Senior Software Engineer - Virtual Machines (RD222)

The role

You will build Kubernetes tooling and APIs to manage virtual machine workloads. The role involves creating software to make virtual machines first-class workloads within the UDS ecosystem.

What you will do

• 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 our software
• Review code, mentor teammates, and help establish strong engineering practices
• Document technical decisions, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively across teams

Required qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong proficiency in Go or another modern programming language
• 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

Nice to have

• 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

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)
• Federal Holidays
• One week for Thanksgiving
• Two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s

Before you apply

• Requires U.S. Citizenship

About the company

Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery for customers. They create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery.