Senior Software Engineer - Rust

About the Role

We are seeking a mission-driven Rust Software Engineer to build resilient software systems that enable human-machine-AI teaming and autonomous capabilities for military operators at the tactical edge.

In this role, you will design and implement high-performance systems in Rust that operate in constrained, contested environments. You will contribute across the full system lifecycle — from architecture and hardware integration through simulation, testing, and field deployment.

You will work alongside engineers, researchers, and operators to develop systems that fuse sensing, autonomy, and decision support while ensuring traceable, deterministic builds and reliable deployments in mission-critical environments.

This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy systems programming, autonomy, and solving real-world problems for national security missions.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement high-performance, distributed, software systems in Rust, targeting cloud-native as well as resource-constrained and edge computing environments

• Participate in system architecture, network topologies, hardware part evaluation, and engineering reviews for both existing product revisions and new systems

• Develop software/models systems that supports human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop autonomy workflows for distributed operations

• Build infrastructure enabling deterministic builds, reproducible environments, and configuration management to ensure traceability and maintainability

• Implement and maintain systems with over-the-air (OTA) update mechanisms for field-deployed systems - virtual machines, containers, and embedded packages

• Integrate software with microcontroller peripherals and hardware buses (SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, USB, AXI, etc.)

• Develop and execute comprehensive experiment and test strategies including:

• Unit testing

• Software-in-the-Loop (SITL)

• Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL)

• Functional, end-to-end system/field/scale testing

• Collaborate with mission heroes and multidisciplinary teams to deploy and sustain systems, supporting integration and various exercises and operational events

• Optimize systems for performance, reliability, power consumption, and maintainability

Required Qualifications

• Professional experience in software engineering, embedded systems, or firmware development - delivering production-grade product

• Strong proficiency in Rust - experience in low-level, embedded or no_std environments a bonus

• Experience integrating with microcontroller peripherals and hardware interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, USB, etc.)

• Familiarity with software design, algorithm implementation, debugging/testing/profiling, and performance optimization

• Working knowledge of:

• Distributed systems, data-distribution and network architectures

• Networking protocols and technologies (TCP/UDP, BLE/LoRa, routing)

• Trust systems, certificate management, and encryption schemes

• Modern data patterns, CRDTs, offline-first, synchronization/replication

• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering disciplines

• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret / SCI security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing autonomy, robotics, or human-machine-AI teaming systems

• Experience applying machine learning techniques, including supervised/unsupervised learning, clustering, and classification

• Experience with software-defined radio, MANET, and industrial/robotics communications systems

• Experience optimizing systems for speed, size, power consumption, and cost

• Experience contributing to open-source projects or industry standards bodies

• Experience deploying systems in contested or disconnected edge environments

What You’ll Work On

• Distributed autonomy platforms that assist operators in decision-making and mission execution

• Human-machine-AI collaboration systems operating around the globe

• Real-time sensor integration, edge processing, and data distribution

• Robust deployment infrastructure enabling secure, trusted/traceable updates in fielded systems

• Systems that must operate reliably in degraded, disconnected, or adversarial environments

Full compensation packages are based on candidate experience. Compensation ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States.

Remote - USA
$148,750—$201,250 USD

Who We Are

Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market.

What We Do

We create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily.

Who We Serve

Defense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products.

What We Work On

• Kubernetes

• Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)

• Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)

• Continuous Delivery and automation tooling

• GitOps

• Containers

• CNCF projects and open source products and packages

• Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping

• Building and improving security delivery

• Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy

Health:

• Medical/Dental/Vision

• Premiums are 100% Company Paid

• Health Reimbursement Account

• Life Insurance

• Disability Insurance

Financial:

• 401k Retirement Plan

• Company Stock Options

• Home Office Budget

Leave:

• We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s

• Paid Parental Leave

Learning:

• Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions

• Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)

Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed.

At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

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