Forward-Deployed Data Engineer - Defense & DoD

Defense Unicorns delivers mission-critical software solutions, secure pipelines, and cloud-native Kubernetes tools for defense and civil government agencies across the U.S. Federal market.

As a Forward-Deployed Data Engineer, you will work shoulder-to-shoulder with "mission heroes"—operators, defense engineers, and government program leads—to deploy, integrate, and operationalize the UDS Data Capability inside classified and air-gapped DoD environments (IL4/IL5). You will bridge heterogeneous defense systems of record with open-source data lakehouse infrastructure (Apache Iceberg, Rook/Ceph, Postgres/pgvector, Strimzi/Kafka, Zarf, and Velero), ensuring reliable data ingestion, cross-domain transit, and strict security compliance.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Deployment & Configuration: Stand up the UDS Data Stack in mission environments—configuring UDS Store (Iceberg, Ceph, pgvector), UDS Transit (air-gap data transport), UDS Govern (Pepr/Lula policies), and UDS Connect (Strimzi/Kafka).
• System Integration: Wire UDS Data Capability to existing defense systems of record, legacy databases, SOAP/REST APIs, flat-file drops, message buses, and identity providers (Keycloak / mission SSO).
• Complex Data Mapping: Trace data dependencies and schemas across hundreds of interconnected government systems with overlapping structures.
• Classification & Air-Gap Pipelines: Build data movement and transformation pipelines that handle model/dataset packaging via Zarf, cross-domain transfers, catalog registration, and eventual consistency under Disconnected, Intermittent, and Low-Bandwidth (DDIL) conditions.
• Governance & Accreditation: Implement end-to-end data lineage, provenance, ABAC/RBAC policies, and generate government accreditation evidence (STIGs, cATO docs, FIPS validation notes).
• Day-2 Operations & Knowledge Transfer: Oversee backup/restore (Velero), observability (Vector/Loki), capacity management, and incident response before handing operational ownership to government teams.

Requirements

Technical Data Engineering Breadth

• Large-Scale Unstructured Data: Experience storing and querying large-scale unstructured datasets using open-source data lake architectures (Apache Spark preferred).
• Streaming & Messaging: Hands-on experience with stream processing infrastructure (Apache Kafka, Redpanda, Apache Flink, or equivalent).
• Open-Source Data Warehousing: Proficiency building analytics infrastructure strictly using open-source tools (proprietary platforms like Snowflake or BigQuery are not available in these environments).
• Pipeline Orchestration & SQL: Fluent in SQL and schema design for analytical/operational workloads; experience with Airflow, Dagster, or Argo Workflows.
• Open-Source Tooling: Comfortable building, extending, and debugging open-source CNCF ecosystem tools.

Forward-Deployed & Logistics Requirements

• U.S. Citizenship is strictly required. Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Security Clearance.
• Willingness to travel to engagement sites when required (or maintain a 1–2 day/week local presence in Colorado Springs, CO or Florida Space Coast).
• Strong technical communication skills to interface directly with government stakeholders, ISSO/ISSM leads, and defense personnel.

Preferred Qualifications

• Active Secret, Top Secret, or SCI Security Clearance.
• Direct domain experience with Data Provenance, Lineage Tracking, and Catalog Governance (Iceberg REST, Polaris, Nessie, Gravitino).
• Depth across Apache Iceberg, object storage (Ceph/S3), vector search (pgvector), and OLAP engines (Trino, DuckDB, ClickHouse).
• Practical experience with Change Data Capture (Debezium), Kubernetes fundamentals, GitOps (Flux/ArgoCD), and Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform/Pulumi).
• Familiarity with Air Force or Space Force systems of record (e.g., MILPDS, ARMS).

Total Rewards & Benefits

• Compensation & Equity: Base salary of $123,250 – $166,750 USD + company stock option grants.
• 100% Employer-Paid Healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums are 100% covered by the company for employees and dependents; HSA and life/disability insurance included.
• Financial & Home Office: 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching; dedicated home office stipend.
• Generous Leave: Flexible Time Off (FTO), all Federal Holidays, 1 week off for Thanksgiving, and 2 full weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s, plus paid parental leave.
• Learning & Growth: Approved training reimbursements, subscription budgets, and full conference travel/lodging coverage.