Technical Lead - Autonomous & Unmanned Systems (FedD179)

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

Role Description:

Defense Unicorns seeks a Senior-level Engineer to lead the development and implementation of Defense Unicorns’ Autonomy and Unmanned Systems Domain. This role will work closely with fellow platform engineers, software engineers, and warfighters.

What You’ll Work On:

• Deliver interfaces for managing individual assets and large fleets of autonomous and unmanned systems.
• Design and implement data-rich UIs that reflect real-time and distributed system state.
• Work with stakeholders to develop workflows for deploying, updating, and monitoring systems across edge, remote, and disconnected environments.
• Handle complex state management and asynchronous data flows.
• Integrate frontend applications with backend APIs, platform services, and communications technologies.
• Improve usability and clarity for technically complex operational workflows.
• Partner with UX to translate complex system behavior into intuitive user experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the technical staff and technical baseline of Defense Unicorns’ Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Domain, mentoring and growing a team of software engineers and DevSecOps engineers.
• Own architectural decisions that align with secure software development practices, application security, and CI/CD best practices.
• Mentor and develop engineers across the team, fostering technical excellence and continuous learning.
• Communicate technical priorities with product management while advocating for thoughtful management of technical complexity, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
• Work closely with peers to ensure cohesive architecture across Defense Unicorns capabilities and seamless integration with the common platform baseline.
• Translate operational imperatives into product capabilities and guide development toward solutions that meet or exceed mission objectives.
• Serve as the technical leader across software, communications, and platform technologies, helping bridge engineering teams and operational mission requirements.
• Continually implement features and functionality that improve mission effectiveness and user experience.
• Develop and execute comprehensive unit, integration, and user acceptance testing strategies to ensure reliable, resilient software.
• Work directly with Mission Heroes (customers) and product stakeholders to define a technical roadmap aligned with mission objectives and company goals.
• Evaluate new technologies and products, assessing their impact on mission capability, technical architecture, and security posture.
• Support customer integrations, demonstrations, testing events, and operational exercises as required.
• Communicate and execute effectively in an asynchronous, fully remote environment.

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.

Required Experience and Qualifications:

• Proven experience leading technical teams developing complex software systems.
• Expertise solving highly technical problems spanning multiple knowledge domains.
• Hands-on technical depth in at least two of the following areas:
  • Autonomous systems / unmanned platforms
  • Tactical-edge networking (BLE mesh networking, DIL/MANET, mesh radios)
  • Distributed systems (CRDTs, gossip protocols, eventual consistency)
  • Container and software supply chain tooling (Kubernetes, OCI, Zarf/UDS)
• Working familiarity with the autonomy and tactical-edge ecosystem, including ROS2/DDS, MAVLink, CoT/TAK, and at least one relevant interoperability standard (STANAG 4586/4817, JAUS, Link16/TADL-J, OMS/UCI, or MOSA/SOSA).
• Experience leading remote engineering teams and collaborating across distributed organizations.
• Experience defining technical roadmaps and partnering with product management.
• Expertise in analyzing complex problems, proposing innovative solutions, and implementing them effectively.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and thrive in a fast-paced, fully remote environment.
• U.S. Citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications:

• Expertise and established credibility in Special Operations-specific processes, vernacular, organization, challenges, and technical solutions.
• Experience integrating software with tactical communications, radio systems, or edge networking technologies supporting autonomous systems.
• Familiarity with TAK Server administration, CoT message schemas, and ATAK plugin development.
• Experience with edge AI hardware (NVIDIA Jetson, Intel NUC, Raspberry Pi, or ruggedized compute platforms) in tactical deployments.
• Experience developing or supporting Authorization to Operate (ATO) systems within the Department of Defense.
• Experience with automated testing, including infrastructure, integration, and system testing.
• Knowledge of Agile software development methodologies.
• Experience with container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes.
• Active Secret or Top Secret security clearance.

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

$178,500—$241,500 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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