--- title: 'Platform Engineer - FedD180/FedD181 at Defense Unicorns' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/platform-engineer-fedd180-fedd181-defense-unicorns-united-states-73yesza5kn34' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-12' --- # Platform Engineer - FedD180/FedD181 at Defense Unicorns - **Company:** Defense Unicorns - **Location:** United States - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-08-04 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/defenseunicorns/jobs/5203690007 ## Job description EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION WILL REQUIRE AN ACTIVE SECRET CLEARANCE TO APPLY. Defense Unicorns is seeking a Platform Engineer to join our platform team — a combined DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering team responsible for the development, maintenance, and reliability of a cloud-based platform environment. The ideal candidate is a strong problem-solver with hands-on experience in Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and CI/CD, and is motivated by building and improving the systems that other teams depend on. In this role, you will work across infrastructure as code, automated deployments, identity and access management, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines. You will serve as a bridge between application teams and the platform, advocating best practices and helping ensure that the platform is reliable, secure, and scalable. You should be comfortable operating in ambiguity, contributing to documentation and standards where they exist, and building them where they don’t. ## Responsibilities - Build, maintain, and improve Kubernetes clusters and containerized application deployments across cloud environments (AWS, EKS, RKE2) - Develop and manage infrastructure as code (IaC) to provision and configure platform resources consistently and repeatably - Own and improve CI/CD pipelines, including GitLab CI configuration, runner deployments, and automated build and deployment workflows - Support identity and access management through tools such as Keycloak, including user onboarding, role configuration, and troubleshooting - Implement and maintain monitoring, alerting, and logging to ensure platform health and support incident investigation - Manage certificate lifecycle operations, including renewal of public certificates and related automation - Contribute to platform security posture through container security practices, Iron Bank image compliance, and support for ATO processes - Collaborate with application teams to troubleshoot deployment issues, broken pipelines, and platform integration problems - Write and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, architecture decision records (ADRs), and operational standards - Influence the strategic vision by contributing to the strategic planning that aligns technological advancements with the mission objectives. - Participate in on-call rotations and support platform incidents in a tier 2 role - Mentor and support junior engineers through pairing, code reviews, and knowledge sharing The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise. Travel Expectations/Requirements: 5-10% ## Minimum Experience and Qualifications - Active Secret clearance to start - Hands-on experience with Kubernetes (deploying, managing, and troubleshooting clusters and workloads) - Experience with infrastructure as code tools (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi, or similar) - Proficiency with CI/CD tooling, particularly GitLab CI or equivalent pipeline platforms - Working knowledge of Linux/Unix operating systems and command-line administration - Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS (EC2, EKS, IAM, S3, VPC) - Familiarity with containerization (Docker, container image builds, registry management) - Ability to read and write YAML fluently for Kubernetes manifests, CRDs, Helm charts, and pipeline configurations - Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment - Possess or ability to obtain a DoD 8570 IAT II certification (e.g., Security+ CE) ## Preferred Experience and Qualifications - Experience with UDS Core, Iron Bank, and/or Continuous Authority to Operate (C-ATO) processes - Familiarity with identity and access management platforms such as Keycloak or similar - Experience with monitoring and observability tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or similar) - Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Go, Python, or Bash scripting) - Experience working in a DevSecOps model with secure coding practices and vulnerability remediation - Familiarity with GitOps workflows and tools (e.g., Flux, ArgoCD) - Department of Defense experience, specifically working on a production ATO’d system - Experience with distributed architectures and everything-as-code approaches - AWS certifications related to platform or solutions architecture - Experience writing architecture decision records (ADRs), operational runbooks, or engineering standards Mid Platform Engineer: $123,250 - $166,750 ## Who We Are 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 Do We 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 Serve Defense 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 ## Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy Health: - Medical/Dental/Vision - Premiums are 100% Company Paid - Health Savings Account - Life Insurance - Disability Insurance Financial: - 401k Retirement Plan - Company Stock Options - Home Office Budget Leave: - 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 Learning: - 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](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DzT00w2uadYw9TfdorHuEsvPccZvn_g4/view?usp=drive_link) ## About Defense Unicorns ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Defense Unicorns delivers secure, scalable, and vendor-lock-free software deployment solutions for mission-critical, air-gapped, and classified environments, primarily for the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence community. