluate emerging technologies, making determinations and recommendations for integration into existing Defense Unicorns products to enhance mission impact
- Solve new problems that may require in-depth knowledge from a variety of technologies
- Communicate proactively and routinely with coworkers and all team members on key product or project milestones, new feature work, the overall product roadmap, user interviews/discovery efforts, and any issues/blockers
- Participate actively as a code reviewer for cross-company and cross-team initiatives and products
- 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
Our take
Military defence technology is having to adapt at a quickening pace. However, innovations in the tech sector, outdated technology, varied compute environments and complex security and compliance issues create lags in new defence technology. Defense Unicorns is an open-source tech developer aiming to minimise this lag.
Founded by former Department of Defense software engineers, Defense Unicorns uses AI and innovative software to create military technology for various uses and combat landscapes. The company is particularly focused on tech that can be used in “air-gapped” areas - those that are disconnected from the internet.
In terms of the company's future position in the market, it's notable that the US annual defence budget specifically for IT and cyber has increased to just under $59 billion in 2024. This funding growth exemplifies a rapidly changing combat landscape set against an unpredictable global backdrop, one in which Defense Unicorns has the chance to be an important player.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Feb 2024
$35m
SERIES A
Oct 2022
$0.5m
SEED
Total funding: $35.5m
Company benefits
- Medical/Dental/Vision (premiums are 100% company paid)
- Health reimbursement account
- Life insurance & disability insurance
- 401k with employer contribution (regardless of employee contribution)
- Company stock options
- Home office setup budget
- Unlimited paid time off, with a mandatory 10 days off on top of 11 federal government holidays
- Paid parental leave
- Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
- Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)
Company HQ
Southeast Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO
Leadership
Robert Slaughter
(Co-Founder & CEO)Works as a Trainer at Project Blue. Previously the Director of DoD Platform One, a Counselor at SpaceCAMP, and worked in DevOps for the US Airforce.
Andrew Greene
(Co-Founder & Engineer)Previously worked for DoD Platform One. Was also a Software Engineer at Omitron and at SGT.
Jeff McCoy
(Co-Founder)Previously Co-Founder and CTO at Platform One, Was also CTO at SpaceCAMP, Senior Software Engineer at Defense Innovation Unit, and Co-Founder at DDS Rogue Squadron.
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