Lead Engineer

This is a U.S. based position. All of the programs we support require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. All work must be conducted within the continental U.S.

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 McLean, VA. Our range of clients includes 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.

About the role: 

As a Lead Engineer, you'll use your experience to guide more than one software team on a path to production at a massive scale. You'll know where the pitfalls are and provide future-proof plans and mitigation strategies to other engineers. You'll also be hands-on in writing plugins, applications, webhooks, and modules that help more than 1 team in an enterprise environment.

What we are looking for:

• 10 years of building applications at scale in various languages with a JVM based language being at least one of them
• Experience working within DoD environments and understanding of the defense acquisition process
• Experience with design patterns and architectural decisions records (ADRs)
• Ability to design abstract modules, interfaces, classes, concepts that can be leveraged and customized by multiple software teams
• Experience in building event streaming applications using Kafka, Pulsar, or Red Panda
• Experience in recommending tooling choices to multiple teams based on their requirements
• Ability to explain highly complex technical details in plain language
• Deep understanding of CI/CD pipelines using various tools like GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, etc.
• Experience with 12 factor app principals and/or the reactive manifesto
• Experience deploying applications to Cloud Foundry and/or Kubernetes
• System architecture and design experience with technical product roadmap development
• Ability to present and demo to both external and internal stakeholders
• Passion for writing technical proposal documents such as white papers and RFI responses
• Exposure to U.S. Space Force operations, mission requirements, acquisitions, and space-based systems architecture, including familiarity with satellite communications, space situational awareness, and orbital mechanics concepts
• Obtain Security within the first 90 days of employment with Raft

Highly preferred:

• Track record of speaking at public facing conferences about software engineering principals
• Previous experience working for the Government, preferably in a Space Force-related capacity
• Knowledge radar of modern software trends and knowing their pros and cons
• War stories of running into issues while building large scale software applications

Clearance Requirements:

• Active Secret security clearance

Work Type: 

• Hybrid Colorado Springs onsite minimum 3 days a week
• May require up to 25% travel

Salary Range:

• $190,000- $220,000
• The determination of compensation is predicated upon a candidate's comprehensive experience, demonstrated skill, and proven abilities

What we will offer you:

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) and company match
• Take as you need PTO 11 paid holidays
• Education & training benefits
• 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.