Senior Engineering Manager (RD165)
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 19, 2026. First seen by Alion on Jun 19, 2026. Defense Unicorns scores B on the Alion truth index.
Role Description:
We are seeking an experienced Product Engineering Manager. You will play a critical role in managing and developing airgap-native software and ensuring it integrates seamlessly with UDS to Accelerate the ATO. You will oversee the development of innovative solutions that meet customer needs and drive the success of our products in National Defense. This role requires a blend of technical expertise, leadership, and will need a deep understanding of modern software systems.
You will be responsible for guiding a team of talented engineers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and delivering high-quality, scalable, and secure products. Collaboration with cross-functional teams, including Product, Growth, and Delivery, is essential to ensure alignment with our company roadmap and customer requirements.
Responsibilities:
- Lead, inspire, and manage a team of engineers dedicated to developing and maintaining UDS-compatible applications.
- Own the team's deliverables, ensuring the timely delivery of scalable, highly-available products that exceed customer expectations.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to prioritize and manage engineering roadmaps in alignment with Product objectives.
- Instill a spirit of continuous improvement in code quality, architecture, and processes, driving innovation and efficiency.
- Mentor and guide the professional and technical development of team members, helping them advance their careers and achieve their goals.
- Facilitate communication among clients/customers and engineers, ensuring clear understanding of specifications, budgets, and deadlines.
- Stay abreast of new trends, developments, and technologies to continually improve product lines and production efficiency.
Travel Expectations/Requirements: 10-25%
The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise.
Preferred Experience and Qualifications:
- 6+ years of industry experience, preferably in building, maintaining, and managing platforms and infrastructure.
- 2+ years of experience managing engineering teams, with experience in a remote, distributed environment.
- Strong technical background in software engineering, with deep experience in architecting and delivering scalable solutions using cloud providers such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, while deploying cloud-native software to Kubernetes.
- Proficiency in DevOps principles, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure automation.
- Excellent interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills, with a track record of inspiring and empowering teams.
- High level of technical proficiency, with the ability to work within the team to solve complex problems.
- Detail-oriented, highly organized, and able to prioritize tasks effectively.
Amazing To Haves
- Contributions to open-source projects or published projects.
- Familiarity with Cloud-Native technologies including Kubernetes. Experience with Zarf, and the UDS ecosystem is highly desirable.
- Understanding of the needs of airgapped systems, edge devices, and the implications of semi-disconnected software delivery is a differentiator.
- Experience in mobile development, particularly Android software development, is a huge plus.
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
$178,500—$241,500 USD
Who We Are
Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market.
What We Do
We create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily.
Who We Serve
Defense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products.
What We Work On
- Kubernetes
- Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
- Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)
- Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
- GitOps
- Containers
- CNCF projects and open source products and packages
- Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping
- Building and improving security delivery
- Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications
Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy
Health:
- Medical/Dental/Vision
- Premiums are 100% Company Paid
- Health Savings Account
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
Financial:
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Company Stock Options
- Home Office Budget
Leave:
- We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s
- Paid Parental Leave
Learning:
- Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
- Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)
Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed.
At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.