EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP.

Role Description:

Defense Unicorns is building UDS VM, a new product that enables Mission Heroes to securely deploy, operate, and manage virtual machines alongside containerized workloads within the UDS platform.

Many mission-critical applications cannot easily move to containers because of operating system dependencies, vendor requirements, or existing approvals. Today, running these workloads on UDS often requires custom engineering. We’re building a supported, repeatable path for running VMs in secure, disconnected environments, with the security controls and evidence needed for authorization.

The work sits at the intersection of product software engineering, Kubernetes, virtualization, and security. We’re building software—not simply operating infrastructure—to make virtual machines first-class workloads within the UDS ecosystem.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll shape technical decisions, independently own complex product capabilities, and collaborate across engineering, product, and UX to deliver reliable, intuitive solutions. As this new team grows, you’ll help establish strong engineering practices; one of our Senior openings also offers an opportunity to provide hands-on technical leadership.

What You’ll Work On:

Building Kubernetes tooling and APIs for orchestrating and managing virtual machine workloads
Building tooling to inspect, convert, prepare, and package VM images for disconnected delivery
Integrating virtual machine workloads with UDS networking, observability, and security capabilities
Creating VM management workflows for inventory, status, power controls, and console access
Solving problems across VM lifecycle, persistent storage, networking, and image distribution
Making VM deployments reproducible, secure, and supportable in air-gapped environments
Working with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes to turn operational needs into useful product capabilities

Responsibilities:

Own the design, implementation, testing, and delivery of complex software features and systems
Drive pragmatic technical decisions and contribute to architecture across product components
Proactively identify and resolve ambiguity in collaboration with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes
Debug complex issues across Kubernetes, virtualization, storage, networking, and operating systems
Improve the reliability, security, performance, observability, and maintainability of our software
Review code, mentor teammates, and help establish strong engineering practices
Document technical decisions, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively across teams

Travel Expectations/Requirements: 5-10%

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 of professional software engineering experience
Strong proficiency in Go or another modern programming language, with an interest in developing Go-based systems
Experience designing and building software that interacts with Kubernetes or other distributed systems
Strong understanding of APIs, system design, and software architecture
Experience developing backend services, controllers, operators, or developer tooling
Familiarity with Linux systems, containers, and operating system concepts
Experience building, testing, and operating production software
Ability to navigate ambiguity, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and independently drive complex work to completion
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to debug across multiple system boundaries
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to influence technical direction and mentor other engineers

Great to Have:

Experience with KubeVirt, QEMU/KVM, or other virtualization technologies
Experience developing Kubernetes operators, controllers, or custom resource definitions (CRDs)
Experience configuring, managing, or troubleshooting Windows virtual machines
Familiarity with VM image formats, conversion, migration, and lifecycle management
Experience with Kubernetes networking and storage
Experience building CLI tools, particularly in Go
Familiarity with Zarf, OCI artifacts, or software packaging and distribution
Experience working in air-gapped, disconnected, or regulated environments
Contributions to Kubernetes, KubeVirt, or other CNCF open-source projects
Experience building security-focused software or integrating systems with identity, access control, and observability platforms

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

Remote - USA 148750 - 201250 USD

Defense Unicorns

Senior Software Engineer - Virtual Machines

About the Job

Requirements

Responsibilities

Desired Qualifications