Platform Engineer

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

Role Description

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Platform Engineer to join our platform team — a combined DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering team responsible for the development, maintenance, and reliability of a cloud-based platform environment. The ideal candidate is a strong problem-solver with hands-on experience in Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and CI/CD, and is motivated by building and improving the systems that other teams depend on.

In this role, you will work across infrastructure as code, automated deployments, identity and access management, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines. You will serve as a bridge between application teams and the platform, advocating best practices and helping ensure that the platform is reliable, secure, and scalable. You should be comfortable operating in ambiguity, contributing to documentation and standards where they exist, and building them where they don’t.

Responsibilities

Build, maintain, and improve Kubernetes clusters and containerized application deployments across cloud environments (AWS, EKS, RKE2)

Develop and manage infrastructure as code (IaC) to provision and configure platform resources consistently and repeatably

Own and improve CI/CD pipelines, including GitLab CI configuration, runner deployments, and automated build and deployment workflows

Support identity and access management through tools such as Keycloak, including user onboarding, role configuration, and troubleshooting

Implement and maintain monitoring, alerting, and logging to ensure platform health and support incident investigation

Manage certificate lifecycle operations, including renewal of public certificates and related automation

Contribute to platform security posture through container security practices, Iron Bank image compliance, and support for ATO processes

Collaborate with application teams to troubleshoot deployment issues, broken pipelines, and platform integration problems

Write and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, architecture decision records (ADRs), and operational standards

Influence the strategic vision by contributing to the strategic planning that aligns technological advancements with the mission objectives.

Participate in on-call rotations and support platform incidents in a tier 2 role

Mentor and support junior engineers through pairing, code reviews, and knowledge sharing

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.

Minimum Experience and Qualifications

Hands-on experience with Kubernetes (deploying, managing, and troubleshooting clusters and workloads)

Experience with infrastructure as code tools (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi, or similar)

Proficiency with CI/CD tooling, particularly GitLab CI or equivalent pipeline platforms

Working knowledge of Linux/Unix operating systems and command-line administration

Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS (EC2, EKS, IAM, S3, VPC)

Familiarity with containerization (Docker, container image builds, registry management)

Ability to read and write YAML fluently for Kubernetes manifests, CRDs, Helm charts, and pipeline configurations

Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment

US citizenship required; must be eligible for CUI access

Possess or ability to obtain a DoD 8570 IAT II certification (e.g., Security+ CE)

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

Hold or be eligible for a security clearance

Experience with UDS Core, Iron Bank, and/or Continuous Authority to Operate (C-ATO) processes

Familiarity with identity and access management platforms such as Keycloak or similar

Experience with monitoring and observability tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or similar)

Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Go, Python, or Bash scripting)

Experience working in a DevSecOps model with secure coding practices and vulnerability remediation

Familiarity with GitOps workflows and tools (e.g., Flux, ArgoCD)

Department of Defense experience, specifically working on a production ATO’d system

Experience with distributed architectures and everything-as-code approaches

AWS certifications related to platform or solutions architecture

Experience writing architecture decision records (ADRs), operational runbooks, or engineering standards

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

$123,250—$166,750 USD

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

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.