Senior Engineer

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:

We are seeking a Senior Engineer with an active Top Secret/SCI clearance to play a pivotal role in automating and orchestrating our critical infrastructure. This position is ideal for a technical expert passionate about deploying, managing, and optimizing system infrastructures using the latest technologies in system automation, container orchestration, and open-source applications. You'll be based in San Diego, CA and work on projects vital to national security and technological advancement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop, package, validate, and maintain versioned enterprise platform releases.
• Assemble and manage release artifacts consisting of:
  
  • Infrastructure automation content (Ansible playbooks, roles, collections, Puppet modules, and related automation artifacts)
  • Kubernetes application deployments
  • Helm charts
  • Container images
  • RPM packages
  • Custom platform applications
  • Supporting software dependencies
• Manage versioning, dependency tracking, software inventories, Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs), and authoritative release manifests.
• Maintain configuration baselines and ensure all platform components are accurately versioned, traceable, auditable, and reproducible.
• Validate release artifacts to ensure completeness, integrity, and deployment readiness prior to release.
• Coordinate vulnerability scanning of container images, RPMs, operating system packages, and other software artifacts.
• Generate, maintain, and track Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms) associated with identified software and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
• Ensure software supply chain integrity by validating that release artifacts originate from approved and trusted repositories and have successfully completed required security validation activities.
• Develop and maintain release documentation, including:
  
  • README.md files
  • Release Notes
  • Version manifests
  • Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs)
  • Installation procedures
  • Upgrade procedures
  • Rollback procedures
• Develop and maintain automated release workflows utilizing GitLab CI/CD and related DevSecOps tooling.
• Coordinate release promotion across development, integration, testing, staging, and production environments.
• Support software configuration management activities throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Collaborate with Platform Engineering, Cybersecurity, Software Development, and Operations teams to ensure consistent, secure, and repeatable platform deployments.
• Support RMF authorization and continuous monitoring activities by providing release documentation, software inventories, SBOMs, vulnerability documentation, POA&Ms, and other configuration management artifacts required to support accreditation

Required Qualifications:

• Active Top Secret (TS) security clearance.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline and ten (10) years of relevant professional experience; or Master's degree in a related technical discipline and five (5) years of relevant professional experience; or fifteen (15) years of relevant professional experience in lieu of a degree.
• Experience developing or maintaining infrastructure automation using technologies such as Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, or similar Infrastructure-as-Code solutions.
• Experience supporting Kubernetes-based environments and containerized applications.
• Experience with Git-based development workflows and source control.
• Experience developing or supporting CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong understanding of software configuration management, release engineering, artifact management, software supply chain management, and version control principles.
• Experience supporting Linux enterprise environments.
• Strong technical writing and documentation skills

Preferred Skills:

• Experience supporting classified or disconnected environments.
• Experience with GitLab CI/CD.
• Experience with Harbor or other OCI container registries.
• Experience with Helm and Kubernetes application lifecycle management.
• Experience with RKE2 or other enterprise Kubernetes distributions.
• Experience supporting software vulnerability management and container image scanning.
• Experience generating or maintaining Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs).
• Experience generating and maintaining POA&Ms for software and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
• Experience supporting RMF authorization packages and continuous monitoring activities.
• Familiarity with RMF, DISA STIGs, JSIG, secure software supply chain practices, and Configuration Management (CM) processes.
• Experience supporting enterprise Platform Engineering teams.

Clearance Requirements:

• Active Top Secret with ability to obtain and maintain SCI

Work Type:

• Onsite in San Diego, Ca
• Relocation provided
• May require up to 10% travel

Salary Range: $100,000 - $185000

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

What we will offer you:

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) with company match
• Take as you need PTO + 14 paid holidays
• 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.


Your Rights: California residents have the right to request information about personal data collected and to request deletion, subject to certain exceptions. Note that employment-related information is subject to specific exemptions under CCPA. Contact Us: For questions about this notice or to exercise your privacy rights, contact: View email address on click.appcast.io or View phone number on click.appcast.io.

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.