Principal Platform Engineer

2 Days Old

Principal Platform Engineer – Satellite Data & Analytics Scale-Up Fairfax County, VA (Hybrid) | U.S. Person (ITAR) | Full-Time
Read on to find out what you will need to succeed in this position, including skills, qualifications, and experience. 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, HTTP, 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
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Location:
VA
Salary:
$100
Job Type:
FullTime
Category:
Engineering

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