Associate Software Engineer

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP.

Role Description:

Defense Unicorns is seeking an Associate Software Engineer to join our UDS Product Engineering team. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, designers, and end users to help build the right solutions and build them well.

As an Associate Software Engineer, you’ll grow at the intersection of product development and technical execution. You’ll contribute to the design, implementation, testing, and deployment of well-scoped features with guidance from experienced engineers, building practical experience on systems that support mission outcomes. Our engineers work across a portfolio that includes

UDS Data — open source data platform for all DOW mission sets from the enterprise to the edge

UDS Fleet — manage distributed systems across Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) and fully airgapped environments

UDS Image Factory — developer tooling for composing complete, mission-ready system images (OS, Kubernetes, applications, configuration) into a single deployable artifact

UDS Foundation — core platform and tooling that power UDS, serving Platform Engineers building and operating UDS across environments

UDS Registry — reliably manage and deploy UDS packages to any mission environment

Zarf — an open source tool enabling continuous software delivery on disconnected systems

The UDS Product Engineering team values action, ownership, and focus. In this role, you’ll be supported as you build judgment, technical depth, and the confidence to take work from idea to impact.

How You’ll Contribute:

Deliver well-tested, maintainable code for clearly scoped product features and fixes

Take ownership of small to medium tasks from implementation through review and release

Participate in design discussions and learn to connect product needs with technical tradeoffs

Ask good questions, clarify requirements, and make steady progress with appropriate support

Build growing understanding of the systems, users, and mission domains you work in

Develop stronger architectural design instincts by pairing with experienced engineers on larger features

Practice breaking ambiguous work into concrete next steps with team guidance

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

As Associate Software Engineers grow, they will:

Take on larger feature ownership with clear expectations and regular feedback

Contribute to cross-functional work by communicating status, blockers, and tradeoffs clearly

Build deeper user and system understanding that informs better implementation decisions

Strengthen engineering practices through code review participation, testing, documentation, and continuous learning

Travel Expectations/Requirements: 0-5%

The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a curious, adaptable engineer who is excited to learn, contribute, and take on new responsibilities as they grow.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications:

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

Full compensation packages are based on candidate experience. Compensation ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States.

Remote - USA

$102,000—$138,000 USD