Platform Engineer

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION WILL REQUIRE AN ACTIVE SECRET CLEARANCE TO APPLY. 

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Platform Engineer to join our platform team — a combined DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering team responsible for the development, maintenance, and reliability of a cloud-based platform environment. The ideal candidate is a strong problem-solver with hands-on experience in Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and CI/CD, and is motivated by building and improving the systems that other teams depend on.

In this role, you will work across infrastructure as code, automated deployments, identity and access management, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines. You will serve as a bridge between application teams and the platform, advocating best practices and helping ensure that the platform is reliable, secure, and scalable. You should be comfortable operating in ambiguity, contributing to documentation and standards where they exist, and building them where they don’t.

Responsibilities

• Build, maintain, and improve Kubernetes clusters and containerized application deployments across cloud environments (AWS, EKS, RKE2)

• Develop and manage infrastructure as code (IaC) to provision and configure platform resources consistently and repeatably

• Own and improve CI/CD pipelines, including GitLab CI configuration, runner deployments, and automated build and deployment workflows

• Support identity and access management through tools such as Keycloak, including user onboarding, role configuration, and troubleshooting

• Implement and maintain monitoring, alerting, and logging to ensure platform health and support incident investigation

• Manage certificate lifecycle operations, including renewal of public certificates and related automation

• Contribute to platform security posture through container security practices, Iron Bank image compliance, and support for ATO processes

• Collaborate with application teams to troubleshoot deployment issues, broken pipelines, and platform integration problems

• Write and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, architecture decision records (ADRs), and operational standards

• Influence the strategic vision by contributing to the strategic planning that aligns technological advancements with the mission objectives.

• Participate in on-call rotations and support platform incidents in a tier 2 role

• Mentor and support junior engineers through pairing, code reviews, and knowledge sharing

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.

Travel Expectations/Requirements: 5-10%

Minimum Experience and Qualifications

• Active Secret clearance to start

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes (deploying, managing, and troubleshooting clusters and workloads)

• Experience with infrastructure as code tools (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi, or similar)

• Proficiency with CI/CD tooling, particularly GitLab CI or equivalent pipeline platforms

• Working knowledge of Linux/Unix operating systems and command-line administration

• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS (EC2, EKS, IAM, S3, VPC)

• Familiarity with containerization (Docker, container image builds, registry management)

• Ability to read and write YAML fluently for Kubernetes manifests, CRDs, Helm charts, and pipeline configurations

• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment

• Possess or ability to obtain a DoD 8570 IAT II certification (e.g., Security+ CE)

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

• Experience with UDS Core, Iron Bank, and/or Continuous Authority to Operate (C-ATO) processes

• Familiarity with identity and access management platforms such as Keycloak or similar

• Experience with monitoring and observability tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or similar)

• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Go, Python, or Bash scripting)

• Experience working in a DevSecOps model with secure coding practices and vulnerability remediation

• Familiarity with GitOps workflows and tools (e.g., Flux, ArgoCD)

• Department of Defense experience, specifically working on a production ATO’d system

• Experience with distributed architectures and everything-as-code approaches

• AWS certifications related to platform or solutions architecture

• Experience writing architecture decision records (ADRs), operational runbooks, or engineering standards

Mid Platform Engineer: $123,250 - $166,750