Senior Software Engineer - Open Source (RD217)
Full Job Posting
Role Description:
Defense Unicorns seeks an experienced Software Engineer to help build, maintain, and steward our open source products and the broader ecosystems they depend on. You’ll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, engineers, community contributors, and end users to ensure we’re building the right solutions—and building them well.
As an Open Source Software Engineer, you’ll operate at the intersection of community stewardship, product development, and technical execution. You’ll help lead the design, implementation, and maintenance of cloud native software that has direct impact on mission outcomes. You bring strong Golang experience, a love for cloud native technologies and a willingness to learn TypeScript to support our broader OSS ecosystem. Over time, you may also contribute across additional languages and communities, including Rust, as our open source work evolves.
Responsibilities:
- Work with internal engineers and open source community contributors on features, bug fixes, reviews, and releases through clear communication, collaboration, and responsible stewardship
- Engage with open source communities, industry partners, and standards bodies via common platforms (e.g., Slack, GitHub, etc.) to help move our projects and their upstream ecosystems forward, including facilitating community meetings with our internal and external users
- Amplify the voice of our projects within the ecosystem by delivering a mission-focused end-user experience and collaborating with users to produce case studies, blogs, or conference presentations
- Proactively identify and resolve ambiguity across product requirements, community needs, and upstream project constraints
- Comfortable working proactively, managing time efficiently, and thriving in a vibrant remote work environment ✨🦄
- Build and integrate secure, interoperable cloud native software for defense environments while contributing improvements back to relevant open source projects where appropriate
- Own architecture decisions and ensure technical quality across open source codebases, APIs, and contributor workflows
- Develop comprehensive documentation, including design proposals, contribution guides, user documentation, and maintenance guides
- Stay abreast of emerging cloud native, open source, and secure software supply chain technologies to inform product enhancements and ecosystem contributions
- Provide technical mentorship and elevate engineering standards across the team
- Influence product direction through deep understanding of user needs and system constraints
- Travel Expectations/Requirements: 5-15%
- 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.
Preferred Experience and Qualifications:
5+ years experience with software engineering
Experience building or maintaining open source software tools, especially in cloud native, software lifecycle, or software supply chain domains
Proficient in Go, with interest in learning TypeScript, and contributing across additional modern languages such as Rust
Strong understanding of system design, library and software APIs, Kubernetes, and cloud architecture (e.g., AWS, Azure)
Excited to assess intricate problems, propose solutions, and implement them effectively
Experience contributing to open source projects and participating in open source communities. Involvement with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Apache Software Foundation (ASF), Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), or similar communities is a huge plus
Familiar with core Kubernetes concepts, including but not limited to controllers, operators, and CRDs
Strong communication and collaboration skills, comfortable conveying technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
About Defense Unicorns
Veteran-owned defense technology company delivering open-source, airgap-native software to U.S. defense and intelligence missions.
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