Principal Platform Engineer

Principal Platform Engineer – Satellite Data & Analytics Scale-Up

Fairfax County, VA (Hybrid) | U.S. Person (ITAR) | Full-Time

We’re working with a well-funded space technology scale-up that’s redefining how RF data is collected and used for global insight. With a proprietary satellite constellation and a data analytics platform that’s gaining serious traction in defense, intelligence, and commercial sectors, this company is growing fast – and now seeking a Principal Platform Engineer to help architect and optimize the infrastructure powering it all.

This is a mission-critical hire for the Platform Engineering team – responsible for enabling the internal development teams by building and maintaining secure, efficient, and cost-effective platforms in AWS. You’ll play a lead technical role in the evolution of their platform architecture, owning design, deployment, and performance improvements across multiple services and applications.

What You’ll Do

• Own the design, deployment, and ongoing support of core infrastructure in AWS

• Guide architectural decisions around EKS/Kubernetes, security posture, scalability, and performance

• Collaborate with Platform, Data, and Software teams to understand platform needs and unblock development

• Provide senior-level troubleshooting and root cause analysis for production systems

• Help govern cost-efficiency, access control, and automation best practices

• Mentor other engineers and influence the adoption of modern platform engineering tools and patterns

• Evaluate and onboard new technologies (e.g. Crossplane, Kyverno, ArgoCD) as appropriate

What You Bring

• 10+ years’ professional experience in platform engineering, DevOps, or cloud infrastructure

• Strong hands-on experience with AWS services: EKS, EC2, RDS, S3, VPC, IAM, etc.

• In-depth knowledge of Kubernetes architecture and experience deploying Helm charts

• Advanced understanding of networking (TCP/IP, DNS, firewalls, load balancers)

• Comfortable with Terraform, Docker, Linux OS administration, and patch management

• Proven experience deploying secure infrastructure and enforcing least-privilege access

• Skilled in troubleshooting production systems and running CI/CD pipelines

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across cross-functional teams

• U.S. Citizenship (due to ITAR requirements)

⭐ Bonus Points For

• Experience with Kubernetes ecosystem tools: Crossplane, Kyverno, ArgoCD, etc.

• Exposure to OIDC/SAML authentication tools like Keycloak or Okta

• Familiarity with observability stacks (Grafana, Loki, Tempo, etc.)

• Experience building secure Docker containers for custom workloads

• Awareness of data infrastructure tools (e.g. Snowflake, Tableau)

Why Join?

• High-impact scale-up – This company is one of the few smallsat ventures showing real product-market fit and profitability.

• End-to-end ownership – Touch everything from low-level infrastructure to end-user tooling.

• Modern tech – Work on an AWS-native stack, influence Kubernetes direction, and implement best practices.

• Flexible hybrid setup – Prefer candidates local to Northern Virginia, but relocation or remote options considered for top talent.

• Solid comp – Base salary up to $200K + 25% bonus + strong benefits.

• Make a difference – Join a team where your work directly impacts real-world outcomes in national security, humanitarian, and commercial domains.

Location & Requirements

• Location : Herndon, Virginia (preferred local for hybrid model – ~2 days onsite/week)

• Remote : Fully remote considered for exceptional candidates

• Citizenship : U.S. Person

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Adam Slade