Senior Platform Engineer

Defense Unicorns
Colorado +1 more

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior platform engineers with experience in Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code who can advocate for seamless integration and real-world validation of software systems.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with a background in building scalable, self-service environments for demos and testing
    — “Designing and operating always-on product environments for customer demos, internal use, and stakeholder access”
  • Individuals skilled in integrating distributed systems and working across infrastructure and application layers
    — “Experience integrating distributed systems across multiple services”
  • Professionals who can reduce context switching and improve developer efficiency through platform optimization
    — “Today, engineers are frequently pulled into demo setup and environment management of the suite of products, creating context switching and slowing product delivery”

Things to consider

  • U.S. citizenship is mandatory due to the government contractor nature of the role
    — “EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP.”
  • The role involves a significant travel component, with 25% travel expected
    — “Travel Expectations/Requirements: 25%”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in creating reproducible infrastructure and reducing reliance on local setups
    — “Reducing reliance on local environments by creating shared, reproducible infrastructure”
  • Emphasize your ability to advocate for product usability while ensuring system reliability
    — “Advocating for a delightful customer product experience as the integrator of the product portfolio”
  • Showcase your proficiency in infrastructure as code with specific tools like Terraform or Pulumi
    — “Proficiency with infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi, etc.)”
  • Demonstrate your ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and UX teams effectively
    — “Collaborate closely with software engineers to integrate platform and product components”
  • Demonstrate experience with GitOps and CI/CD pipelines in a production setting
    — “Strong understanding of CI/CD, GitOps, and deployment pipelines”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • designing and operating always-on product environments
  • improving system reliability
  • reducing reliance on local environments
Typical background
software engineeringDevOps

Skills & requirements

Required

Platform EngineeringDevOpsKubernetesContainer-based SystemsInfrastructure As CodeSystem Integration

Preferred

JenkinsDockerTerraformAnsible

Stack & domain

KubernetesContainer-based SystemsDevOpsInfrastructure-focused Software EngineeringCollaborationProblem-solvingTeamworkDefenseSoftware DevelopmentPlatform Engineering

About the role

Original posting from Defense Unicorns via Greenhouse

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP.

Role Description: 

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 of the suite of products, 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 product capabilities 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.

What You'll Work On: 

Designing and operating always-on product environments for customer demos, internal use, and stakeholder access

Building feature branch / preview environments to support UX and rapid feedback loops

Enabling internal dogfooding through real, long-running deployments of UDS products

Integrating core system components across Fleet Management, Edge Management, OS, and related services

Reducing reliance on local environments by creating shared, reproducible infrastructure

Supporting pathways toward self-service demo and trial environmentsImproving system reliability by enabling continuous, real-world usage and validationPartnering with engineering, product, and UX to ensure environments reflect real user scenarios

Responsibilities: 

Design, build, and maintain scalable platform environments that support development, testing, and demos

Own the reliability and usability of shared environments used across the team

Collaborate closely with software engineers to integrate platform and product components

Identify and close gaps in system integration across services and infrastructure layers

Build and maintain infrastructure as code for reproducible environments

Improve developer experience by reducing friction in environment setup and usage

Support product implementation and stakeholder access through stable, well-understood systems

Contribute to platform and product architecture decisions where environments and integration are concerned

Travel Expectations/Requirements: 25%

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:

Strong experience in platform engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure-focused software engineering

Deep familiarity with Kubernetes and container-based systems

Experience building and operating shared or multi-tenant environments

Proficiency with infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi, etc.)

Strong understanding of CI/CD, GitOps, 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

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 USDWho 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

Source: Defense Unicorns careers (Greenhouse)

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