Data Engineer – Space

Defense Unicorns

Data Engineer implementing UDS Data Capability in remote defense environments. Collaborating with mission heroes and integrating data solutions in classified contexts.

Posted 6/19/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $123,250 - $166,750 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AirflowApacheFluxKafkaKubernetesLinuxPostgresSparkSQLTerraformTypeScript

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Deploy and harden UDS Data Capability in the mission hero's environment.
Own the integration with what they already have.
Build pipelines that move data through classification boundaries.
Operate what you deploy — initial day-2 ownership: capacity, performance, backup/restore (Velero).
Generate accreditation artifacts.
Be the voice of the mission hero back to product and engineering.
Train and transfer — leave the mission hero's team self-sufficient.
Grow junior Data Engineer FDEs.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Data engineering breadth
Lakehouse & storage — production experience with Apache Iceberg (or Delta/Hudi), object storage (Ceph/S3-compatible), Postgres (including extensions like pgvector), and at least one columnar/OLAP engine (Trino, DuckDB, ClickHouse, Spark SQL).
Streaming & integration — Kafka (preferably Strimzi on Kubernetes), Flink or equivalent stream processing, CDC patterns (Debezium).
Pipelines & orchestration — Airflow, Dagster, Argo Workflows, or similar.
Governance, catalog & access — REST catalogs (Iceberg REST, Polaris/Gravitino/Nessie family), ABAC/RBAC patterns, OIDC/OAuth.
Data modeling & SQL — fluent in SQL; comfortable designing schemas for both analytical and operational workloads.
Kubernetes in production — deployments, operators, CRDs, storage classes, networking.
Linux fundamentals, container runtime behavior, networking, TLS, secrets management.
IaC (Terraform, Pulumi, or similar) and GitOps patterns (Flux, ArgoCD).
Active DoD security clearance required — TS/SCI preferred; minimum active Secret with the ability to obtain TS/SCI.
Comfort being the technical face of Defense Unicorns to a mission hero — listening before prescribing, writing clearly, briefing technical and non-technical stakeholders, and saying "I don't know yet, let me find out" without losing the room.
Self-direction. The mission hero's environment will surprise you, and the answer often isn't in the documentation yet — you'll write it.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Medical/Dental/Vision
Premiums are 100% Company Paid
Health Savings Account
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
401k Retirement Plan
Company Stock Options
Home Office Budget
Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays
Paid Parental Leave
Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

data engineeringApache IcebergDeltaHudiPostgresTrinoDuckDBClickHouseSpark SQLKafka

Soft Skills

self-directioncommunicationtrainingleadershiplisteningbriefingproblem-solvingadaptabilitytechnical facecollaboration

Certifications

active DoD security clearanceTS/SCISecret