--- title: 'Principal Platform Engineer at Clarity Innovations' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-platform-engineer-clarity-innovations-herndon-n00c6as54r84' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-09' --- # Principal Platform Engineer at Clarity Innovations - **Company:** Clarity Innovations - **Location:** Herndon, VA - **Posted:** 2026-09-03 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/clarityinnovates/jobs/5229829007 ## Job description Clarity Innovations is a trusted national security partner, dedicated to safeguarding our nation’s interests and delivering innovative solutions that empower the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) to transform data into actionable intelligence, ensuring mission success in an evolving world. Our mission-first software and data engineering platform modernizes data operations, utilizing advanced workflows, CI/CD, and secure DevSecOps practices. We focus on challenges in Information Warfare, Cyber Operations, Operational Security, and Data Structuring, enabling end-to-end solutions that drive operational impact. We are committed to delivering cutting-edge tools and capabilities that address the most complex national security challenges, empowering our partners to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensuring the success of their critical missions. At Clarity, we are people-focused and set on being a destination employer for top talent, offering an environment where innovation thrives, careers grow, and individuals are valued. Join us as we continue to lead innovation and tackle the most pressing challenges in national security. Location: Herndon, VA (Hybrid, 3+ days in office) ## Role This position is part of a dynamic team at the forefront of implementing designs to support the next generation of cyber operations. This role requires technical versatility across the stack, from backend services to infrastructure. Above all, Engineers are driven by a “Whatever It Takes” mindset—executing in an expedient and pragmatic way while keeping the mission top-of-mind and making excellent engineering decisions to deliver successful outcomes correctly and on-time. Responsibilities: Infrastructure Engineering - Lead the design of Kubernetes and cloud-based systems (AWS/Azure). - Provision and manage infrastructure as code (IaC) using tools like Terraform, Crossplane, or Ansible. - Manage specialized environments using tools like KIND to bridge the gap between development and operational deployment. - Deploy and maintain AI workloads as appropriate to solve customer challenges. - Identify bottlenecks and optimize specific features across the stack, from service latency to resource utilization. Kubernetes & Workload Orchestration - Deploy, manage, and maintain Kubernetes across development and production environments. - Monitor and optimize workloads using Helm and Kustomize to deploy microservices at scale. - Implement network policies, load balancing, and service discovery using Istio Service Mesh. DevSecOps & Automation - Design and operate CI/CD pipelines to streamline code deployments and facilitate operational capabilities. - Ensure infrastructure security through implementing FIPS encryption, Zero Trust principles, and robust identity management. - Relentless Automation: Advocate for and implement robust automation to eliminate manual work and improve system reliability. Operations & Observability - Implement and monitor system availability and security, using Prometheus and Grafana. - Troubleshoot and resolve production incidents to minimize downtime, relentlessly seeking automated long-term fixes. - Manage recovery processes to ensure mission continuity. Collaboration & Leadership - Understand high-level operational relevancy and business objectives of the technology you are implementing - Contribute to sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives. - Promote automation practices across teams to enhance agility and performance. - Knowledge Management: Create clear documentation and stay updated on latest industry trends to keep solutions cutting-edge. Required Qualifications: - Mission-focused mindset with an emphasis on achieving cyber dominance to provide a technical advantage for the warfighter and others executing critical US national security objectives. - A bias for action, ownership, and the drive to see projects through to mission completion - Current Top Secret security clearance - Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, IT, or a related technical discipline. (Degree requirement can be met with four years of hands-on experience in an Engineering or similar full-time position.) - More than 8 years of industry experience as a Platform Engineer, Full Stack Engineer or similar role - Proficient with container orchestration using Kubernetes in production environments - Experience with monitoring tools for Kubernetes environments, such as Prometheus - Experience working with Helm charts for packaging applications - Ability to collaborate as a team and execute independently - Thrives in a high-trust/startup, adaptable team environment - Experience with  CI/CD pipelines and CI/CD GitOps based deployments - Proficient in containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Podman) - Understanding of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools, such as Terraform - Expertise with both compiled and scripting languages (Go, Python, etc) Preferred Qualifications: - SCI eligibility - Expertise in the Cyber Operations - Expertise with Istio for service mesh management - ## Experience with Rook-Ceph for storage - Experience