Senior Software Engineer - Virtual Machines (RD222)

Description

The company is a contractor for the U.S. government, and this role is for a new team building a virtual machine product. The product lets teams deploy, run, and manage VMs alongside containers on the company's platform.

Many critical applications cannot easily move to containers because of OS dependencies, vendor rules, or existing approvals, and running them today often takes custom work. The team is building a supported, repeatable way to run VMs in secure, disconnected networks, including the security controls and evidence needed for authorization.

The work combines product engineering, Kubernetes, virtualization, and security, with the focus on building software rather than just operating infrastructure. You will shape technical decisions, own complex capabilities, and work with engineering, product, and UX. As the team grows, you will help set engineering practices. One of the Senior openings includes hands-on technical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Build Kubernetes tooling and APIs to orchestrate and manage VM workloads
• Build tools to inspect, convert, prepare, and package VM images for disconnected delivery
• Connect VM workloads to the platform's networking, observability, and security features
• Create VM management workflows for inventory, status, power control, and console access
• Solve problems across VM lifecycle, persistent storage, networking, and image distribution
• Make VM deployments reproducible, secure, and supportable in air-gapped environments
• Work with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes to turn operational needs into useful features
• Own the design, implementation, testing, and delivery of complex features and systems
• Drive practical technical decisions and contribute to architecture across components
• Resolve ambiguity by working with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes
• Debug complex issues across Kubernetes, virtualization, storage, networking, and operating systems
• Improve reliability, security, performance, observability, and maintainability
• Review code, mentor teammates, and help set engineering practices
• Document technical decisions and communicate clearly across teams
• Other duties may be assigned as the organization's needs change

Requirements

• Preferred: 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Preferred: Strong Go skills or another modern language, with interest in building Go systems
• Preferred: Experience designing software that works with Kubernetes or other distributed systems
• Preferred: Strong grasp of APIs, system design, and architecture
• Preferred: Experience building backend services, controllers, operators, or developer tools
• Preferred: Familiarity with Linux, containers, and OS concepts
• Preferred: Experience building, testing, and running production software
• Preferred: Ability to handle ambiguity, weigh tradeoffs, and drive complex work to completion independently
• Preferred: Strong problem-solving and debugging across multiple system boundaries
• Preferred: Strong communication and collaboration, including influencing technical direction and mentoring engineers
• Great to have: Experience with KubeVirt, QEMU/KVM, or other virtualization technologies
• Great to have: Experience building Kubernetes operators, controllers, or custom resource definitions
• Great to have: Experience configuring, managing, or troubleshooting Windows VMs
• Great to have: Familiarity with VM image formats, conversion, migration, and lifecycle management
• Great to have: Experience with Kubernetes networking and storage
• Great to have: Experience building CLI tools, especially in Go
• Great to have: Familiarity with Zarf, OCI artifacts, or software packaging and distribution
• Great to have: Experience in air-gapped, disconnected, or regulated environments
• Great to have: Contributions to Kubernetes, KubeVirt, or other CNCF open-source projects
• Great to have: Experience building security-focused software or integrating with identity, access control, and observability platforms

Conditions

U.S. citizenship is required

The role is remote within the USA

Travel is 5-10%

Pay range is $148,750 to $201,250 USD

Full pay is based on candidate experience, using national benchmarking data that applies across all U.S. locations

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision, with premiums 100% paid by the company
• Health savings account
• Life insurance and disability insurance
• 401k retirement plan
• Company stock options
• Home office budget
• Flexible time off for all full-time staff, plus all federal holidays, one week at Thanksgiving, and two weeks at Christmas and New Year's
• Paid parental leave
• Reimbursement for approved trainings and subscriptions
• Conference travel, lodging, and fees covered