Senior Software Build & Release Engineer

Description

The company is a space, defense, and national security technology firm building mission-critical systems, including a lunar lander program.

This role is the Senior Software Build & Release Engineer for the lunar systems group, owning automation of software builds, versioning, deployment, and delivery for that program.

The role reports to the Software & Controls Manager and sits in the Software & Controls Department in Pittsburgh, PA.

The role is onsite in Pittsburgh, PA.

If your background fits the minimum qualifications, the team would like to hear from you. If no current opening matches, you can join the talent community to stay in touch.

Responsibilities

• You will own release engineering from start to finish for flight and ground software, from pipeline design through creating the final software packages.
• You will design and evolve the branching and release strategy, including a GitFlow model with release branches, automated semantic versioning, and promotion gates that decide what counts as an alpha build, a release candidate, or a release.
• You will build and maintain GitLab CI/CD pipelines that compile, test, version, publish, and deploy software, and you will diagnose and fix infrastructure failures and regressions.
• You will fold automated and manual test campaigns into the release process so each build has a clear, auditable test record.
• You will deploy and run on-premises engineering infrastructure, including GitLab and GitLab Runners, Slurm HPC clusters, Jira, Confluence, Harbor, and MinIO.
• You will own Linux-based spacecraft flat-sat platforms, working with test engineers to build Python tooling and custom Docker containers for automated deployment and testing.
• You will set build, test, and release standards for software teams.

Requirements

• 5+ years of DevOps, build, or release engineering experience on robotics, spacecraft, embedded, or other mission-critical systems.
• Hands-on ownership of GitLab CI/CD, including pipelines, runners, the package registry, and releases.
• Strong Python skills for pipeline automation, release tooling, scripting, and pytest-based test frameworks.
• Experience with Bazel, especially for multi-language (C++/Python) builds, remote caching, or moving projects off Make/CMake.
• Experience with Docker and with Make/CMake build systems.
• A track record of designing or significantly shaping branching and release strategies such as GitFlow, release branches, semantic versioning, and promotion gates.
• Solid Linux administration experience, including deploying and maintaining self-hosted engineering services.
• Comfort being the primary or sole owner of infrastructure, responsible for both architecture and hands-on work.
• You must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR.
• Preferred: working proficiency in C++, particularly for build, test, and packaging.
• Preferred: experience running simulation or compute workloads on Slurm HPC clusters.
• Preferred: experience with container registries and object storage (Harbor, MinIO).
• Preferred: prior work in ITAR/CUI-controlled environments.
• Preferred: informal technical leadership, such as mentoring engineers or driving cross-team adoption of tooling and process.

Conditions

The role is onsite in Pittsburgh, PA, within the Software & Controls Department, reporting to the Software & Controls Manager.

Applicants must be U.S. persons under ITAR and EAR: a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or a protected individual under 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3), and must be eligible for any required export authorization from the U.S. Department of State or Department of Commerce.

The company is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes minority, female, disabled, and veteran applicants.

The job description is a general summary, not a full list of duties, is not a contract, and the company may change the scope of work at any time without notice.

Benefits

• Flexible Time Off to recharge and keep a healthy work-life balance.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and families, with most of the premium paid by the company and many benefits paid at 100% for employees.
• Gym memberships at over 12,700 locations nationwide, including 24 Hour Fitness, EoS Fitness, Crunch Fitness, Anytime Fitness, Blink Fitness, and Chuze Fitness, with no long-term contracts and free on-demand workout videos before enrolling.
• 401(k) plan with a 50% company match on contributions up to 8%.
• Company wellness programs for physical and mental health.
• Additional voluntary benefits and employee support resources.
• Working alongside a highly skilled team in a mission-driven setting.