with Kubernetes operators and custom resource definitions (CRDs) - Experience with DevSecOps practices and integrating security tools with Kubernetes - ## Experience with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) - ## Experience with OIDC (OpenID Connect) and KeyCloak - Familiarity with PLTR technologies, such as Foundry - Familiarity with Agile development practices and the Scaled Agile Framework - Familiarity with Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) utilities - Familiarity with VPN technologies such as IPSec, OpenVPN, and Wireguard - Familiarity with integrating with Cross Domain Solutions Salary Range: $113,000 - $300,000 We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. ## About Clarity Innovations ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Clarity Innovations is a mission-first software and data engineering platform that delivers secure, agile solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and federal agencies. - **Entity Type**: Private (acquired by Chameleon Consulting Group in June 2024) - **Headquarters**: Columbia, Maryland, United States - **Founded**: 2011 - **Founders**: Wesley Daniels (President, Strategic Initiatives) ## Core Business - **Primary industries**: National security, defense, cybersecurity, software and data engineering - **Target customers**: U.S. DoD, IC, federal agencies (B2G) - **Mission**: To protect and defend our nation by deploying capabilities rapidly and maximizing mission impact; solving diverse, complex intelligence challenges; and turning data into actionable, real-time cyber intelligence. ## Products & Services Clarity organizes its work around eight specialized **Communities of Practice** focused on three main pillars: - **Empower Data** – Making data effective for end users and consumable by Non-Person Entities (NPEs); data engineering, analytics, and AI/ML pipelines. - **Achieve Cyber Dominance** – Enabling cyberspace operations as a viable alternative to kinetic weapons; offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, reverse engineering, vulnerability research, and security engineering. - **Transform Systems** – Modern solutions architecture, DevSecOps, platform engineering, software engineering, human-centered design, and agile delivery to connect users to the information they need. Each area includes services such as software development, data engineering, platform engineering, cybersecurity, UX design, product management, and program management. ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company). - **Key Metric**: - **Annual Revenue**: ~$3.6M (per third-party data; likely understated for a government contractor of 382 employees). - **Total Funding**: $11.7M (led by Capitol Meridian Partners, December 2023). - **Notable Investors / Partners**: - **Capitol Meridian Partners** (lead investor in $11.7M PE round) - Parent company: **Chameleon Consulting Group** (acquired Clarity in June 2024) - Member of the **Digital Services Coalition (DSC)** - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew **+26.7% year-over-year** (382 employees as of mid-2026). - 5 offices across the U.S.; presence in the UK, Germany, Canada, and India. - Active hiring across cybersecurity, platform engineering, data science, software engineering, and more (25+ open roles on Greenhouse as of July 2026). ## Competitive Advantages - **Mission focus**: Clarity is deeply embedded in national security and defense, with a stated commitment to "enabling the future of warfare." - **Badgeless culture**: Collaboration with other defense contractors and agencies based on ideas and talent, not logos. - **Digital Services Coalition membership**: Provides strong ties to like-minded, agile digital transformation firms. - **High employee satisfaction**: 4.7/5.0 employer rating on LinkedIn (based on 64 reviews), with top scores for work-life balance (4.8) and culture (4.7). - **Security & compliance expertise**: Demonstrated track record with DoD, IC, and federal clients, including cyber, data, and systems transformation. ## Strategic Focus - Continue to support the DoD, IC, and federal agencies with rapid, mission-critical software and data solutions. - Expand capabilities in cyber dominance, data engineering, and platform modernization. - Leverage the backing of Chameleon Consulting Group to scale and pursue larger contracts. - Emphasize human-centered design and DevSecOps to deliver secure, user-friendly products. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Described as a "family as much as a team" with a focus on servant leadership, mutual respect, and innovation. High employee ratings for culture (4.7) and career development (4.3). - **Flexibility**: Remote work options available; roles can be fully remote, hybrid, or on-site at locations like Herndon, VA; Columbia, MD; Ft. Meade, MD; and others. - **Benefits**: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision; 401(k); generous PTO/holidays; pet insurance; DashPass; wellness programs; LinkedIn Learning accounts; continuous education support. - **Meaningful work**: Employees directly contribute to national security and defense technology, working on challenging projects that "push the boundaries of technology." ## Sources 1. [Clarity Innovations Website - Home](https://clarityinnovates.com/) 2. [Clarity Innovations - About Us](https://clarityinnovates.com/about-us/) 3. [Clarity Innovations - Careers](https://clarityinnovates.com/careers/) 4. [Jobs at Clarity Innovations (Greenhouse)](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/clarityinnovates) 5. 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