IT Engineer - Hardware

Defense Unicorns•San Antonio, TX

19h•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking an IT Engineer to join our team, based primarily out of our San Antonio, TX office. This role is first and foremost a hardware role, the primary owner of physical infrastructure at Defense Unicorns' San Antonio location, responsible for racking servers, configuring switching and network gear, and maintaining a growing lab environment that supports active defense programs. When not heads-down on hardware, this person is a contributor to day-to-day IT operations, handling helpdesk tickets, endpoint support, and IT projects alongside the broader IT OPS team. The ideal candidate thrives in a hands-on lab environment, has real experience standing up physical infrastructure, and can context-switch into IT OPS work without losing momentum. This is an onsite role; physical presence is the job. 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. 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. 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. 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, and Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications.

Requirements

3+ years in an IT operations, systems administration, or infrastructure role
Hands-on experience racking and configuring servers and network switches in a lab or data center environment
Experience with virtualization platforms on IT-managed infrastructure (Proxmox, ESXi, or similar)
Demonstrated homelab or lab environment experience, comfortable standing up and troubleshooting infrastructure from scratch
Familiarity with structured cabling, patch panel termination, and physical infrastructure documentation
Experience with layer 2/3 networking concepts (VLANs, switching, routing)
Experience with change management processes and IT documentation practices
Experience with helpdesk or trouble ticketing systems
Familiarity with macOS endpoint management and MDM solutions (Jamf preferred)
Experience with Google Admin Console or similar directory/identity management tools
US citizenship required; must be eligible for CUI access
Ability to work independently in an onsite environment and manage competing priorities without close supervision

Nice To Haves

Experience with enterprise rack-mount server configuration and out-of-band management (e.g., iDRAC, iLO, IPMI)
Experience with managed switching and prosumer/enterprise network stacks (e.g., UniFi, Cisco, Ubiquiti, or similar)
Experience in a defense contractor, government, or classified lab environment
Familiarity with NIST SP 800-171, CMMC 2.0, or similar compliance frameworks
Exposure to edge compute platforms (single-board computers, mini PCs, GPU workstations)
Experience contributing to endpoint hardware programs in a shared-ownership model

Responsibilities

Install, configure, and maintain servers, rack-mount switches, and associated network infrastructure in the San Antonio office and lab environments
Stand up and maintain virtualization environments on IT-owned bare-metal hardware
Lead rack layout, cable management, patch panel termination, and physical infrastructure documentation
Support UPS and PDU installation, configuration, and monitoring
Configure and maintain network infrastructure including switches, access points, and security appliances
Lead hardware procurement coordination, maintain physical and digital asset inventory, and support engineering and delivery teams with hardware staging needs
Assist with edge and lab hardware as needed, including mini PCs, single-board computers, and portable networking gear
Support physical security infrastructure as needed, including access control and related CMMC-adjacent hardware considerations
Provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 helpdesk support, triaging and resolving tickets or escalating as appropriate
Administer MDM (Jamf) for device enrollment, policy enforcement, and compliance reporting
Support endpoint hardware management (primarily macOS) alongside other IT team members, including imaging, configuration, deployment, and decommission
Support user onboarding and offboarding workflows including access provisioning and equipment movement
Manage access through Google Admin Console and related identity tools
Collaborate with third-party vendors and internal stakeholders on SaaS tool rollouts, troubleshooting, and updates
Contribute to IT projects, process improvements, and compliance initiatives aligned with NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC

Benefits

Medical/Dental/Vision Premiums are 100% Company Paid
Health Reimbursement Account
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
401k Retirement Plan
Company Stock Options
Home Office Budget
Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s
Paid Parental Leave
Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)