Associate Software Engineer

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

Role Description: 

Defense Unicorns is seeking an Associate Software Engineer to join our UDS Product Engineering team. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, designers, and end users to help build the right solutions and build them well.

As an Associate Software Engineer, you’ll grow at the intersection of product development and technical execution. You’ll contribute to the design, implementation, testing, and deployment of well-scoped features with guidance from experienced engineers, building practical experience on systems that support mission outcomes. Our engineers work across a portfolio that includes

• UDS Data — open source data platform for all DOW mission sets from the enterprise to the edge
• UDS Fleet — manage distributed systems across Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) and fully airgapped environments  
• UDS Image Factory — developer tooling for composing complete, mission-ready system images (OS, Kubernetes, applications, configuration) into a single deployable artifact  
• UDS Foundation — core platform and tooling that power UDS, serving Platform Engineers building and operating UDS across environments
• UDS Registry — reliably manage and deploy UDS packages to any mission environment  
• Zarf — an open source tool enabling continuous software delivery on disconnected systems  

The UDS Product Engineering team values action, ownership, and focus. In this role, you’ll be supported as you build judgment, technical depth, and the confidence to take work from idea to impact.

How You’ll Contribute:

• Deliver well-tested, maintainable code for clearly scoped product features and fixes
• Take ownership of small to medium tasks from implementation through review and release
• Participate in design discussions and learn to connect product needs with technical tradeoffs
• Ask good questions, clarify requirements, and make steady progress with appropriate support
• Build growing understanding of the systems, users, and mission domains you work in

• Develop stronger architectural design instincts by pairing with experienced engineers on larger features
• Practice breaking ambiguous work into concrete next steps with team guidance

Responsibilities:

• Build, ship, and maintain well-scoped features, fixes, and improvements that support mission-critical environments
• Contribute to implementation plans and technical discussions with support from senior teammates
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and design to translate clear requirements into working software
• Clarify product and technical requirements by asking thoughtful questions and documenting assumptions
• Debug issues, improve reliability, and learn production support practices as part of the team
• Help integrate with existing defense systems while learning interoperability and security expectations
• Contribute to open source projects and internal tooling through scoped issues, fixes, and documentation
• Develop and maintain clear technical documentation such as implementation notes, runbooks, and user guides
• Participate in production support and shared on-call practices with guidance, contributing to troubleshooting, incident follow-up, and reliability improvements

As Associate Software Engineers grow, they will:

• Take on larger feature ownership with clear expectations and regular feedback
• Contribute to cross-functional work by communicating status, blockers, and tradeoffs clearly
• Build deeper user and system understanding that informs better implementation decisions
• Strengthen engineering practices through code review participation, testing, documentation, and continuous learning

Travel Expectations/Requirements: 0-5%

The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a curious, adaptable engineer who is excited to learn, contribute, and take on new responsibilities as they grow. 

Preferred Experience and Qualifications:

• 1-3 years experience in software engineering
• Working knowledge of Go or another modern programming language
• Foundational understanding of software design, APIs, databases, and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, etc.)
• Exposure to tools or projects focused on software lifecycle and delivery
• Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts, or interest in learning them (Controllers, Operators, CRDs)
• Familiarity with supply chain security concepts, or interest in learning them (SBOMs, signing, scanning, etc.)
• Experience contributing to open source projects (CNCF, ASF, OpenSSF, etc.) through coursework, personal projects, internships, or professional work is a plus
• Ability to break down problems, learn quickly, and deliver pragmatic solutions with team support
• Clear communication and collaboration skills, with comfort asking questions and sharing progress

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$102,000—$138,000 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.

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