Principal Platform Engineer

About the role

You will own the full lifecycle of our edge computing infrastructure, from initial design and deployment through ongoing operations and optimization in demanding national security environments. You will architect and implement resilient, secure, and scalable infrastructure solutions that directly enable mission-critical Intelligence Community and Department of Defense operations. This role demands deep collaboration with cross-functional engineering and operational teams to translate complex requirements into robust, automated platform capabilities. You will lead the implementation of cutting-edge infrastructure workflows incorporating CI/CD and DevSecOps practices tailored for distributed edge sites. You will drive performance tuning, cybersecurity hardening, and systems lifecycle management to ensure maximum reliability and efficiency. You will act as a technical leader and systems engineer, guiding platform decisions that shape the future of our edge infrastructure. You will partner directly with customers to iterate on solutions, ensuring platform flexibility and broad deployment meet evolving mission objectives.

Key facts

What you'll do

Automate edge provisioning and configuration using tools like Ansible, Terraform, or custom deployment pipelines to streamline deployment at distributed locations.

Develop scripts and automation tools to enhance system management, provisioning, and deployment tasks for platform reliability and efficiency.

Implement monitoring and observability for distributed edge clusters to ensure uptime, performance, and security across all remote sites.

Monitor system performance and capacity metrics; analyze logs and trends to anticipate and resolve system issues proactively before they impact operations.

Lead incident response, root cause analysis, and long-term remediation efforts for complex system or infrastructure issues affecting critical missions.

Work with developers to optimize workloads for deployment at edge locations, focusing on containerized applications and AI/ML inference requirements.

Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for remote software updates and over-the-air deployments to edge nodes, ensuring reliable and secure change management.

Ensure infrastructure resilience and redundancy, designing and maintaining failover and disaster recovery strategies for edge sites in challenging environments.

Optimize resource usage to handle power, cooling, and bandwidth constraints common in edge environments while maintaining operational effectiveness.

Support secure remote management and compliance for distributed systems, enforcing security policies and operational standards consistently.

Manage system security, access controls, and user permissions across diverse platforms, ensuring compliance with cybersecurity best practices and regulatory requirements.

Plan and execute infrastructure architecture and integration efforts, coordinating with software engineers, operations, and security teams for cohesive solutions.

Contribute to engineering leadership and systems design, developing elegant solutions to pressing operational challenges faced in national security contexts.

Simplify complex infrastructure management across cloud-native and on-premises environments, creating platforms that unify operations and improve agility.

Engage regularly with customers to iterate, streamline, and multiply platform capabilities, ensuring solutions meet objectives for broad deployment and exceptional flexibility.

Requirements

Demonstrate extensive experience in systems engineering, infrastructure engineering, hardware setup, installation, configuration, and secure network integration for complex environments.

Show proven expertise in systems lifecycle management, cybersecurity, performance tuning, and cross-functional collaboration in support of mission-critical infrastructure.

Possess deep knowledge of edge computing concepts, distributed systems, and the challenges of operating at remote locations with connectivity constraints.

Have strong proficiency with infrastructure as code tools, automation frameworks, and configuration management platforms such as Ansible and Terraform.

Exhibit advanced skills in container orchestration and optimization for edge workloads, including containerized applications and AI/ML inference platforms.

Bring experience with CI/CD pipeline development and over-the-air deployment strategies tailored for geographically distributed and resource-constrained nodes.

Maintain a strong understanding of security best practices, access control models, and compliance requirements for government and defense information systems.

Commit to operating effectively in on-premises data center and field environments, managing power, cooling, and bandwidth constraints without compromising performance.

Nice to have

Experience with prototyping infrastructure designs and contributing to engineering leadership for next generation cyber network operations.

Familiarity with platforms that simplify complex infrastructure management across hybrid cloud-native and on-premises deployments.

Background in supporting national security missions and working within Intelligence Community or Department of Defense environments.

Practical notes

On-site Herndon / Hybrid / Remote with travel to edge locations.