{"id":3107689,"url":"https://alion.io/job/defense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222","title":"Senior Software Engineer - Virtual Machines (RD222)","company":{"id":8737,"name":"Defense Unicorns","domain":"defenseunicorns.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/defense-unicorns","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":74,"open_postings":12,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.833,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":67,"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"posting_text","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":148750,"max":201250,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":201250},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":true},{"name":"Azure","optional":true},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"GCP","optional":true},{"name":"GitOps","optional":true},{"name":"Go","optional":true},{"name":"Helm","optional":true},{"name":"KubeVirt","optional":true},{"name":"Kustomize","optional":true},{"name":"KVM","optional":true},{"name":"Linux","optional":true},{"name":"Pulumi","optional":true},{"name":"QEMU","optional":true},{"name":"Terraform","optional":true},{"name":"Windows","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-22T16:50:59Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-27T07:21:47Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":4,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":4},"description":"EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP.\nRole Description: \nDefense Unicorns is building UDS VM, a new product that enables Mission Heroes to securely deploy, operate, and manage virtual machines alongside containerized workloads within the UDS platform.\nMany mission-critical applications cannot easily move to containers because of operating system dependencies, vendor requirements, or existing approvals. Today, running these workloads on UDS often requires custom engineering. We’re building a supported, repeatable path for running VMs in secure, disconnected environments, with the security controls and evidence needed for authorization.\nThe work sits at the intersection of product software engineering, Kubernetes, virtualization, and security. We’re building software-not simply operating infrastructure-to make virtual machines first-class workloads within the UDS ecosystem.\nAs a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll shape technical decisions, independently own complex product capabilities, and collaborate across engineering, product, and UX to deliver reliable, intuitive solutions. As this new team grows, you’ll help establish strong engineering practices; one of our Senior openings also offers an opportunity to provide hands-on technical leadership.\nWhat You’ll Work On:\nBuilding Kubernetes tooling and APIs for orchestrating and managing virtual machine workloads\nBuilding tooling to inspect, convert, prepare, and package VM images for disconnected delivery\nIntegrating virtual machine workloads with UDS networking, observability, and security capabilities\nCreating VM management workflows for inventory, status, power controls, and console access\nSolving problems across VM lifecycle, persistent storage, networking, and image distribution\nMaking VM deployments reproducible, secure, and supportable in air-gapped environments\nWorking with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes to turn operational needs into useful product capabilities\nResponsibilities: \nOwn the design, implementation, testing, and delivery of complex software features and systems\nDrive pragmatic technical decisions and contribute to architecture across product components\nProactively identify and resolve ambiguity in collaboration with Product, UX, and Mission Heroes\nDebug complex issues across Kubernetes, virtualization, storage, networking, and operating systems\nImprove the reliability, security, performance, observability, and maintainability of our software\nReview code, mentor teammates, and help establish strong engineering practices\nDocument technical decisions, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively across teams\nTravel Expectations/Requirements: 5-10%\nThe 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. \nPreferred Experience and Qualifications:\n5+ years of professional software engineering experience\nStrong proficiency in Go or another modern programming language, with an interest in developing Go-based systems\nExperience designing and building software that interacts with Kubernetes or other distributed systems\nStrong understanding of APIs, system design, and software architecture\nExperience developing backend services, controllers, operators, or developer tooling\nFamiliarity with Linux systems, containers, and operating system concepts\nExperience building, testing, and operating production software\nAbility to navigate ambiguity, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and independently drive complex work to completion\nStrong problem-solving skills and ability to debug across multiple system boundaries\nExcellent communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to influence technical direction and mentor other engineers\nGreat to Have:\nExperience with KubeVirt, QEMU/KVM, or other virtualization technologies\nExperience developing Kubernetes operators, controllers, or custom resource definitions (CRDs)\nExperience configuring, managing, or troubleshooting Windows virtual machines\nFamiliarity with VM image formats, conversion, migration, and lifecycle management\nExperience with Kubernetes networking and storage\nExperience building CLI tools, particularly in Go\nFamiliarity with Zarf, OCI artifacts, or software packaging and distribution\nExperience working in air-gapped, disconnected, or regulated environments\nContributions to Kubernetes, KubeVirt, or other CNCF open-source projects\nExperience building security-focused software or integrating systems with identity, access control, and observability platforms\nFull 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. \nRemote - USA\n$148,750—$201,250 USD\nWho We Are\nDefense 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.\nWhat We Do\nWe 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.\nWho We Serve\nDefense 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.\nWhat We Work On\nKubernetes\nCloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)\nInfrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)\nContinuous Delivery and automation tooling\nGitOps\nContainers\nCNCF projects and open source products and packages\nHelm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping\nBuilding and improving security delivery\nBuilding Kubernetes and cloud native applications\nBenefits Our Unicorns Enjoy\nHealth:\nMedical/Dental/Vision\nPremiums are 100% Company Paid\nHealth Savings Account\nLife Insurance\nDisability Insurance\nFinancial:\n401k Retirement Plan\nCompany Stock Options\nHome Office Budget\nLeave:\nWe 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\nPaid Parental Leave\nLearning:\nReimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions\nConferences (travel, lodging, and fees)\nDon’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. \nAt 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.\nCCPA DISCLOSURE","description_format":"text","description_chars":8041,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Flexible time off","Home office","Life insurance","Parental leave","Retirement plans","Stock options"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["National Security","Virtualization & Containers","DevSecOps"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-22T19:46:20Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":4,"expected_fill_days":67,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":201250,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/defense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/defense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-27T07:22:27Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7900,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-28T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":8737},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=8737"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fdefense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fdefense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fdefense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/defense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fdefense-unicorns-senior-software-engineer-virtual-machines-rd222"}]}