---
title: 'AWS Security Architect, GovCloud / IL5 at Swarm Aero'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/aws-security-architect-govcloud-il5-swarm-aero-washington-rt8d0dsayj9c'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# AWS Security Architect, GovCloud / IL5 at Swarm Aero

- **Company:** Swarm Aero
- **Location:** Washington, DC
- **Compensation:** $200k–$290k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-01
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/swarmaero/b178d57c-640c-4b09-9979-083026c3bb48

## Job description

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results. The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.

## Role Overview

Swarm Aero is hiring an Information Security Lead / AWS Security Architect to sit within the IT organization and own the security architecture, documentation, and compliance support needed across our AWS environment and regulated customer deployments.

This is a dedicated IT role. The person will work closely with Legion because Legion has the most urgent IL5/IL6 deployment needs, but they are not a Legion-owned resource. They will support the existing company-wide SSP and CMMC program while also helping build and maintain the separate Legion-specific security package required for high-side and government cloud deployments.

The right person needs to be comfortable moving between implementation and documentation. This is not just a paperwork role. They need to understand how AWS is architected, how controls are actually implemented, how to produce evidence, how to drive remediation, and how to keep the broader security program aligned as Legion moves into IL5/IL6 environments.

## Key Responsibilities

Swarm-Wide IT Security and Compliance

- Support and mature Swarm’s existing company-wide SSP and CMMC program.
- Maintain and improve security documentation, policies, procedures, POA&Ms, audit artifacts, control evidence, and compliance workflows.
- Help ensure company-wide controls remain aligned with NIST 800-171, CMMC, and applicable federal/customer requirements.
- Feed Legion-specific requirements and findings back into the broader IT security and compliance program where appropriate.
- Coordinate with internal stakeholders, external auditors, customer security teams, and government security representatives.

Legion IL5/IL6 Deployment Support

- Work closely with Legion to support IL5/IL6 deployment readiness.
- Help create and maintain the separate Legion-specific SSP, POA&M, remediation framework, implementation evidence, test evidence, SOPs, incident response documentation, and customer security artifacts.
- Partner with DevSecOps and Engineering to identify control gaps, document remediation requirements, and track closure.
- Support customer ISSM/ISSO conversations and provide documentation/evidence needed for ATO/IATT or equivalent deployment paths.
- Help Legion move quickly while keeping security, compliance, and IT governance aligned.

AWS Security Architecture and Implementation

- Own Swarm’s AWS security architecture from the IT side.
- Be responsible for the security posture of existing AWS deployments and future regulated AWS environments.
- Review and guide AWS account architecture, IAM, logging, monitoring, encryption, networking, segmentation, backup, vulnerability management, and secure deployment patterns.
- Support AWS GovCloud, IL5/IL6, and other regulated deployment architectures.
- Establish repeatable AWS security baselines that can support Legion and future customer environments.
- Work with DevSecOps and Engineering to ensure implementation matches compliance requirements, not just policy language.

Security Remediation and Continuous Compliance

- Translate compliance findings into actionable remediation work.
- Maintain POA&M/remediation tracking across company-wide and Legion-specific security programs.
- Ensure documentation stays current as AWS configurations, containers, software releases, and security tooling change.
- Support supply-chain risk management, vulnerability management, incident response, and ongoing audit readiness.
- Help create a sustainable operating model where IT, Legion, DevSecOps, and Engineering are aligned on who owns documentation, implementation, evidence, and remediation.

ITAR requirement To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability.

## What We Offer

- Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company
- Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
- Medical, dental, vision, and 401k
- PTO and paid sick leave
- Monthly wellness stipend
- Daily catered lunch (office)
- Paid parental leave
- Direct impact on a critical national security mission
- A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems

## About Swarm Aero

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Swarm Aero builds large, swarming uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for defense, logistics, disaster response, and sensing missions, controlled by a proprietary mission-level autonomy platform.
- **Entity Type**: Private startup (Series A, $35M raised in March 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Oxnard, California, USA (with a manufacturing facility in Fayetteville, Arkansas)
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Danny Goodman (CEO), Oliver Palmer (COO), Peter Kalogiannis (Co-Founder & Chief Engineer, departed April 2026)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Defense & aerospace, UAV swarm systems, advanced manufacturing
- **Target customers**: Government/military (B2G) – specifically U.S. Department of Defense and allied forces; also logistics, disaster response, and environmental monitoring agencies
- **Mission statement**: “Building the largest UAV swarm on the planet.” (LinkedIn tagline)

