Staff Platform Engineer
Defense Unicorns is seeking a Staff Platform Engineer to join our team. This role is responsible for designing, building, and owning the runtime production environment that bridges applications (custom development, COTS, and OSS) to the underlying platform. You will drive platform architecture decisions, set engineering standards, and serve as the technical anchor between application teams and platform teams.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will own platform strategy and implementation end-to-end: defining technical roadmaps, solving complex problems that span multiple domains, driving cross-team delivery efficiency, and mentoring engineers across the team. We are looking for someone who builds and owns platforms, not someone who operates within infrastructure others have designed.
Key Responsibilities
- Architect and maintain scalable runtime production environments across cloud-native and containerized systems, including transforming applications into Kubernetes-friendly formats for bare-metal deployment
- Own the technical roadmap for the platform vertical, identifying gaps, planning initiatives, and aligning engineering effort to mission objectives
- Provide mentorship to engineers across the team, fostering professional development and raising the technical bar
- Identify technical overlap across projects and guide teams on leveraging each other for efficient delivery
- Work closely with Mission Managers, providing insights on engineering competency, capacity, velocity, and alignment with mission objectives
- Collaborate with product teams, providing feedback on product fit and contributing to product direction based on production usage
- Work with customers to define technical roadmaps that align to mission objectives
- Advocate for and enforce DevSecOps practices across the platform layer, including security automation, container security, and compliance
- Evaluate and select optimal methods for solving complex business problems, assessing new products and their potential impact on mission objectives
- Drive continuous improvement in CI/CD pipelines, deployment patterns, and operational tooling
Travel requirements: 25% travel
Required Qualifications
- US citizenship and eligible to obtain a Secret security clearance
- Expertise in solving highly technical problems that span multiple knowledge domains
- Deep knowledge in 1-2 key technologies such as pipelines, GitOps, Kubernetes, or Go
- Demonstrated experience with Kubernetes and container-based systems
- Expert with YAML
- Proficient with security automation and familiarity with API Security, Container Security, and Cloud Security
- Proficient in architecture security design, monitoring, and performance instrumentation in complex enterprise environments
- Experience with continuous delivery, distributed architectures, everything-as-code, containerization, and cloud services
- Proficient in identifying and articulating gaps in existing processes and iterating toward better ways of working
- Proven track record of evaluating and selecting optimal methods for solving complex business problems
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams
- Experience working on a team following an Agile framework in a remote environment
Preferred Qualifications
- DoD 8570 IAT II certification or ability to obtain
- Experience in Department of Defense work, specifically on a production ATO system
- Experience with Big Bang, Iron Bank, and/or C-ATO processes
- Expert in DevSecOps/DevOps and CI/CD theory and implementation
The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization.
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 DoWe 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 ServeDefense 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
- Medical/Dental/Vision
- Premiums are 100% Company Paid
- Health Savings Account
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Company Stock Options
- Home Office Budget
- 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
- 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
Similar Jobs
.png)
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