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B) - **Headquarters**: Colorado, United States - **Founded**: 2021 - **Founders**: Rob Slaughter (CEO), Jeff McCoy (CTO), Andrew Greene (Co-founder) ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: Defense technology, software development, national security, cloud-native infrastructure - Target customers: U.S. Department of Defense agencies, system integrators, and mission teams operating in air-gapped, classified, or highly secure environments - Mission or purpose statement: "Advance freedom globally by transforming how the U.S. defense and intelligence community buys, builds, delivers, and sustains mission capabilities." ## Products & Services - **[UDS (Unicorn Delivery Service)]**: An open-source, platform-agnostic software delivery platform that enables the packaging, deployment, and management of modern cloud-native applications into air-gapped, edge, and classified environments. It automates security compliance, vulnerability scanning, and continuous ATO (cATO) workflows. - **[Zarf]**: An open-source, air-gap-native software delivery tool that was the company’s first product, designed to simplify deploying containerized applications in disconnected environments. - **Professional Services & Mission Support**: Custom engineering, platform integration, and mission-specific deployment support for DoD agencies and system integrators. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: $1 Billion+ (achieved unicorn status in January 2026) - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $171.5M across two rounds - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Bain Capital (led Series B of $136M in January 2026), Ansa Capital and Sapphire Ventures (co-led $35M Series A in February 2024) - **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 150+ employees (35.9% YoY growth), 35,000+ LinkedIn followers (42.4% yearly growth), 34 active job postings, and a growing list of DoD and intelligence community clients. ## Competitive Advantages - **Deep domain expertise**: Founded by veterans of Kessel Run and Platform One, the team has firsthand experience building and deploying software within the DoD, giving them unique credibility and insight. - **Open-source, vendor-lock-free philosophy**: Their products (UDS, Zarf) are open-source, ensuring no proprietary vendor lock-in, which is a critical requirement for national security systems. - **Air-gap specialization**: Their core technology is purpose-built for the most challenging deployment environments (disconnected, classified, edge), a niche that few commercial software companies can serve. - **Continuous ATO integration**: Security and compliance are built directly into the software delivery pipeline, dramatically reducing the time to get new capabilities into the hands of warfighters. ## Strategic Focus - **Scaling the platform**: With the $136M Series B, the company is aggressively investing in product development, engineering, and go-to-market teams to expand UDS capabilities and customer reach. - **Expanding mission delivery**: Hiring across multiple "Mission Manager" and "Account Executive" roles focused on specific military branches (Air Force, Army, Navy, Space, USSOCOM), indicating deep vertical integration into each service branch. - **Open-source ecosystem growth**: Continuing to build and nurture the open-source community around UDS and Zarf to drive adoption and create partnership opportunities across the defense software ecosystem. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-driven culture**: The company operates with a single belief: "a value not lived is not a value at all." Core values include "We Take Extreme Ownership," "We Innovate to Impact," and "We Are MISSION Driven." - **Remote-first environment**: Most roles are fully remote from anywhere in the United States, with support for home office setup. Onsite requirements are clearly noted when needed for mission support. - **Comprehensive benefits**: 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees (shared cost for dependents), company equity options, 401k, life and disability insurance, and generous paid parental leave. - **Generous time off**: Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s. - **Career growth**: Financial support for training, conferences, and professional subscriptions. - **SkillBridge program**: Authorized DoD SkillBridge provider, offering internships and apprenticeships for service members transitioning to civilian careers. - **Engineering-driven**: "Engineer Driven" is a core identity, with a strong emphasis on solving hard technical problems for national security. ## Sources 1. [defenseunicorns.com - About Us](https://defenseunicorns.com/company/) 2. [defenseunicorns.com - The Airgap Software Company](https://defenseunicorns.com/) 3. [defenseunicorns.com - Careers](https://defenseunicorns.com/careers/) 4. [Greenhouse - Jobs at Defense Unicorns](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/defenseunicorns) 5. 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