---
title: 'Senior Data Engineer (FedD238) at Defense Unicorns'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-engineer-fedd238-defense-unicorns-springfield-kfx5f4jznfkt'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-07'
---

# Senior Data Engineer (FedD238) at Defense Unicorns

- **Company:** Defense Unicorns
- **Location:** Springfield, VA
- **Compensation:** $149k–$201k
- **Posted:** 2026-09-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-07
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/defenseunicorns/jobs/5251876007

## Job description

## Role Description

Defense Unicorns is seeking a senior Data Engineer to embed with a government team and its technology partners building an emerging AI-powered engineering ecosystem.

This role will focus on making enterprise data usable, discoverable, governed, and accessible to AI models, agents, and mission applications. The engineer will work across data ingestion, transformation, storage, metadata, APIs, search, vector and graph technologies, and the interfaces between the data layer and AI workloads.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on data engineer who can operate across the full data lifecycle and understands that data availability and integration are often the primary blockers to delivering AI capabilities. They should be comfortable entering an evolving architecture, learning unfamiliar systems quickly, working directly with commercial technology partners, and solving difficult problems involving data quality, lineage, access, performance, and security.

This is not a traditional analytics or business intelligence role. The focus is on building the data foundations and repeatable patterns that allow AI and agentic capabilities to access trusted data and move from prototype to production in secure and classified environments.

## Responsibilities

- Design, build, and maintain reliable data pipelines that ingest, transform, validate, and deliver data for AI models, agents, and mission applications.
- Integrate structured and unstructured data sources into enterprise data services, including relational, document, vector, and graph-oriented technologies.
- Work closely with AI/agent engineers to make data discoverable and usable for RAG, semantic search, model context, and tool-enabled agent workflows.
- Develop repeatable data ingestion and transformation patterns using Python, SQL, APIs, event-driven architectures, and workflow/orchestration technologies.
- Establish data quality, validation, provenance, lineage, and metadata practices so downstream users and AI systems can trust the information they consume.
- Design data access patterns that enforce appropriate identity, authorization, classification, and security boundaries while minimizing unnecessary friction for developers and mission users.
- Collaborate with platform engineers to operationalize data services within Kubernetes/OpenShift environments and integrate them into CI/CD and GitOps workflows.
- Help integrate enterprise data capabilities such as relational stores, JSON/document data, vector search, graph data, advanced analytics, and RAG services into the broader platform architecture.
- Troubleshoot end-to-end data issues spanning source systems, pipelines, storage, APIs, identity, networking, platform services, and AI applications.
- Work directly with government engineers and commercial technology partners to resolve data dependencies and remove blockers to mission delivery.
- Develop documentation, data contracts, schemas, architecture decision records, runbooks, and operational standards that make successful patterns repeatable across environments.
- Identify recurring data engineering challenges that can be standardized, automated, or productized rather than repeatedly solved through manual engineering.
- Operate effectively in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment where data sources, architectures, security requirements, and mission priorities will continue to evolve.

Local to the National Capital Region and able to support onsite work at a government facility in Springfield, VA as mission needs increase.

## Minimum Experience and Qualifications

- Active TS/SCI clearance.
- 7+ years of experience in data engineering, data platform engineering, or a closely related field.
- Strong proficiency with SQL and Python for data processing, automation, and integration.
- Hands-on experience building and operating production data pipelines and ETL/ELT workflows.
- Experience with relational databases and modern data storage patterns for structured and unstructured data.
- Experience integrating data through REST APIs, message/event systems, or other distributed integration patterns.
- Working knowledge of data modeling, schema design, data quality, lineage, metadata, and data governance concepts.
- Experience operating in cloud-native or containerized environments and collaborating with Kubernetes/platform engineering teams.
- Ability to troubleshoot data issues across infrastructure, applications, APIs, storage, networking, and access controls.
- Ability to work independently, rapidly learn new technologies, and translate ambiguous mission needs into working data solutions.
- GEOINT experience is preferred, not required.

## Preferred Experience and Qualifications

- Experience supporting AI/ML workloads, including RAG, embeddings, vector search, model context, or agentic applications.
- Experience with vector databases, graph databases, document databases, knowledge graphs, or semantic search technologies.
- Experience with Oracle or comparable enterprise data platforms supporting relational, JSON/document, vector, graph, and analytics workloads.
- Experience designing data products or platforms for high-scale, low-latency, or mission-critical workloads.
- Experience with data orchestration and workflow tools such as Airflow, Dagster, Argo Workflows, or comparable technologies.
- Experience with streaming/event platforms such as Kafka, Redpanda, NATS, or similar technologies.
- Experience deploying data services using Kubernetes, Helm, GitOps, Infrastructure as Code, and automated CI/CD pipelines.
- Experience supporting data and AI systems in Secret or TS/SCI environments and across multiple security domains.
- Experience with disconnected or air-gapped environments and the challenges of moving data, metadata, and software across security boundaries.
- Familiarity with NIST 800-53, RMF/ATO processes, zero-trust architectures, and data security/compliance practices.
- Experience with enterprise search, RAG pipelines, data catalogs, data contracts, or knowledge-graph architectures.
- Familiarity with UDS, Zarf, Pepr, Iron Bank, or similar secure software delivery technologies.
- Experience working on multidisciplinary teams consisting of government engineers, FDEs, OEM professional services teams, and multiple technology vendors.
- Demonstrated ability to take a fragmented or difficult data environment and turn it into a reliable, reusable foundation for mission applications and AI.

Mission Focus

Make trusted data available where AI needs it, while establishing the repeatable, secure data patterns required to move from experimentation to operational capability. Full compensation packages are based on candidate experience. Compensation ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States.

Remote - USA $148,750—$201,250 USD

## 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. [LinkedIn - Defense Unicorns](https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-unicorns)

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