About the Role

We are seeking a mission-driven Rust Software Engineer to build resilient software systems that enable human-machine-AI teaming and autonomous capabilities for military operators at the tactical edge.

In this role, you will design and implement high-performance systems in Rust that operate in constrained, contested environments. You will contribute across the full system lifecycle — from architecture and hardware integration through simulation, testing, and field deployment.

You will work alongside engineers, researchers, and operators to develop systems that fuse sensing, autonomy, and decision support while ensuring traceable, deterministic builds and reliable deployments in mission-critical environments.

This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy systems programming, autonomy, and solving real-world problems for national security missions.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement high-performance, distributed, software systems in Rust, targeting cloud-native as well as resource-constrained and edge computing environments
  
  
• Participate in system architecture, network topologies, hardware part evaluation, and engineering reviews for both existing product revisions and new systems
  
  
• Develop software/models systems that supports human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop autonomy workflows for distributed operations
  
  
• Build infrastructure enabling deterministic builds, reproducible environments, and configuration management to ensure traceability and maintainability
  
  
• Implement and maintain systems with over-the-air (OTA) update mechanisms for field-deployed systems - virtual machines, containers, and embedded packages
  
  
• Integrate software with microcontroller peripherals and hardware buses (SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, USB, AXI, etc.)
  
  
• Develop and execute comprehensive experiment and test strategies including:
  
  
• Unit testing
• Software-in-the-Loop (SITL)
• Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL)
• Functional, end-to-end system/field/scale testing
  
  
• Collaborate with mission heroes and multidisciplinary teams to deploy and sustain systems, supporting integration and various exercises and operational events
  
  
• Optimize systems for performance, reliability, power consumption, and maintainability
  
  

Required Qualifications

• Professional experience in software engineering, embedded systems, or firmware development - delivering production-grade product
  
  
• Strong proficiency in Rust - experience in low-level, embedded or no_std environments a bonus
  
  
• Experience integrating with microcontroller peripherals and hardware interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, USB, etc.)
  
  
• Familiarity with software design, algorithm implementation, debugging/testing/profiling, and performance optimization
  
  
• Working knowledge of:
  
  
• Distributed systems, data-distribution and network architectures
• Networking protocols and technologies (TCP/UDP, BLE/LoRa, routing)
• Trust systems, certificate management, and encryption schemes
• Modern data patterns, CRDTs, offline-first, synchronization/replication

• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering disciplines
  
  
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret / SCI security clearance
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing autonomy, robotics, or human-machine-AI teaming systems
  
  
• Experience applying machine learning techniques, including supervised/unsupervised learning, clustering, and classification
  
  
• Experience with software-defined radio, MANET, and industrial/robotics communications systems
  
  
• Experience optimizing systems for speed, size, power consumption, and cost
  
  
• Experience contributing to open-source projects or industry standards bodies
  
  
• Experience deploying systems in contested or disconnected edge environments
  
  

What You’ll Work On

• Distributed autonomy platforms that assist operators in decision-making and mission execution
  
  
• Human-machine-AI collaboration systems operating around the globe
  
  
• Real-time sensor integration, edge processing, and data distribution
• Robust deployment infrastructure enabling secure, trusted/traceable updates in fielded systems
  
  
• Systems that must operate reliably in degraded, disconnected, or adversarial environments

Role Description: 

Defense Unicorns is seeking Software Engineers (Mid and Senior) to join our UDS Product Engineering team. You’ll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and end users to ensure we’re building the right solutions, and building them well.

As a Software Engineer, you’ll operate at the intersection of product development and technical execution. You’ll contribute to and, at times, lead the design, implementation, and deployment of features and systems that have direct impact on mission outcomes. Our engineers work across a portfolio that includes

• UDS Registry — reliably manage and deploy UDS packages to any mission environment  
• Zarf — an open source tool enabling continuous software delivery on disconnected systems  
• 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

The UDS Product Engineering team values action, ownership, and focus, taking initiative to see work through from idea to impact.

How You’ll Contribute:

Mid-level Software Engineer:

• Deliver high-quality, production-ready code with strong testing and reliability practices
• Own well-scoped features and systems end-to-end
• Contribute to design discussions and implementation decisions
• Navigate ambiguity with increasing independence
• Build deep understanding of the systems and domains you work in

Senior Software Engineer:

• Lead design and implementation of complex systems across teams
• Own and be accountable for systems or major components end-to-end
• Drive technical direction and influence product decisions
• Operate effectively in ambiguity and define clear paths forward
• Mentor other engineers and elevate engineering standards

Responsibilities: 

• Build, ship, and maintain features and systems that support mission-critical environments
• Contribute to system design, architecture, and implementation decisions
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and design to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Identify and reduce ambiguity in product and technical requirements
• Debug, optimize, and support production systems (including on-call rotation)
• Integrate with existing defense systems while ensuring interoperability and security compliance
• Contribute to and support the open source ecosystems we depend on
• Develop and maintain technical documentation (designs, runbooks, user guides)
• Participates in a shared 24x7 on-call rotation, owning incident response, troubleshooting, and coordination to ensure reliable production systems

Additionally, Senior Software Engineers will:

• Own architectural decisions and ensure technical quality across systems
• Lead cross-team initiatives and complex technical efforts
• Influence product direction through deep user and system understanding
• Provide mentorship and raise the bar for engineering practices

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 dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise. 

Preferred Experience and Qualifications:

• 3+ years (Mid) or 5+ years (Senior) experience in software engineering
• Proficiency in Go or other modern programming languages
• Strong understanding of system design, APIs, databases, and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, etc.)
• Experience building tools focused on software lifecycle and delivery
• Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts (Controllers, Operators, CRDs)
• Experience with supply chain security (SBOMs, signing, scanning, etc.)
• Experience contributing to open source projects (CNCF, ASF, OpenSSF, etc.) is a strong plus
• Ability to solve complex problems and deliver pragmatic, scalable solutions
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical audiences