Job description

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP. Role Description As a Solutions Architect at Defense Unicorns, you'll serve as the primary technical point of contact during customer engagements, working closely with business development, engineering, and product teams to ensure that our offerings are both compelling and relevant to our government and defense customers. This role combines deep technical knowledge with strong communication and problem-solving skills. You'll be responsible for delivering live product demos, maintaining infrastructure for proof-of-concept environments, and supporting the long and complex sales cycles typical in the defense sector. Your mission is to ensure that prospective customers not only understand what our technology does, but believe in what it can do for them. This is a hands-on, customer-facing role ideal for someone who thrives in fast-paced, evolving environments, brings practical experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure, and is passionate about making a tangible impact on national security through technology. Responsibilities Act as a trusted advisor for customers and their technical needs, challenges, and goals during customer engagements. Participate in sales calls and business development meetings, often as the primary technical contact; travel as required to support on-site engagements. Discover real mission needs beyond surface-level requirements; ask probing questions to understand core mission challenges and align our solutions accordingly. Architect solutions based on potential customer requirements and clearly articulate those solutions. Maintain Kubernetes-based technical demo environments and lead live, hands-on demonstrations of our UDS Core platform and capabilities. Build and deliver technical proof-of-concepts, including live installations and technical walkthroughs to validate platform capabilities in real time. Troubleshoot Kubernetes, containers, cloud infrastructure, networking, and deployment issues during customer demonstrations and technical engagements. Support long defense sales cycles by delivering proof-of-concepts, follow-up demos, and ongoing technical guidance. 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. Clearance Requirement An active Secret security clearance is required at the time of hire. Travel Expectations Travel as required to support customer engagements, on-site demonstrations, and mission needs. Required Experience and Qualifications Hands-on experience deploying, configuring, and troubleshooting Kubernetes and containerized environments. Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure), Linux, networking, and infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform, OpenTofu, or similar technologies. Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native software delivery practices. Ability to clearly explain complex systems to a variety of audiences, from deeply technical engineers to non-technical stakeholders. Comfortable doing live deployments, troubleshooting in real time, and adjusting technical depth based on the audience. Able to read the room, admit mistakes, pivot as needed, and keep demos engaging and informative. Collaborative by nature, working effectively with cross-functional teams and preparing with business development counterparts to tailor customer engagements. Proactive and self-directed in building and maintaining infrastructure, finding answers, and pushing opportunities forward. Passionate about the national security mission and motivated by the opportunity to solve real problems for people in mission-critical roles. Preferred Experience and Qualifications Experience supporting DoD, federal government, or other mission-critical customer environments. Familiarity with secure, classified, disconnected, or air-gapped environments. Experience with GitOps, Helm, Kustomize, ArgoCD, or similar Kubernetes deployment technologies. Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, container security, and secure software delivery. Experience with UDS, Zarf, Fleet, Platform One, Iron Bank, or similar technologies. Experience supporting complex technical customer engagements, including discovery, solution architecture, demonstrations, and proof-of-concept delivery. 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

Requirements

Must-haves

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP.
Role Description
Act as a trusted advisor for customers and their technical needs, challenges, and goals during customer engagements.
Participate in sales calls and business development meetings, often as the primary technical contact; travel as required to support on-site engagements.
Discover real mission needs beyond surface-level requirements; ask probing questions to understand core mission challenges and align our solutions accordingly.
Architect solutions based on potential customer requirements and clearly articulate those solutions.
Maintain Kubernetes-based technical demo environments and lead live, hands-on demonstrations of our UDS Core platform and capabilities.
Build and deliver technical proof-of-concepts, including live installations and technical walkthroughs to validate platform capabilities in real time.
Troubleshoot Kubernetes, containers, cloud infrastructure, networking, and deployment issues during customer demonstrations and technical engagements.
Support long defense sales cycles by delivering proof-of-concepts, follow-up demos, and ongoing technical guidance.
Clearance Requirement
An active Secret security clearance is required at the time of hire.
Travel Expectations
Travel as required to support customer engagements, on-site demonstrations, and mission needs.
Required Experience and Qualifications
Hands-on experience deploying, configuring, and troubleshooting Kubernetes and containerized environments.
Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure), Linux, networking, and infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform, OpenTofu, or similar technologies.
Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native software delivery practices.
Ability to clearly explain complex systems to a variety of audiences, from deeply technical engineers to non-technical stakeholders.
Comfortable doing live deployments, troubleshooting in real time, and adjusting technical depth based on the audience.
Able to read the room, admit mistakes, pivot as needed, and keep demos engaging and informative.
Collaborative by nature, working effectively with cross-functional teams and preparing with business development counterparts to tailor customer engagements.

Nice-to-haves

Preferred Experience and Qualifications
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.

Application prep

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Keywords to mirror

kubernetesawsazureci/cdgcp

Platform: greenhouse
Effort: quick

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Dental

Vision

401k

Parental Leave