--- title: 'Senior Software Engineer (Remote) at Kestrel Intelligence' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-remote-kestrel-intelligence-united-states-3ba2v79trxk2' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-20' --- # Senior Software Engineer (Remote) at Kestrel Intelligence - **Company:** Kestrel Intelligence - **Location:** United States - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-10-15 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-20 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/kestrel-intelligence/971e6f56-72a8-48e8-b4a4-cd6e8b533891 ## Job description The Mission At Kestrel, we are building the future of scalable autonomy across domains. Our systems enable commercial and national security customers to sense and act in support of complex missions without significant autonomous system expertise. This technology bridges domains (e.g., space, air, land, sea) and fields (e.g., AI, orbital dynamics, geospatial), so it requires a team with both breadth and depth in these related topics. ## The Role As a Senior Software Engineer at Kestrel, you will lead the design and development of data structures, data processing pipelines, APIs, components of an agentic AI architecture, and user interface components. You will set technical direction, make key architecture decisions, and raise the engineering bar across the team. You will work at the bleeding edge of geospatial science. This role requires adaptability, engineering rigor, and a deep respect for the mission. Core Responsibilities: - Design, build, and maintain production-grade Python APIs and services that support distributed, service-oriented systems. - Architect and implement scalable data processing pipelines for geospatial and sensor data. - Develop and integrate components of Kestrel’s agentic AI architecture. - Lead the deployment of Python-based services to cloud environments, and design supporting infrastructure using Terraform. - Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions. - Establish engineering and infrastructure best practices from the ground up, including environment separation (dev, staging, prod), secure networking, IAM, secrets management, logging, monitoring, and alerting. - Apply prior AWS GovCloud and DoD IL experience to build compliance-ready systems and to make architecture choices that will not block future government deployments. - Design software and deployment patterns that support multi-cloud environments, such as cloud-agnostic Terraform modules, minimal provider lock-in for core services, and future deployments across commercial cloud and GovCloud. - Plan and advise on future AWS GovCloud and DoD IL deployments, even when those environments are not yet live. - Identify and mitigate technical, infrastructure, and compliance risks early. - Mentor other engineers, lead code reviews, and help shape the team’s technical roadmap. Required Qualifications: - 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping production systems. - Strong experience with API development and distributed or service-oriented systems. - Experience designing large-scale software and infrastructure architecture. Bonus: - Prior experience designing or operating multi-cloud environments. - Experience with geospatial data, agentic AI systems, or frontend development. - Location near Colorado Springs, CO, or Washington, DC (with work at customer sites in Crystal City, VA, and Herndon, VA). - Active Top Secret // Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS//SCI) clearance with a counterintelligence-scope polygraph (CSP) or full-scope polygraph (FSP). Must be a US Citizen. ## About Kestrel Intelligence ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Kestrel Intelligence builds an agentic AI platform that autonomously orchestrates and tasks intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors across space, air, land, and sea for military, intelligence, and commercial operators. - **Entity Type**: Private (early-stage startup, venture-backed) - **Headquarters**: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA (with offices in Rosslyn, Virginia and Boise, Idaho) - **Founded**: 2025 - **Founders**: Thomas Higginbotham (CEO) and Eric T. Straub (Co-Founder) ## Core Business - Primary industry: Defense / National Security / Space ISR - Target customers: U.S. Department of Defense (especially Space Force), intelligence community, commercial enterprises in agriculture, infrastructure monitoring, disaster response, and critical infrastructure operators (B2G, B2B) - Mission or purpose statement: "Transforming sensing tasking and orchestration with an AI-driven, marketplace approach" — making geospatial intelligence collection "as seamless as calling a ride" while removing the busywork that prevents analysts from focusing on high-level intelligence ## Products & Services - **[Kestrel Intelligence Platform]**: A multi-agent AI system that automates the allocation, prioritization, and coordination of ISR collection across hundreds of heterogeneous sensors (satellites, aerial, ground, maritime). The platform uses agentic AI to plan, negotiate, and re-task assets in real time, with human-on-the-loop oversight. It is deployed as a cloud/secure environment software service for government and enterprise customers. ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company) - **Key Metric**: Total employee count of 7 (as of early 2026), growing 450% year-over-year; selected for the U.S. Space Force Catalyst Accelerator 16th cohort - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Navigate VC (portfolio company); U.S. Space Force Space Delta 7 (accelerator partner & operational end user) - **Growth Signals**: Rapid headcount growth (from ~1 to 7 employees in first year); acceptance into a competitive defense accelerator focused on AI/ML for ISR; hiring for hybrid engineering and data science roles in Colorado Springs and Crystal City, VA ## Competitive Advantages - **Agentic AI approach** that goes beyond traditional automation — the system reasons about objectives, negotiates competing priorities, and dynamically reallocates resources across domains. - **Founding team** combines operational intelligence experience (CIA, U.S. Air Force) with deep AI expertise (Stanford, Google X, C3 AI), giving them both domain credibility and technical capability. - **Multi-sensor, multi-domain orchestration** that connects 3,500+ global autonomous sensors — a rare integration layer in a fragmented market. - **Human-on-the-loop design** ensures trust and adoption by military/intelligence operators while achieving machine-speed execution. ## Strategic Focus - Current priority: Refining the platform for space-based ISR missions through the Catalyst Accelerator (Jan–Apr 2026), working directly with Space Delta 7 operators and technical advisors. - Near-term direction: Expanding commercial use cases (agriculture, industrial monitoring) and scaling the engineering team to build out the platform’s marketplace and agent capabilities. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-driven work** at the intersection of AI, space, and national security — every engineer and data scientist contributes directly to solving high-impact intelligence problems. - **Small, growing team** (~7 people) means outsized ownership and influence; employees wear multiple hats and work closely with founders and former operators. - **Hybrid work policy** with office hubs in Colorado Springs, CO and Crystal City, VA (across from the Pentagon) — offering flexibility while maintaining in-person collaboration for sensitive work. - **Cutting-edge tech stack** dealing with agentic AI, multi-sensor fusion, and real-time orchestration — an opportunity to build novel systems not available in the commercial sector. - **Culture highlights**: Tight-knit team with backgrounds in intelligence, defense, and big tech; emphasis on removing busywork rather than removing humans; transparent hiring process (uses AI tools to screen, but final decisions are human-led). ## Sources 1. [kestrelintelligence.com](https://kestrelintelligence.com/) 2. [kestrelintelligence.com/blog/inside-delta-7-catalyst-accelerator](https://kestrelintelligence.com/blog/inside-delta-7-catalyst-accelerator) 3. [linkedin.com/company/kestrel-intelligence](https://linkedin.com/company/kestrel-intelligence) 4. [navigatevc.com/portfolio-companies/kestrel-intelligence](https://www.navigatevc.com/portfolio-companies/kestrel-intelligence) 5. [jobs.lever.co/kestrel-intelligence](https://jobs.lever.co/kestrel-intelligence) ## Other roles at Kestrel Intelligence - [Technical Program Manager - DOD/IC](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-dod-ic-kestrel-intelligence-united-states-rm3gtxbynsc3) — United States - [Software Engineering Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineering-manager-kestrel-intelligence-united-states-axhxe6gq766h) — United States - [Senior Software Engineer (Virginia)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-virginia-kestrel-intelligence-crystal-city-13trn16e6m9p) — Crystal City, VA - [Senior Software Engineer (Colorado)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-colorado-kestrel-intelligence-colorado-springs-j15yjd3rxeak) — Colorado Springs, CO - [Software Engineer (Remote)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-remote-kestrel-intelligence-united-states-ak0jwzx0f6pv) — United States - [Software Engineer (Colorado)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-colorado-kestrel-intelligence-colorado-springs-kd6m6nky1a05) — Colorado Springs, CO - [Software Engineer (Virginia)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-virginia-kestrel-intelligence-crystal-city-t6qrdhj8awj5) — Crystal City, VA - [Data Scientist (Virginia)](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-virginia-kestrel-intelligence-crystal-city-5qrge6r49vze) — Crystal City, VA - [Data Scientist (Colorado)](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-colorado-kestrel-intelligence-colorado-springs-2td7krk0hzpz) — Colorado Springs, CO - [Business Development - DOD/IC](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-dod-ic-kestrel-intelligence-united-states-1rjwwn4qzag4) — United States