Senior Engineer

This is a U.S.-based position requiring U.S. citizenship; all work must be conducted within the continental U.S.

About us

Raft (TeamRaft.com) is a customer-obsessed, non-traditional defense-tech company dedicated to empowering U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. We specialize in autonomous data fusion and Agentic AI, focusing on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development. Headquartered in McLean, VA, we serve innovative federal and public agencies, building digital solutions that impact millions of Americans.

About the role

We are seeking a Senior Engineer with an active Top Secret/SCI clearance to automate and orchestrate critical infrastructure. This onsite position in San Diego, CA, is ideal for a technical expert passionate about deploying, managing, and optimizing system infrastructures using the latest technologies in system automation, container orchestration, and open-source applications. You will work on projects vital to national security and technological advancement.

Responsibilities

• Develop, package, validate, and maintain versioned enterprise platform releases.
• Assemble and manage release artifacts consisting of:
  • Infrastructure automation content (Ansible playbooks, roles, collections, Puppet modules, and related automation artifacts)
  • Kubernetes application deployments
  • Helm charts
  • Container images
  • RPM packages
  • Custom platform applications
  • Supporting software dependencies
• Manage versioning, dependency tracking, software inventories, Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs), and authoritative release manifests.
• Maintain configuration baselines and ensure all platform components are accurately versioned, traceable, auditable, and reproducible.
• Validate release artifacts to ensure completeness, integrity, and deployment readiness prior to release.
• Coordinate vulnerability scanning of container images, RPMs, operating system packages, and other software artifacts.
• Generate, maintain, and track Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms) associated with identified software and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
• Ensure software supply chain integrity by validating that release artifacts originate from approved and trusted repositories and have successfully completed required security validation activities.
• Develop and maintain release documentation, including:
  • README.md files
  • Release Notes
  • Version manifests
  • Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs)
  • Installation procedures
  • Upgrade procedures
  • Rollback procedures
• Develop and maintain automated release workflows utilizing GitLab CI/CD and related DevSecOps tooling.
• Coordinate release promotion across development, integration, testing, staging, and production environments.
• Support software configuration management activities throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Collaborate with Platform Engineering, Cybersecurity, Software Development, and Operations teams to ensure consistent, secure, and repeatable platform deployments.
• Support RMF authorization and continuous monitoring activities by providing release documentation, software inventories, SBOMs, vulnerability documentation, POA&Ms, and other configuration management artifacts required to support accreditation.

Requirements

• Active Top Secret (TS) security clearance.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline and ten (10) years of relevant professional experience; or Master’s degree in a related technical discipline and five (5) years of relevant professional experience; or fifteen (15) years of relevant professional experience in lieu of a degree.
• Experience developing or maintaining infrastructure automation using technologies such as Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, or similar Infrastructure-as-Code solutions.
• Experience supporting Kubernetes-based environments and containerized applications.
• Experience with Git-based development workflows and source control.
• Experience developing or supporting CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong understanding of software configuration management, release engineering, artifact management, software supply chain management, and version control principles.
• Experience supporting Linux enterprise environments.
• Strong technical writing and documentation skills.

Skills

• Experience supporting classified or disconnected environments.
• Experience with GitLab CI/CD.
• Experience with Harbor or other OCI container registries.
• Experience with Helm and Kubernetes application lifecycle management.
• Experience with RKE2 or other enterprise Kubernetes distributions.
• Experience supporting software vulnerability management and container image scanning.
• Experience generating or maintaining Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs).
• Experience generating and maintaining POA&Ms for software and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
• Experience supporting RMF authorization packages and continuous monitoring activities.
• Familiarity with RMF, DISA STIGs, JSIG, secure software supply chain practices, and Configuration Management (CM) processes.
• Experience supporting enterprise Platform Engineering teams.

Work type: Onsite in San Diego, CA. Relocation provided. May require up to 10% travel.

Pay

Salary range: $100,000 – $185,000. The determination of compensation is based on a candidate’s comprehensive experience, demonstrated skill, and proven abilities.

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) with company match
• Take-as-you-need PTO + 14 paid holidays
• Generous referral bonuses