{"id":3176019,"url":"https://alion.io/job/horizon3-staff-software-engineer-ota-services","title":"Staff Software Engineer, OTA Services","company":{"id":3088,"name":"Horizon3","domain":"horizon3.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/horizon3","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":76,"open_postings":18,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.944,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":39,"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":229500,"max":260000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":260000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T19:16:21Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-23","last_verified_at":"2026-10-25T18:35:52Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Get to Know Us\nHorizon3 is a fast-growing, remote cybersecurity company dedicated to the mission of enabling organizations to proactively find, fix and verify exploitable attack vectors before criminals exploit them. Our flagship product, the NodeZero™ platform, delivers production-safe autonomous pentests and other key assessment operations that scale across the largest internal, external, cloud, and hybrid cloud environments. NodeZero has been adopted by organizations of all sizes, from small educational institutions to government agencies and Global 100 enterprises. It is used by IT Ops/SecOps teams, consulting pentesters, and MSSPs and MSPs.\nWe are a fusion of former U.S. Special Operations cyber operators, startup engineers & operators, and formerly frustrated cybersecurity practitioners. We're committed to helping solve our common security problems: ineffective security tools and false positives, resulting in alert fatigue, blind spots, \"checkbox\" security culture, cybersecurity skills shortage, and the long lead time and expense of hiring outside consultants. Collectively, we are a team of learn-it-alls, committed to a culture of respect, collaboration, ownership, and results.\nAs a remote first company, we require minimum 25Mbps consumer grade broadband connection.\nWhat You'll Do\nThe Expert Engineer on the OTA Services team is the technical anchor for how NodeZero updates itself across thousands of customer deployments - without customer intervention, without downtime, and without introducing new vulnerabilities in the process. NodeZero runs as a container inside customer infrastructure. When a new image is ready, the OTA system has to find every deployed instance, negotiate the update, deliver it safely, validate it, and roll back gracefully if something goes wrong. Getting that right at scale, across diverse customer environments including air-gapped and restricted networks, is a genuinely hard systems problem.\nThis is a hands-on staff-level role. You will write production code, produce architecture designs, set the technical direction for update delivery and version management, and mentor P4 engineers on the team. The OTA Services team works in close partnership with the Image Build & Release team - your counterpart on the build side produces the artifacts you deliver. This role reports to the Client Platform Engineering Manager.\nResponsibilities\nOTA Architecture: Design and own the over-the-air update system - the delivery protocol, version negotiation, rollout orchestration, health verification, and automatic rollback\n\nDeployment Fleet Management: Own the systems that track the version state of every NodeZero deployment - know what's running where, what's pending, and what's stuck\n\nRollout Strategy: Design safe rollout strategies for updates - phased rollouts, canary deployments, customer pinning, and emergency hold mechanisms\n\nConstrained Environment Delivery: Design delivery mechanisms that work reliably across diverse customer environments including air-gapped networks, strict egress policies, and minimal-footprint deployments\n\nReliability & Incident Response: Own OTA system reliability end-to-end - on-call for delivery failures, stuck updates, and version drift incidents\n\nMentorship: Mentor P4 engineers through design review, code review, and technical pairing; be the person the team turns to when delivery semantics get complicated\n\nWhat You'll Bring\nDistributed Systems & Delivery\n8+ years of professional software engineering experience with deep specialization in distributed systems, remote update systems, or fleet management infrastructure\n\nDeep understanding of remote update system design - delivery protocols, version negotiation, delta delivery, health verification, and rollback semantics\n\nExperience designing rollout strategies for software deployed across heterogeneous, customer-managed environments - you understand the difference between a lab rollout and rolling something out to thousands of production deployments you don't control\n\nStrong proficiency in Go, Python, or Rust for systems-level infrastructure work\n\nPlatform & Infrastructure\nExperience building software that operates in constrained or air-gapped environments - you know how to design delivery systems that don't assume good connectivity\n\nDeep understanding of Kubernetes - how deployments are managed, updated, and monitored in running clusters\n\nExperience with container image distribution: OCI artifacts, image manifests, layer caching, and registry protocol\n\nStrong understanding of mTLS, certificate lifecycle, and secure channel establishment for update delivery\n\nTechnical Leadership\nTrack record of setting engineering standards that other engineers adopt - protocol designs, reliability requirements, and testing standards for distributed systems\n\nAbility to produce clear architecture documents and drive technical decisions across team boundaries (especially with the Image Build team that produces your input artifacts)\n\nExperience mentoring mid-level engineers through design review and code review\n\nNice to Haves\nExperience with Kubernetes operators or controller patterns - OTA delivery in Kubernetes environments often benefits from operator-style lifecycle management\n\nBackground in cybersecurity or experience building software for regulated or high-security environments\n\nFamiliarity with Fleet (or similar open-source fleet management tools) and where custom infrastructure is preferable\n\nExperience with signed artifact delivery and chain-of-custody verification end-to-end\n\nTravel Required\nWe are a fully remote company, and this job may require up to 5% of travel to be successful.\nCompensation and Values\nAt Horizon3, we believe that our people are our greatest asset, and our compensation philosophy reflects this core value. We are committed to fostering an environment where all employees feel valued, respected, and rewarded for their contributions. Our compensation structure is designed to be fair, competitive, and transparent, ensuring that every team member is recognized and compensated equitably across roles, levels, and locations.\nIn accordance with various State's transparency regulations, we provide the following salary range information for this position:\nBase salary range: $229,500 - $260,000 annually. The exact salary will be determined based on the selected candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and relevant skills.\n\nAdditional compensation: This role may also be eligible for an equity package (in the form of stock options). If any other compensation benefits apply, they will be discussed during the interview process.\n\nPerks of Horizon3\nInclusive Team: We value diversity and promote an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive.\n\nGrowth Opportunities: Be part of a dynamic and growing team with numerous career development opportunities.\n\nInnovative Culture: Work in a collaborative environment that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.\n\nRemote Work: We are a 100% remote company. Enjoy the flexibility to work in the way that supports you and brings out your best.\n\nCompetitive Compensation: We offer competitive salary and benefits which includes health, vision & dental care for you and your family, a flexible vacation policy, and generous parental leave.\n\nYou Belong Here\nHorizon3 is not just an equal opportunity employer - we are a community that values diversity, equity, and inclusion as fundamental principles of our culture and success. We are dedicated to fostering a workplace where everyone feels welcome and respected, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, or any other legally protected status by law.\nOur commitment to diversity and inclusion means we strive to attract, develop, and retain a workforce that reflects the varied communities we serve. We believe that diverse perspectives drive innovation and strengthen our ability to create cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions. At Horizon3, every team member is valued and supported in an environment that encourages personal and professional growth.\nWe welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences, and we encourage all qualified individuals to apply. Come be a part of Horizon3, where your unique contributions are recognized, and your potential is limitless.\nOther Duties\nPlease note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.\nApplication Note\nIn any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. 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