Senior Software Engineer - Virtual Machines (RD222)

Defense Unicorns

18d

About The Position

Defense Unicorns is building UDS VM, a product that enables users to securely deploy, operate, and manage virtual machines alongside containerized workloads within the UDS platform. The product is intended to provide a supported, repeatable way to run virtual machines in secure, disconnected environments, including the security controls and evidence needed for authorization. The work combines product software engineering, Kubernetes, virtualization, and security. The Senior Software Engineer will shape technical decisions, independently own complex product capabilities, and collaborate with engineering, product, and UX to deliver reliable, intuitive solutions. As the team grows, the engineer will help establish strong engineering practices. One of the Senior openings may also include hands-on technical leadership. The position involves building Kubernetes tools and APIs for virtual machine orchestration and management; tools for inspecting, converting, preparing, and packaging VM images for disconnected delivery; and integrations with UDS networking, observability, and security capabilities. The engineer will create VM management workflows and address lifecycle, persistent storage, networking, and image distribution challenges to make deployments reproducible, secure, and supportable in air-gapped environments. This is a U.S. government contractor position and requires U.S. citizenship. Travel expectations are 5–10%.

Requirements

At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience.
Strong proficiency in Go or another modern programming language, with an interest in developing Go-based systems.
Experience designing and building software that interacts with Kubernetes or other distributed systems.
Strong understanding of APIs, system design, and software architecture.
Experience developing backend services, controllers, operators, or developer tooling.
Familiarity with Linux systems, containers, and operating system concepts.
Experience building, testing, and operating production software.
Ability to navigate ambiguity, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and independently drive complex work to completion.
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to debug across multiple system boundaries.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, including ability to influence technical direction and mentor other engineers.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Experience with KubeVirt, QEMU/KVM, or other virtualization technologies.
Experience developing Kubernetes operators, controllers, or custom resource definitions (CRDs).
Experience configuring, managing, or troubleshooting Windows virtual machines.
Familiarity with VM image formats, conversion, migration, and lifecycle management.
Experience with Kubernetes networking and storage.
Experience building CLI tools, particularly in Go.
Familiarity with Zarf, OCI artifacts, or software packaging and distribution.
Experience working in air-gapped, disconnected, or regulated environments.
Contributions to Kubernetes, KubeVirt, or other CNCF open-source projects.
Experience building security-focused software or integrating systems with identity, access control, and observability platforms.

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 the reliability, security, performance, observability, and maintainability of software.
Review code, mentor teammates, and help establish strong engineering practices.
Document technical decisions, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively across teams.
Build Kubernetes tooling and APIs for orchestrating and managing virtual machine workloads.
Build tooling to inspect, convert, prepare, and package VM images for disconnected delivery.
Integrate virtual machine workloads with UDS networking, observability, and security capabilities.
Create VM management workflows for inventory, status, power controls, and console access.
Make VM deployments reproducible, secure, and supportable in air-gapped environments.
Work with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes to turn operational needs into useful product capabilities.