Senior Platform Engineer

About the role

You will architect and own the infrastructure foundation that enables autonomous vehicle orchestration across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments for defense and commercial missions. In this role, you will design and maintain the deployment pipelines, security frameworks, and automation that allow our software to move reliably from development through contested operational environments. You will collaborate closely with engineering teams to ensure rapid, repeatable deployments while adhering to stringent DoD security requirements and operational resilience standards. This position is focused on platform and infrastructure automation rather than machine learning operations, emphasizing scalability, compliance, and reliability. You will build internal tooling and command-line utilities that improve developer productivity and deployment confidence across distributed systems. The work demands precision, pragmatic automation, and calm execution during complex incidents that affect critical missions. Joining NODA means contributing to cutting-edge autonomy technology that pushes boundaries alongside a team that thrives on innovation and rapid iteration.

Key facts

What you'll do

Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines for deploying ROS2-based microservices and orchestration software across multiple environments, ensuring traceability and reliability from development to edge deployment.

Implement container orchestration using Docker, with a growth path toward Kubernetes as the platform scales, while maintaining strict security and performance standards.

Manage AWS cloud infrastructure, on-premises deployments, and edge device provisioning for autonomous vehicle fleets, optimizing for resilience and operational continuity.

Develop infrastructure automation and configuration management tools using infrastructure as code principles to ensure consistent, repeatable deployments across heterogeneous environments.

Implement and maintain DoD IL4/IL5 security compliance, including encryption, access controls, audit logging, and secure configuration baselines for sensitive missions.

Build internal tooling and CLI utilities that streamline developer workflows, reduce manual errors, and improve deployment reliability for complex autonomous systems.

Design observability and monitoring systems for distributed autonomous vehicle orchestration, collecting metrics, traces, and logs across cloud, on-premises, and edge domains.

Ensure infrastructure resilience and disaster recovery capabilities through robust testing, automated failover strategies, and clear runbooks for critical scenarios.

Collaborate with engineering teams to optimize deployment strategies for constrained edge computing environments, balancing performance, security, and resource utilization.

Support field deployment operations and troubleshoot infrastructure issues during customer demonstrations, maintaining operational readiness and rapid response.

Requirements

U.S. Citizenship with the ability to obtain a security clearance is mandatory, reflecting the defense and government focus of our mission-critical platform.

You must bring 5+ years of professional experience in platform engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure automation, with a proven track record in demanding environments.

Expert-level proficiency with Docker containerization and container orchestration concepts is required, including image management, networking, and secure deployment patterns.

Strong experience with AWS cloud services such as EC2, ECS, S3, VPC, IAM, and CloudFormation/Terraform is essential for managing our hybrid cloud and on-premises infrastructure.

Proficiency with CI/CD pipeline design and implementation using tools such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar systems is necessary to automate reliable software delivery.

Experience with infrastructure as code using Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation is required to ensure version-controlled, repeatable infrastructure deployments.

Knowledge of Linux system administration and networking fundamentals is critical for managing servers, services, and connectivity in distributed architectures.

Understanding of security best practices for enterprise and government environments is required, including compliance with strict operational and regulatory standards.

Experience with monitoring and observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and the ELK stack is necessary to maintain visibility into system health and performance.

Strong scripting abilities in Python, Bash, or similar languages are required to automate tasks, build internal tools, and support operational workflows.

U.S. Citizenship with the ability to obtain a security clearance is reiterated as a non-negotiable requirement for this role.

Nice to have

CompTIA Security+ and Network+ certifications are required for DoD infrastructure administration under current policy.

Experience with Kubernetes orchestration and service mesh technologies is preferred as the platform evolves toward container orchestration at scale.

Familiarity with DoD security standards and compliance frameworks such as IL4/IL5, STIG, and FedRAMP is preferred to streamline compliance and audit readiness.

Experience deploying software to embedded or edge computing platforms, including Jetson, Raspberry Pi, and tactical computers, is preferred for field operations support.

Knowledge of ROS2 middleware and robotics software deployment patterns is preferred to better align infrastructure with autonomy software needs.

A background in defense, aerospace, or mission-critical infrastructure environments is preferred due to the sensitivity and operational nature of our work.

Experience with tactical networking and field deployment operations is preferred to support real-world operational scenarios and customer engagements.

Familiarity with zero-trust architecture and secure communications protocols is preferred to enhance security posture in distributed environments.

Previous work with real-time systems and low-latency networking requirements is preferred to address performance constraints in edge deployments.

Familiarity with contracts and schema/versioning for middleware services, such as those used in ROS 2, is preferred to ensure interoperability and stability across components.

Practical notes

U.S. Citizenship with the ability to obtain a security clearance is required.

Position is hybrid on-site in Austin, with up to 10% travel for field deployments, customer demonstrations, and team collaboration.

Skills & attributes

Infrastructure Pragmatic automation obsessive: passionate about eliminating manual processes; crisp docs/runbooks; calm in incidents;