Senior Software Engineer - Zarf Team

Defense Unicorns seeks an experienced Software Engineer to work on our open source products.  You’ll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and end users to ensure we’re building the right solutions—and building them well.

As a Software Engineer, you’ll operate at the intersection of product development and technical execution. You’ll lead the design, implementation, and deployment of features and systems that have direct impact on mission outcomes.

As an open source steward, you’ll effectively bridge product development with open source contribution. You will help to directly support our dependencies and engage in contributions that elevate the ecosystems that we depend on. 

Responsibilities: 

Work with engineers internal to the company, and within the open source community on feature and bug fix requests, through clear communication, collaboration, and responsible stewardship

Engage with the open source community, industry partners, and standards bodies via common platforms (e.g., Slack, Github, etc.) to help drive our open source projects forward 

Amplify the voice of our projects within the ecosystem by delivering a mission-focused end-user experience and collaborating with users to produce case studies, blogs, or conference presentations

Proactively identify and resolve ambiguity in product requirements

Comfortable working proactively, managing time efficiently, and thriving in a vibrant remote work environment  ✨🦄

Integrate software products with existing defense systems, ensuring seamless interoperability and adherence to security protocols

Own architecture decisions and ensure technical quality across the engineering team

Develop comprehensive documentation, including design specifications (via Zarf Enhancement Proposals), user manuals, and maintenance guides

Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends to inform product enhancements and innovation

Provide technical mentorship and elevate engineering standards across the team

Influence product direction through deep understanding of user needs and system constraints

Travel Expectations/Requirements: 5-15%

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. 

Preferred Experience and Qualifications:

5+ years experience with software engineering

Experience building a software tool with core focuses on software lifecycle and management

Proficient in Go (proficiency in other modern programming languages a plus)

Strong understanding of system design, library and software APIs, and cloud architecture (e.g., AWS, Azure)

Excited to assess intricate problems, propose solutions, and implement them effectively

Experience contributing to Open Source Projects.  Participating in Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Apache Software Foundation (ASF), or Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) is a huge plus

Familiar with Core Kubernetes Concepts including but not limited to Controllers, Operators, and CRDs

Strong communication and collaboration skills, comfortable conveying technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

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.

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