Associate Software Engineer

Summary

Defense Unicorns delivers secure software integration, delivery, and cloud-native solutions for mission-focused customers, including U.S. government defense and civil agencies. The Associate Software Engineer will develop, test, deploy, and maintain software features and fixes for mission-critical environments while collaborating with engineering, product, and design teams. The role also involves debugging, documentation, open source contributions, production support, and learning defense-system interoperability and security practices.

Responsibilities

• Build, ship, and maintain well-scoped features, fixes, and improvements that support mission-critical environments
• Contribute to implementation plans and technical discussions with support from senior teammates
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and design to translate clear requirements into working software
• Clarify product and technical requirements by asking thoughtful questions and documenting assumptions
• Debug issues, improve reliability, and learn production support practices as part of the team
• Help integrate with existing defense systems while learning interoperability and security expectations
• Contribute to open source projects and internal tooling through scoped issues, fixes, and documentation
• Develop and maintain clear technical documentation such as implementation notes, runbooks, and user guides
• Participate in production support and shared on-call practices with guidance, contributing to troubleshooting, incident follow-up, and reliability improvements

Skills

• EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP
• Travel Expectations/Requirements: 0-5%
• 1-3 years experience in software engineering
• Working knowledge of Go or another modern programming language
• Foundational understanding of software design, APIs, databases, and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, etc.)
• Exposure to tools or projects focused on software lifecycle and delivery
• Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts, or interest in learning them (Controllers, Operators, CRDs)
• Familiarity with supply chain security concepts, or interest in learning them (SBOMs, signing, scanning, etc.)
• Experience contributing to open source projects (CNCF, ASF, OpenSSF, etc.) through coursework, personal projects, internships, or professional work is a plus
• Ability to break down problems, learn quickly, and deliver pragmatic solutions with team support
• Clear communication and collaboration skills, with comfort asking questions and sharing progress

Qualifications

Must Haves

• EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP
• Travel Expectations/Requirements: 0-5%

Nice to Haves

• 1-3 years experience in software engineering
• Working knowledge of Go or another modern programming language
• Foundational understanding of software design, APIs, databases, and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, etc.)
• Exposure to tools or projects focused on software lifecycle and delivery
• Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts, or interest in learning them (Controllers, Operators, CRDs)
• Familiarity with supply chain security concepts, or interest in learning them (SBOMs, signing, scanning, etc.)
• Experience contributing to open source projects (CNCF, ASF, OpenSSF, etc.) through coursework, personal projects, internships, or professional work is a plus
• Ability to break down problems, learn quickly, and deliver pragmatic solutions with team support
• Clear communication and collaboration skills, with comfort asking questions and sharing progress

Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision
• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Savings 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 Years
• Paid Parental Leave
• Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
• Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)