Full-Time

Software Engineer 3

Multiple Teams

Updated on 9/4/2026

Captivation

Captivation

11-50 employees

Software engineering for mission-focused teams

Compensation Overview

$130k - $270k/yr

No H1B Sponsorship

Annapolis Junction, MD, USA

In Person

US Citizenship, US Top Secret Clearance Required

Bachelor's, Master's

Category
DevOps & Infrastructure (1)
Required Skills
Bash
Python
Distributed Systems
Computer Networking
Java
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Docker
Cybersecurity
JIRA
Ansible
REST APIs
Confluence
DevOps
Linux/Unix
SaltStack

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Requirements
  • Must currently hold a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information U.S. Government security clearance with a favorable polygraph and therefore be a U.S. citizen.
  • A Master's degree in Computer Science or a related discipline plus five years of software engineering experience, or a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related discipline plus seven years of software engineering experience, or nine years of software engineering experience.
  • Experience using the Linux command-line interface and Linux suite of tools.
  • Experience developing scripts using Bash and Python.
  • Recent software development experience using Python and Java.
  • A strong background in Linux administration, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Rocky, or Ubuntu.
  • Hands-on experience implementing or supporting at least one Delinea product, such as Secret Server, Privilege Manager, or DevOps Secrets Vault.
  • Understanding of identity and access management, privileged access management, certificate-based authentication, and security best practices.
  • Experience troubleshooting system-level issues in distributed environments, including logs, services, networking, and authentication.
  • Familiarity with application programming interface-based integrations, RESTful services, and secrets automation in continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines.
  • Experience with Infrastructure as Code principles and automation tools such as Ansible and SaltStack.
  • Experience with containerization technologies such as Docker and Podman and associated secret-handling patterns.
  • Experience sustaining and supporting large Linux clusters, including day-to-day operations, monitoring, and problem resolution.
Responsibilities
  • Perform engineering, implementation, integration, and sustainment of the project's tool suite in a Linux environment.
  • Ensure secure credential management, privileged access controls, secrets management, and automation capabilities align with mission security and compliance requirements.
  • Serve as the subject-matter expert for the tool technologies running on Linux systems.
  • Collaborate closely with security, infrastructure, and DevOps teams.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with the Atlassian suite of tools, such as Jira and Confluence.
  • Experience supporting enterprise security tools or working in a cybersecurity-focused software engineering role.

Captivation builds digital software for mission makers by delivering engineering services across a wide range of disciplines. The work is collaborative, with teams that move quickly like a small business and take pride in what they develop. The company emphasizes transparency, a flat organizational structure, and a developer-focused culture, which enables engineers to work directly and iteratively with clients. Compared with larger firms, Captivation differentiates itself through its focus on timely delivery, practical problem solving, and actively pursuing challenging projects for the Intelligence Community, using modern software technologies. The goal is to produce solutions that clients value, on time, while growing the team and empowering its engineers to take ownership of their work.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

Columbia, Maryland

Founded

2014

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Greenhouse listed 75 openings on August 28, 2026, signaling active demand.
  • Haystack posted a DevOps role on August 14, 2026 with $130,000-$270,000 pay.
  • Captivation launched AI machine learning, platform, and network roles in August 2026.

What critics are saying

  • Captivation had 55-75 openings in 2026, suggesting constant contract-driven hiring churn.
  • Most roles require Top Secret/SCI and favorable polygraph, shrinking the candidate pool immediately.
  • A single program loss in Annapolis Junction would hit revenue and trigger rapid headcount cuts.

What makes Captivation unique

  • Captivation serves Armed Forces and Intelligence Community customers from Baltimore and Annapolis Junction.
  • Captivation hires cleared engineers across Java, AWS, Kubernetes, and DevOps roles in 2026.
  • Captivation offers direct-hire roles with 20% 401(k), 6 weeks PTO, and paid insurance.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Health Savings Account/Flexible Spending Account

Unlimited Paid Time Off

401(k) Retirement Plan