Senior Platform Engineer
Builds and operates always-on, self-service platform environments (demos, internal dogfooding, preview environments) for Defense Unicorns' UDS platform, integrating components like Fleet Management and Edge Management. Core stack: Kubernetes, containers, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform/Pulumi), CI/CD and GitOps. U.S. citizenship required; ~25% travel.
- Compensation
- $148.8K–$201.3K / yr
- Location
- Colorado
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Devops
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- U.S. citizenship (employer is a contractor for the U.S. government)
- Willingness to travel up to 25%
Nice to have
- Strong experience in platform engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure-focused software engineering
- Deep familiarity with Kubernetes and container-based systems
- Experience building and operating shared or multi-tenant environments
- Proficiency with infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi)
- Strong understanding of CI/CD, GitOps, and deployment pipelines
- Experience integrating distributed systems across multiple services
- Comfortable working across system boundaries (application, infrastructure, networking)
- Proficiency with Linux/Unix systems
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and UX
Full description
EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP.
Role Description:
Defense Unicorns is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to join our Army team, focused on building and operating product-aligned platform capabilities that enable how our software is developed, validated, and experienced.
This role is responsible for creating and owning persistent, always-on environments and integration layers across the UDS platform, including Fleet Management, Edge Management, and system-level components. These environments power internal dogfooding, UX validation, and customer demos, reducing reliance on ad-hoc local setups and enabling scalable, repeatable and delightful product experiences.
Today, engineers are frequently pulled into demo setup and environment management of the suite of products, creating context switching and slowing product delivery. This role exists to solve that problem by establishing reliable, self-service environments and tighter system integration, allowing engineering teams to focus on building product capabilities while improving overall product quality and usability.
You will operate at the intersection of platform engineering and product development, ensuring that the systems we build can be continuously exercised, validated, and experienced in real-world conditions. You will be responsible for advocating for a delightful customer product experience as the integrator of the product portfolio.
What You'll Work On:
- Designing and operating always-on product environments for customer demos, internal use, and stakeholder access
- Building feature branch / preview environments to support UX and rapid feedback loops
- Enabling internal dogfooding through real, long-running deployments of UDS products
- Integrating core system components across Fleet Management, Edge Management, OS, and related services
- Reducing reliance on local environments by creating shared, reproducible infrastructure
- Supporting pathways toward self-service demo and trial environmentsImproving system reliability by enabling continuous, real-world usage and validationPartnering with engineering, product, and UX to ensure environments reflect real user scenarios
Responsibilities:
- Design, build, and maintain scalable platform environments that support development, testing, and demos
- Own the reliability and usability of shared environments used across the team
- Collaborate closely with software engineers to integrate platform and product components
- Identify and close gaps in system integration across services and infrastructure layers