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

Role Description

As a Solutions Architect at Defense Unicorns, you'll serve as the primary technical point of contact during customer engagements, working closely with business development, engineering, and product teams to ensure that our offerings are both compelling and relevant to our government and defense customers.

This role combines deep technical knowledge with strong communication and problem-solving skills. You'll be responsible for delivering live product demos, maintaining infrastructure for proof-of-concept environments, and supporting the long and complex sales cycles typical in the defense sector. Your mission is to ensure that prospective customers not only understand what our technology does, but believe in what it can do for them.

This is a hands-on, customer-facing role ideal for someone who thrives in fast-paced, evolving environments, brings practical experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure, and is passionate about making a tangible impact on national security through technology.

Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted advisor for customers and their technical needs, challenges, and goals during customer engagements.

• Participate in sales calls and business development meetings, often as the primary technical contact; travel as required to support on-site engagements.

• Discover real mission needs beyond surface-level requirements; ask probing questions to understand core mission challenges and align our solutions accordingly.

• Architect solutions based on potential customer requirements and clearly articulate those solutions.

• Maintain Kubernetes-based technical demo environments and lead live, hands-on demonstrations of our UDS Core platform and capabilities.

• Build and deliver technical proof-of-concepts, including live installations and technical walkthroughs to validate platform capabilities in real time.

• Troubleshoot Kubernetes, containers, cloud infrastructure, networking, and deployment issues during customer demonstrations and technical engagements.

• Support long defense sales cycles by delivering proof-of-concepts, follow-up demos, and ongoing technical guidance.

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.

Clearance Requirement

An active Secret security clearance is required at the time of hire.

Travel Expectations

Travel as required to support customer engagements, on-site demonstrations, and mission needs.

Required Experience and Qualifications

• Hands-on experience deploying, configuring, and troubleshooting Kubernetes and containerized environments.
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure), Linux, networking, and infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform, OpenTofu, or similar technologies.
• Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native software delivery practices.
• Ability to clearly explain complex systems to a variety of audiences, from deeply technical engineers to non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable doing live deployments, troubleshooting in real time, and adjusting technical depth based on the audience.
• Able to read the room, admit mistakes, pivot as needed, and keep demos engaging and informative.
• Collaborative by nature, working effectively with cross-functional teams and preparing with business development counterparts to tailor customer engagements.
• Proactive and self-directed in building and maintaining infrastructure, finding answers, and pushing opportunities forward.
• Passionate about the national security mission and motivated by the opportunity to solve real problems for people in mission-critical roles.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

• Experience supporting DoD, federal government, or other mission-critical customer environments.
• Familiarity with secure, classified, disconnected, or air-gapped environments.
• Experience with GitOps, Helm, Kustomize, ArgoCD, or similar Kubernetes deployment technologies.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, container security, and secure software delivery.
• Experience with UDS, Zarf, Fleet, Platform One, Iron Bank, or similar technologies.
• Experience supporting complex technical customer engagements, including discovery, solution architecture, demonstrations, and proof-of-concept delivery.