## Products & Services
- **Swarm-Scale Command & Control (C2) Platform**: Browser-based, platform-agnostic UI that enables small teams to coordinate thousands of uncrewed vehicles in communications-limited, contested environments.
- **Universal Swarm Node (UAV)**: A Group 5 drone designed from the ground up for swarming – not expendable (like a Switchblade) nor exquisite (like an F-35), but recoverable and mass-producible.
- **Mission-Level Autonomy Software**: Translates user intent into vehicle-level behaviors that update in real-time as the swarm detects changing conditions; includes collaborative autonomy for superhuman agility.
- **Manufacturing as a Feature**: High-rate composite manufacturing processes adapted from other industries to achieve unprecedented airframe throughput (targeting 1,000+ units per year).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Total Funding**: $35M (Series A closed March 2026; prior $2M pre-seed in 2022 and $22M seed in 2023)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Two Sigma Ventures, Silent Ventures (co-leads Series A), Construct Capital, Alumni Ventures, Founders Fund
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount: 50 employees as of mid-2026 (+94.6% YoY)
  - Opened a manufacturing facility in Fayetteville, Arkansas in early 2026
  - Plans to more than double headcount by end of 2026 (per Axios)
  - First flight of the Group 5 drone expected within two years

## Competitive Advantages
- **Team expertise**: Leadership collectively has 100+ years of uniformed U.S. military service, built 30+ novel aircraft, and contributed to the highest production rate composite aircraft and rocket engines ever.
- **Manufacturing moat**: Concurrent design of factory and aircraft enables rapid scaling from prototype to 1,000+ units; “two-thirds of the cost of building a new aircraft is generally headcount” – Swarm designs for low-cost, high-rate production.
- **Software-defined swarm**: Browser-based C2 and edge-compute sensor mesh bring cloud-like agility to contested environments, allowing small teams to control massive swarms.
- **Differentiation**: Neither expendable (like loitering munitions) nor exquisite (like stealth bombers) – a recoverable, affordable mass that overmatches adversaries through numbers.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale manufacturing**: The new Arkansas facility is central to achieving high-rate composite production and reducing unit cost.
- **Headcount growth**: Aggressive hiring across engineering, manufacturing, and operations; 20 active job postings as of mid-2026.
- **First flight milestone**: Complete design, build, and test of the Group 5 drone within the next two years to enter operational service.
- **Multi-domain expansion**: Plans to deploy a combination of air, sea, and ground assets tailored to diverse missions (cargo, fire suppression, adaptive sensing, resilient communications).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “Move Fast and Make Things” – a startup ethos focused on rapid design-build-test cycles and real-world impact in defense tech.
- **Work environment**: Likely on-site given manufacturing and hardware focus; offices in Oxnard, CA (HQ) and Fayetteville, AR (factory).
- **Team**: Work alongside veterans of Scaled Composites, Anduril, Northrop Grumman, and leaders who have built five billion-dollar startups and software with 4.6B combined active users.
- **Perks**: Not publicly detailed, but typical for well-funded defense startups (competitive compensation, equity, mission-driven work). The company uses modern tools (Kubernetes, Docker, Python, MATLAB, etc.) and offers roles from engineering to program management.
- **Growth opportunity**: Early-stage company with strong funding and a clear path to scale – employees can have outsized impact on product and manufacturing processes.

## Sources
1. [Swarm Aero Website](https://www.swarm.aero/)
2. [Swarm Aero LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/swarm-aero)
3. [Craft.co Company Profile](https://craft.co/swarm-aero)
4. [Axios – Exclusive: Big-drone builder Swarm Aero raises $35 million](https://www.axios.com/2026/03/11/swarm-aero-seriesa-drone-factory)
5. [Swarm Aero Team Page](https://www.swarm.aero/team-2)

## Other roles at Swarm Aero

- [Embedded Software Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-software-intern-swarm-aero-oxnard-p9rcq7x1wkfa) — Oxnard, CA
- [Avionics Engineer Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-engineer-intern-swarm-aero-oxnard-psg9w8x5t20w) — Oxnard, CA
- [Software Engineer Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-intern-swarm-aero-remote-k3ez3df35cwp)
- [Composite Engineering (M&P) Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/composite-engineering-m-p-intern-swarm-aero-oxnard-rqgtdwckgmb1) — Oxnard, CA
- [Aircraft Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/aircraft-engineering-intern-swarm-aero-oxnard-3ks66gt8q67p) — Oxnard, CA
- [Tracking and Fusion Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/tracking-and-fusion-engineer-swarm-aero-remote-qhq68f6cpdfw)
- [Software Engineer, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-robotics-swarm-aero-remote-8v5z0g7hxr1b)
- [Principal Engineer, Real-Time Visualization](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-engineer-real-time-visualization-swarm-aero-remote-ff9b30e812kb)
- [Staff Software Engineer, Real-Time Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-real-time-systems-swarm-aero-remote-qaa3zbaht54y)
- [Software Engineer, Autonomy](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-autonomy-swarm-aero-remote-8tmzhrrhz25b)