Senior AI Software Engineer (RD271)

Defense Unicorns

8d•$148,750 - $201,250•Remote

About The Position

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for its Ark team, which is building an AI-native software development product to help mission-focused users create, package, validate, and prepare secure applications for delivery into mission environments. Ark bridges software creation and deployment into secure, regulated, and disconnected environments by combining AI-driven workflows with UDS tooling. The role focuses on AI agent orchestration, isolated development environments, automated validation, and integrating AI capabilities with deterministic systems to produce reliable, deployable software. The engineer will help shape Ark’s technical direction, own complex capabilities, influence architecture, and establish engineering practices while collaborating with Engineering, Product, UX, and Mission Heroes to turn customer challenges into intuitive, reliable solutions. The position is remote within the United States. The employer is a U.S. government contractor, and U.S. citizenship is required. Expected travel is 0–5%. Compensation is $148,750–$201,250 USD, with the full package based on candidate experience.

Requirements

At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience.
Strong proficiency in a modern programming language; Go and TypeScript are preferred.
Experience designing, building, and operating production software products.
Experience integrating LLMs, AI agents, or AI-powered capabilities into software applications.
Strong understanding of APIs, distributed systems, asynchronous workflows, and application architecture.
Experience with Kubernetes, containers, and cloud-native application development.
Experience building reliable, testable systems with automated validation and CI/CD pipelines.
Ability to navigate ambiguity, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and independently deliver complex solutions.
Strong communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Experience building AI agent orchestration systems, coding agents, or AI-powered developer tools.
Familiarity with LLM evaluation, tool calling, MCP, and agent execution frameworks.
Experience with secure sandboxing, isolated execution environments, or Kata Containers.
Experience building developer platforms, CLIs, or software development automation.
Familiarity with Zarf, Helm, Kubernetes operators, or software packaging workflows.
Experience with software supply chain security, artifact validation, and deployment automation.
Experience developing software for air-gapped, regulated, or restricted environments.
Contributions to open-source projects or developer tooling.

Responsibilities

Own the design, implementation, testing, and delivery of complex software features and systems.
Drive pragmatic technical decisions and contribute to architecture across product components.
Proactively identify and resolve ambiguity in collaboration with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes.
Debug complex issues across Kubernetes, virtualization, storage, networking, and operating systems.
Improve software reliability, security, performance, observability, and maintainability.
Review code, mentor teammates, and help establish strong engineering practices.
Document technical decisions, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively across teams.
Build AI-driven workflows for creating, packaging, validating, and maintaining mission applications.
Develop agent orchestration capabilities combining AI reasoning with deterministic tooling, validation, and human oversight.
Create secure, isolated development environments for executing AI agents and building software.
Integrate UDS packaging, Kubernetes, and software delivery tooling into automated development workflows.
Build systems for persistent application state, development workflows, and asynchronous execution.
Develop automated testing and validation capabilities to ensure generated software and UDS packages are secure and deployable.
Collaborate with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes to create intuitive experiences for complex software development and delivery challenges.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision coverage; premiums are 100% company paid.
Health Savings Account.
Life insurance.
Disability insurance.
401(k) retirement plan.
Company stock options.
Home office budget.
Flexible Time Off for full-time employees.
Federal holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s.
Paid parental leave.
Reimbursement for approved trainings and subscriptions.
Conference travel, lodging, and fees.