Principal Platform Engineer

Who we are:

Raft (https://goraft.tech) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional small business with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development, with headquarters in Reston, VA. Our range of clients include innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting edge tech stack, and cloud native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

We’re looking for an experienced Principal Platform Engineer to support our customer and join our passionate team of high-impact problem solvers. This is a unique opportunity to help build and shape a game-changing organization where we put our customers and people first.

About the role:

The Principal Platform Services Engineer has senior software engineering experience building and operating hybrid-infrastructure developer platforms (private and commercial cloud infrastructure).
Our engineer will have experience developing platform APIs that make common software operations scalable and repeatable. You will feel comfortable maintaining the underlying services required to host containerized applications. If you enjoy ad-hoc problem solving, where no two days are the same, this job is for you. You are excited to tackle problems you have not seen before and are comfortable dealing with difficult situations with grace and understanding, looking to help people interpret the problem correctly. 

What we are looking for:

• Highly experienced in developing containerized services deployed in production on Kubernetes, and ideally leading teams that do
• Five-plus (5+) years of experience building developer platform services and APIs that scale in production
• Five-plus (5+) years of experience building production services using Cloud Infrastructure Providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud
• Three-plus (3+) years of experience in Identity and Access Lifecycle Management Operations and Controls
• Understanding of the DevSecOps pipeline, including scanning for security issues is good to have
• Deep understanding of modern microservices architectures, design patterns, resiliency techniques, and optimizations.

Highly preferred:

• Knowledge of application development processes is nice to have, to include Python and Java familiarity
• Automation, scripting, and coding experience would be a plus
• Terraform knowledge good to have
• Security+ Certification
• Active Top Secret Clearance

Clearance Requirements:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret clearance

Work Type:

• Remote

What we will offer you:  

• Highly competitive salary 
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage 
• 401(k) and company match 
• Unlimited PTO + 11 paid holidays 
• Education & training benefits 
• Annual budget for your tech/gadgets needs 
• Monthly box of yummy snacks to eat while doing meaningful work 
• Team off-site in fun places! 
• Generous Referral Bonuses 
• And More!

Our Vision Statement:  

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission.

Our Customer Obsession:

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there?

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm.

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.