Senior Engineer

Description

This role is based in the U.S. Every program the company supports requires U.S. citizenship for employment, and all work must take place within the continental United States.

The company is a non-traditional defense technology firm headquartered in McLean, Virginia. It builds AI, machine learning and data products for U.S. military and government agencies, focusing on autonomous data fusion, agentic AI, distributed data systems, large-scale platforms and complex application development.

Its clients are federal and public agencies. The team uses design thinking, modern tech stacks and cloud-native tools.

You will write the code and automation that builds, configures, secures and deploys platforms in Department of Defense environments. This is a development role, not day-to-day infrastructure operations.

You will work with developers, platform engineers and integration teams to build reusable infrastructure components that deploy reliably across customer environments, including disconnected and air-gapped systems.

Responsibilities

• Build Puppet modules that enforce secure configurations and compliance.
• Create Helm charts for Kubernetes deployments.
• Develop CI/CD pipelines in GitLab.
• Write automation scripts in Bash and Python.
• Build code alongside other developers, then hand it to platform and integration engineers for implementation and support.
• Add to shared, modular infrastructure code libraries.
• Make sure all code meets DoD security requirements and STIG compliance.
• Occasionally join on-site meetings or integration work to support customers.

Requirements

• You must hold an active TS/SCI clearance.
• You need an active Top Secret clearance and the ability to obtain and maintain SCI access.
• You have 5+ years of experience in infrastructure or platform development.
• You have hands-on skills in Kubernetes, Helm chart development, GitLab CI/CD pipeline creation, Puppet module and Hiera development, Bash and Python scripting, and Ansible.
• Preferred: experience with Kubernetes using RKE2.
• You have a strong understanding of RHEL Linux environments.
• You write clean, modular code that can be handed off to others.
• Preferred: a master's degree in a related field.
• Preferred: 10+ years of experience in infrastructure or platform development.
• Preferred: experience with container tools and registries such as Harbor, Trivy and Skopeo.
• Preferred: familiarity with LDAP, Keycloak or centralized authentication systems.
• Preferred: previous work supporting DoD or IC environments.
• Preferred: experience developing for disconnected or air-gapped systems.
• Preferred: contributions to open-source infrastructure automation projects.

Conditions

This is an onsite or hybrid role in San Diego, California.

You must live in San Diego or within commuting distance of it.

Up to 15% travel may be required.

The salary range is $170,000 to $200,000.

Pay is based on your experience, demonstrated skill and proven abilities.

All applicants are considered regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status or disability.

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary.
• Fully covered healthcare, dental and vision coverage.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Paid time off taken as needed, plus 14 paid holidays.
• Referral bonuses.