Principal Platform Engineer

Location: Herndon, VA (Hybrid, 3+ days in office)

Role

This position is part of a dynamic team at the forefront of implementing designs to support the next generation of cyber operations. This role requires technical versatility across the stack, from backend services to infrastructure. Above all, Engineers are driven by a “Whatever It Takes” mindset—executing in an expedient and pragmatic way while keeping the mission top-of-mind and making excellent engineering decisions to deliver successful outcomes correctly and on-time.

Responsibilities:

Infrastructure Engineering

• Lead the design of Kubernetes and cloud-based systems (AWS/Azure).

• Provision and manage infrastructure as code (IaC) using tools like Terraform, Crossplane, or Ansible.

• Manage specialized environments using tools like KIND to bridge the gap between development and operational deployment.

• Deploy and maintain AI workloads as appropriate to solve customer challenges.

• Identify bottlenecks and optimize specific features across the stack, from service latency to resource utilization.

Kubernetes & Workload Orchestration

• Deploy, manage, and maintain Kubernetes across development and production environments.

• Monitor and optimize workloads using Helm and Kustomize to deploy microservices at scale.

• Implement network policies, load balancing, and service discovery using Istio Service Mesh.

DevSecOps & Automation

• Design and operate CI/CD pipelines to streamline code deployments and facilitate operational capabilities.

• Ensure infrastructure security through implementing FIPS encryption, Zero Trust principles, and robust identity management.

• Relentless Automation: Advocate for and implement robust automation to eliminate manual work and improve system reliability.

Operations & Observability

• Implement and monitor system availability and security, using Prometheus and Grafana.

• Troubleshoot and resolve production incidents to minimize downtime, relentlessly seeking automated long-term fixes.

• Manage recovery processes to ensure mission continuity.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Understand high-level operational relevancy and business objectives of the technology you are implementing

• Contribute to sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.

• Promote automation practices across teams to enhance agility and performance.

• Knowledge Management: Create clear documentation and stay updated on latest industry trends to keep solutions cutting-edge.

Required Qualifications:

• Mission-focused mindset with an emphasis on achieving cyber dominance to provide a technical advantage for the warfighter and others executing critical US national security objectives.

• A bias for action, ownership, and the drive to see projects through to mission completion

• Current Top Secret security clearance

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, IT, or a related technical discipline. (Degree requirement can be met with four years of hands-on experience in an Engineering or similar full-time position.)

• More than 8 years of industry experience as a Platform Engineer, Full Stack Engineer or similar role

• Proficient with container orchestration using Kubernetes in production environments

• Experience with monitoring tools for Kubernetes environments, such as Prometheus

• Experience working with Helm charts for packaging applications

• Ability to collaborate as a team and execute independently

• Thrives in a high-trust/startup, adaptable team environment

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and CI/CD GitOps based deployments

• Proficient in containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Podman)

• Understanding of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools, such as Terraform

• Expertise with both compiled and scripting languages (Go, Python, etc)

Preferred Qualifications:

• SCI eligibility

• Expertise in the Cyber Operations

• Expertise with Istio for service mesh management

• Experience with Rook-Ceph for storage

• Experience with Kubernetes operators and custom resource definitions (CRDs)

• Experience with DevSecOps practices and integrating security tools with Kubernetes

• Experience with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL)

• Experience with OIDC (OpenID Connect) and KeyCloak

• Familiarity with PLTR technologies, such as Foundry

• Familiarity with Agile development practices and the Scaled Agile Framework

• Familiarity with Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) utilities

• Familiarity with VPN technologies such as IPSec, OpenVPN, and Wireguard

• Familiarity with integrating with Cross Domain Solutions

Salary Range: $113,000 - $300,000