Who we are:

Raft (https://TeamRaft.com) 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:

As a Principal Platform Engineer, your day begins with architecting, developing, and implementing end-to-end cluster and application lifecycles, ensuring secure and efficient processes. Along the way, you will collaborate with HHS clients, designing and executing bespoke Kubernetes or Docker solutions tailored to their unique requirements. These may span on-premises to cloud-based solutions. A significant portion of your day is dedicated to constructing and perfecting CI/CD pipelines, which aids in the rapid and reliable delivery of software updates. Finally, you will oversee the application of GitOps principles for software delivery, reinforcing the use of version control and enabling a more streamlined and dependable deployment process.

What we are looking for:

• 7 years of hands-on experience with Kubernetes or Docker, provisioning production clusters and maintaining their compliance 
• The ability to architect, develop, and implement end-to-end cluster and application lifecycles 
• Proven experience architecting, developing, and implementing Kubernetes and/or experience with AWS and cloud technologies
• Knowledgeable in Agile, DevOps, and DevSecOps methodologies, practices and culture
• Strong networking experience at all levels of the OSI model
• Hands-on experience managing and integrating Service Mesh, such as Istio
• Strong knowledge of version control systems like GitLab, along with the ability to maintain/operate GitLab in the cloud or on-premises
• Ability to lead the development, maintenance, and improvement of our Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline using cloud services and automation tools
• Proven experience in software systems development via CI/CD pipelines 
• Experience with designing and implementing enterprise-grade, scalable cloud-based services to support our development teams
• Implement GitOps for Software Delivery, i.e., FluxCD, ArgoCD
• Experience with Log Management and Analytics tools such as PLG/Splunk/ELK
• Experience with building, deployment, release automation, or orchestration
• Demonstrated experience setting up one or more of the following tools: AWS Cloud Services, GitLab, Ansible, Maven, Gradle, Single-Sign-On
• Experience with Unit/Integration Testing (e.g., Junit, SonarQube, Fortify, Trivy)
• Experience with building, deployment, release automation, or orchestration 
• Experience with securing and hardening Linux virtual machines and containers
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, etc.) 
• Experience building and consuming microservices - RESTful APIs, SOAP APIs, Web Services
• Problem solving aptitude
• Passionate about automation, system efficiency, and security
• Stay current with industry trends, making recommendations as needed to help the company excel
• Obtain Security within the first 90 days of employment with Raft

Highly preferred:

• Solid understanding of writing custom Helm Charts
• Experience with Big Data such as Kafka, Hadoop, and Cassandra
• Polyglot experience using a variety of programming languages and their package managers/dependency managers such as Maven, Gradle, NPM, and Yarn 
• Proven experience with Istio Service Mesh 
• Experience with supporting enterprise Cloud applications or infrastructure 
• Passionate about building automation in languages like Python, GoLang, or Typescript
• Certifications such as CKA, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

Clearance Requirements:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a public trust 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.