Summary
✨ AI‑Generated
A founding engineering opportunity focused on building secure deployment infrastructure for mission-critical environments. The role requires strong Linux, Kubernetes, and DevOps expertise, with opportunities to design systems, work on advanced projects, and make a significant technical impact.
Highlights
High-impact founding engineering role with strong compensation, relocation support, and the opportunity to build secure deployment systems from the ground up.
Description
Founding Deployment Engineer | Remote (US) / Washington, DC | $135K–$215K + Relocation
Location: Washington, DC — travel to customer sites 20-40%
Comp: $135,000–$215,000 base (DOE, clearance level, and certs)
Must-have: 4+ years Linux sysadmin + Kubernetes + DevOps/SRE, comfortable in secure/high-side environments
Relocation assistance available: $5,000–$7,500
My client is a next-gen defense tech company based in Washington, DC, building secure infrastructure and mission-ready software for the DoD, the Intelligence Community, and federal law enforcement.
They move fast, ship in weeks not months, and are led by technologists and veterans who've actually lived the mission — not just sold to it.
Funded to the tune of $100M, ~100 people strong, with a tight ~10-person engineering team shipping code that matters at the national level.
This is a founding role.
You won't be employee #4,000 lost in a hierarchy — you'll be the person who builds the deployment engineering function from scratch, sets the standards, and eventually grows the team under you.
What you'll be doing:
Stand up and lead the deployment engineering function as founding engineer — setting technical direction and operational standards for how software ships into accredited environmentsOwn the full deployment lifecycle: packaging, configuration, release, upgrade, rollback across cloud, on-prem, and disconnected network enclavesManage Kubernetes clusters, workload configuration, resource allocation, and namespace/tenancy across environments with differing accreditation constraintsOperate and maintain Linux infrastructure in air-gapped and high-side production environmentsBuild and support CI/CD and configuration-management workflows, automating routine deployment and ops tasksPartner closely with the software engineering team to make sure their applications deploy and run reliably inside accredited, disconnected environmentsIntegrate security tooling into the deployment pipeline — run scans, triage findings, remediate vulnerabilitiesTravel to customer sites (30-40%) to deploy and support mission-critical systems, including potential locations in Hawaii and overseasBuild out the deployment engineering team over time as the function scales
What you'll need:
4+ years of experience in Linux systems administration, Kubernetes, and DevOps/SREHands-on Kubernetes cluster management and container deployment expertiseComfortable working independently in secure, high-side environmentsA track record of building deployment pipelines and maintaining production infrastructureBonus: experience operating in air-gapped or classified government environments
Tech stack: Linux, RHEL, Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker, Podman, Terraform, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Helm, AWS, Azure, GCP, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, Go, Python, Bash
Sound like your next move? Drop a comment or DM me directly.
