--- title: 'Software Engineer - Backend (Cleared) at Swoop Technologies' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-cleared-swoop-technologies-minneapolis-qmnmny8vd7g2' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-04' --- # Software Engineer - Backend (Cleared) at Swoop Technologies - **Company:** Swoop Technologies - **Location:** Minneapolis, MN / St. Paul, MN - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-05-07 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-04 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/swoop/4c6c456a-dea6-470a-b69d-133236caa00f ## Job description About Swoop: Swoop Technologies has a mission to organize and make accessible the world’s military and critical infrastructure. We are building a distributed operating system, SwoopOS, that decomposes the world’s equipment into a distributed robotic embodiment upon which a new generation of distributed systems, autonomous systems, and agentic AI can be built and deployed using our SDK, Valhalla, and operated via our browser, Surf. Imagine the world’s equipment - consisting of the electrical grid, communications architectures, manufacturing facilities, and militaries as a trapped supply of inputs possessing the potential to ensure Western military advantage, sovereign control of economically competitive manufacturing capacity, or the creation of a grid that fosters energy dominance. Swoop is liberating these trapped assets, allowing them to contribute to the world’s future as a series of building blocks to be combined at the speed of software, limited by only the hard constraints of physics and the soft constraints of safety. That is what Swoop is building. Not in the data center or cloud or edge on-premise computing node. In the physical world. This is a hybrid position that requires someone based in Minneapolis/St. Paul OR Washington, DC who can work in-office 3+ days per week Impact: Swoop’s operating system challenges many paradigms defining a scalable API. Management, security, and interoperability each will be re-imagined in how Swoop’s OS exposes interfaces to inputs and outputs within the stack. You will have a role developing APIs that Swoop developers leverage to build user-facing applications running on the Swoop platform. These APIs will be further leveraged and exposed to 3rd parties to develop an ecosystem of novel applications running on the Swoop OS. What You’ll Do: - Develop and build new services and features, working closely internally with our firmware team to interface with the SwoopOS, our frontend team to support our web application, and our infrastructure team to deliver a stable product to market. - Design and build SDK’s for internal and external use, working with 3rd parties as they develop applications to run on our OS. - Author new Python packages for common functionality used across multiple services. - Ensure our services have strong availability and service level agreements across our code base, especially as it pertains to the runtime of our Kubernetes cluster in production. - Tune data storage configurations to optimize for scale and near real-time availability in a streaming architecture. You Should Have: - Active US Security clearance is required for this position - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent technical experience - 3+ yrs in backend software development writing scalable code and/or modern APIs structured from databases and distributed data sources - Proficient Python coding ability with good understanding of data structures and data models - Experience with Kubernetes in a production environment - Understanding of basic software security standards - Travel Requirement - 5-20% Bonus if you have: - Experience with one or more of the following: async Python, Django, PostgreSQL, Solr, Rust - Experience handling multimedia data structures Swoop Technologies is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. ## About Swoop Technologies ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Swoop Technologies builds a secure, distributed operating system (SwoopOS) that digitizes and orchestrates physical-world equipment—from military assets and electrical grids to manufacturing facilities—enabling programmable, autonomous operations at the edge. - **Entity Type**: Private (no disclosed funding rounds; appears bootstrapped or early-stage) - **Headquarters**: Lakeland / Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States - **Founded**: Not publicly available (company has active operations and a growing team) - **Founders**: Paul Bottum (Founder & CEO) and Quinn Bottum (Co-Founder, President & CTO) ## Core Business - **Primary industries**: Defense, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, distributed computing, autonomous systems - **Target customers**: B2B, primarily government/military (USSOCOM, etc.) and industrial sectors (energy, manufacturing, supply chain) - **Mission**: “To organize and make accessible the world’s military and critical infrastructure” — liberating trapped physical assets into programmable building blocks. ## Products & Services - **SwoopOS**: A secure, distributed operating system that decomposes physical equipment into a distributed robotic embodiment. It provides an integration plane and distributed computing domain to solve interoperability, bloat, and networking challenges across heterogeneous, multi-generational infrastructure. - **Valhalla SDK**: Software development kit for building and deploying distributed systems, autonomous systems, and agentic AI on top of SwoopOS. - **Surf**: A browser-based interface to operate and manage the SwoopOS environment. - **Cybersecurity & Edge Solutions**: Cybersecurity capabilities embedded in the OS, enabling secure data handling and autonomous action at the edge (where data is produced/consumed). ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company) - **Key Metric**: Headcount of ~36 employees (with strong growth in job postings: +566.7% YoY); revenue not publicly available - **Notable Investors/Partners**: No investors disclosed. Talent sources include Volaris Capital Management, PwC, Deloitte, Booz Allen Hamilton, USSOCOM, Microsoft — suggesting deep ties to defense and consulting ecosystems. - **Growth Signals**: Active job postings (20+), rapid quarterly hiring increase (+81.8%), technology already deployed in “some of the world’s most sophisticated environments.” ## Competitive Advantages - **Foundational approach**: SwoopOS operates at the OS level, not just the application layer, providing a unified solution for legacy infrastructure, distributed computing, and security. - **Defense & critical infrastructure focus**: Purpose-built for environments where reliability, security, and real-time control are non-negotiable. - **Technical depth**: Heavy engineering team (56% technical), proprietary stack (Kubernetes, PyTorch, NVIDIA, Terraform, GitLab, etc.), and experience with high-assurance systems (cleared positions common). ## Strategic Focus - **Digitizing the physical world**: Moving beyond cloud/edge to directly program physical assets (grids, factories, military equipment). - **Autonomous action at the edge**: Enabling search and analysis to result in automated, real-world actions rather than just insights. - **Scaling the team**: Rapid hiring in engineering, cloud systems, and program management, with a strong preference for cleared personnel. ## Why Work Here - **Meaningful mission**: Work on technology that directly impacts national security, energy resilience, and industrial modernization. - **Autonomy & challenge**: The company emphasizes “meaningful challenges” and gives engineers autonomy to solve them. - **Hybrid/Remote flexibility**: Multiple office locations (Saint Paul, MN; Rome, NY; Minneapolis, MN) and remote options for some roles (e.g., Cloud Systems Engineer remote, others hybrid or in-office). - **Engineering culture**: High concentration of technical talent, modern tooling, and opportunities to work on low-level systems, distributed computing, and AI/LLM infrastructure. - **Growth trajectory**: Rapid hiring signals a scaling organization; employees can grow with the company. ## Sources 1. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/swooptechnologies) 2. [Swoop Technologies Website](https://swooptech.com/) 3. [Built In](https://builtin.com/company/swoop-technologies) 4. [The Org](https://theorg.com/org/swoopsrch) ## Other roles at Swoop Technologies - [Software Engineer - Embedded Systems (Cleared)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-embedded-systems-cleared-swoop-technologies-huntsville-p8tm2twv3y6d) — Huntsville, AL - [Identity and Access Management Administrator](https://feeny.ai/job/identity-and-access-management-administrator-swoop-technologies-washington-41erzek2p7r6) — Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - [Network Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/network-engineer-swoop-technologies-washington-88dq974ep6e3) — Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - [Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/infrastructure-engineer-swoop-technologies-minneapolis-m2zaxgtpgs9z) — Minneapolis, MN / St. Paul, MN - [Executive Assistant - C-Suite](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-c-suite-swoop-technologies-washington-17yrzwdwsvrb) — Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - [Engineering Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-swoop-technologies-minneapolis-5434z05tejwm) — Minneapolis, MN / St. Paul, MN - [Deployment and Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/deployment-and-test-engineer-swoop-technologies-rome-v4b9sc9c3g0d) — Rome, Italy - [Software Engineer in Test](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-in-test-swoop-technologies-minneapolis-4n79wt0t5naj) — Minneapolis, MN / St. Paul, MN - [Software Engineer - Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-swoop-technologies-minneapolis-ckcqy4pnrmx1) — Minneapolis, MN / St. Paul, MN - [Software Engineer - Embedded Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-embedded-systems-swoop-technologies-minneapolis-fkg4dmpfe2ng) — Minneapolis, MN / St. Paul, MN