Principal Software Engineer

Location: Herndon, VA, Reston, VA, Tysons Corner, VA, Dulles, VA OR Columbia, MD

Department: Evergreens

Position Overview

This position is part of a dynamic team at the forefront of prototyping infrastructure designs to support the next generation of cyber network operations. In this role, you will contribute to developing a platform that simplifies complex infrastructure management across cloud-native and on-premises environments. Your work will involve architecting scalable systems, implementing GitOps workflows for version-controlled and automated operations, and designing declarative interfaces. The goal is to create tools and processes that bridge the gap between development and operations, enhancing productivity and reliability in diverse infrastructure settings. The role presents unique opportunities, such as regular customer interaction to iterate, streamline, and multiply platform capabilities to meet customer objectives of broad deployment and exceptional flexibility. You will be expected to provide architectural design leadership, systems design leadership, and elegant solutions to pressing operational challenges.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead prototyping efforts to validate design concepts and technologies, while supporting the full project lifecycle from discovery to production support
• Communicate through thoughtful and thorough design documents for new initiatives
• Develop robust and high-quality software aligned with the overall product vision, balancing user requirements with strategic goals and consistently delivering working solutions on schedule
• Build and integrate automated testing into the product’s codebase
• Foster a collaborative team environment, mentoring junior developers and coordinating efforts across cross-functional teams to ensure project success

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline. (Degree requirement can be met with four years of hands-on experience in a Software Engineering or similar full-time position.)
• Current US TS/SCI security clearance
• Ability to collaborate as a team but execute independently
• Thrives in a high-trust, adaptable team environment
• Familiar with contributing to or leading the design of new capabilities
• Experience writing code in a general-purpose language such as Python or GoLang
• Proficient with Kubernetes (K8s) deployment strategies, cluster lifecycle (deployment, troubleshooting, scaling), and container orchestration
• Experience implementing modern DevOps practices and tools (e.g., CI/CD, IaC, GitOps) in production deployment workflows
• Proficient in containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Podman)
• Familiarity with Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) utilities (Crossplane, Backstage)

Desired Qualifications

• Experience designing and implementing solutions on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Experience building and operating Go-based microservice distributed system architectures

Salary Range: $123,000 - $308,000