Staff Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

This is a U.S. based position. All of the programs we support require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. All work must be conducted within the continental U.S.

Who we are:

Raft ( is a customer-obsessed non-traditional defense tech company dedicated to empowering U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. We are a leader in autonomous data fusion and Agentic AI, with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development. With headquarters in McLean, VA, our range of clients includes innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting-edge tech stack, and cloud-native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

About the role:
Raft is building mission-critical data platforms for the Department of War that process billions of events per day from hundreds of sensors and operational sources, delivering intelligence to operators who use it to make time-sensitive decisions. Our platform runs across multiple classification levels and deployment environments. We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join our team.

What you will do:

• Build data infrastructure and platforms using streaming frameworks such as Apache Kafka, Flink, and Kafka Streams
• Build Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) pipelines to enable comprehensive data operations
• Leverage software engineering principles to architect, develop, and implement large scale streaming applications

What we are looking for:

• 7+ years of relevant industry experience
• Experience with building and managing fault-tolerant, data-intensive platforms using popular streaming technologies such as Kafka, Pinot, or Flink
• Experience with large-scale relational and non-relational databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch to handle low-latency requirements
• Experience in data management including ETL processing, data governance, and data storage
• Experience with building and deploying software in cloud-native environments
• Experience diagnosing and resolving container deployment issues within Kubernetes environments
• Experience using a variety of package managers/dependency managers including Maven, Gradle, and NPM
• Deep knowledge of software design and architecture patterns
• Obtain Security+ certification within the first 90 days of employment with Raft

Highly preferred:

• Experience with Kubernetes
• Experience with monitoring (i.e. Prometheus, Grafana) and logging (i.e. Fluentbit, Kibana, Loki) solutions in cloud-native environments
• Solid understanding of Helm Charts
• Experience or knowledge of service mesh technologies, such as Istio
• Experience with supporting enterprise Cloud applications or infrastructure
• Experience in automation languages like Python or GoLang

Clearance Requirements:

• Active Secret Clearance to start and ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret

Salary Range : $140,000 - $190,000

• The determination of compensation is predicated upon a candidate's comprehensive experience, demonstrated skill, and proven abilities

Work Type:

• Hybrid in Rome, NY, Hanscom, or NCR (National Capital Region)

• Domestic travel up to 35% to customer sites

What we will offer you:

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) and company match
• Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
• Education & training benefits
• Generous Referral Bonuses
• And More!

Our Vision Statement:

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission.

Our Customer Obsession:

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there?

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm.

Raft's core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are . We support our "nadi" by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.

We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.