Senior Platform Software Engineer

District Partners is supporting a rapidly growing technology organization building advanced software, AI-driven platforms, and cloud-native solutions within highly regulated environments. As the company establishes its U.S. engineering presence, they are seeking a Sr. Platform Software Engineer who can help build the foundational systems, tooling, automation, and engineering practices that will support future growth.

This is a rare opportunity to join early and help define how software is developed, tested, deployed, secured, and operated across the organization. The ideal individual combines strong software engineering fundamentals with deep infrastructure expertise and enjoys owning technical solutions across multiple phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

Why You'll Actually Care

This is not a traditional cloud engineering or infrastructure administration role.

The organization is looking for an engineer who understands how software moves from concept to production and can build the platforms, tooling, automation, and infrastructure that make that process scalable, secure, and efficient.

As an early member of the U.S. engineering organization, you'll have significant influence over software delivery practices, platform architecture, cloud infrastructure, developer tooling, automation frameworks, engineering standards, and operational maturity as the organization grows.

The Basics

A well-funded technology company supporting complex, mission-critical environments. The organization combines modern software engineering practices, cloud-native technologies, artificial intelligence initiatives, and advanced data capabilities to solve challenging operational problems.

The U.S. engineering organization is in its early stages, creating a rare opportunity for an experienced engineer to help shape foundational technical decisions from the outset. Engineering investment is accelerating, and leadership is committed to building a world-class platform capable of supporting significant future growth.

What You'll Be Owning

• Designing, developing, and maintaining the infrastructure foundation that supports modern software development and deployment
• Writing clean, maintainable, production-quality code to build internal tooling, automation frameworks, developer utilities, and platform services
• Developing Python-based automation and operational tooling that improves engineering efficiency, deployment velocity, and platform scalability
• Building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, deployment frameworks, release automation, and software delivery workflows
• Supporting software throughout its lifecycle, including development, testing, deployment, monitoring, maintenance, and continuous improvement
• Building Infrastructure as Code frameworks using Terraform and cloud-native technologies
• Designing and supporting Kubernetes-based platforms that enable secure and scalable application delivery
• Supporting DevOps and MLOps workflows that enable software delivery, AI model deployment, and operational scalability
• Working across software engineering, infrastructure, security, compliance, and operations to deliver reliable technical solutions
• Helping establish engineering standards, SDLC best practices, platform architecture, and future technical direction as the organization grows

Software Engineering Expectations

• This is a hands-on engineering role where writing code is a meaningful part of the position
• Candidates should be comfortable building internal applications, tooling, automation frameworks, APIs, services, and platform capabilities rather than relying solely on infrastructure configuration
• Success in this role requires the ability to solve infrastructure, operational, and developer productivity challenges through software development and automation
• Experience writing production-quality code in Python, Rust, Go, Java, or similar modern programming languages is highly valued

What You Bring To The Table

• 8+ years of experience across Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, Infrastructure Engineering, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, or related disciplines
• Demonstrated experience participating directly in multiple phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), including software development, testing, deployment, release management, operations, and ongoing platform support
• Strong software development experience and the ability to write clean, maintainable code in Python, Rust, Go, Java, or similar modern programming languages
• Experience building internal tooling, automation frameworks, developer utilities, APIs, services, or platform capabilities through software development rather than infrastructure administration alone
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles, source control, testing methodologies, application architecture, observability, and modern software delivery practices
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and engineering workflows
• Deep hands-on experience designing and supporting AWS cloud environments, including AWS GovCloud and secure cloud architectures
• Strong Infrastructure as Code expertise utilizing Terraform or similar technologies
• Experience supporting Kubernetes and containerized application environments
• Ability to operate as both a hands-on engineer and technical leader
• Strong communication skills and ability to influence technical decision-making across engineering teams

Also Valued

• Experience supporting government, defense, national security, aerospace, or similarly regulated environments
• Experience with AWS GovCloud, CMMC, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, or comparable compliance frameworks
• Experience supporting machine learning infrastructure, AI platforms, or MLOps environments
• Familiarity with Rust and modern developer tooling ecosystems
• Experience building internal engineering platforms and developer experience tooling
• Previous experience helping scale engineering organizations within startup or high-growth technology environments
• Experience working within ambiguous environments where processes, tooling, and engineering standards are still being established

The Environment

This is a highly influential hire with the opportunity to help establish the engineering, platform, and infrastructure foundations that will support the organization's long-term growth. Many of the processes, tooling standards, platform capabilities, and architectural decisions are still being defined, creating an opportunity for someone who enjoys building and scaling environments rather than inheriting mature systems.

The environment is highly collaborative, technically ambitious, and startup-oriented. Engineers are expected to take ownership, operate independently, and contribute across multiple disciplines. Success requires a balance of software engineering, platform thinking, infrastructure expertise, and a willingness to solve problems that do not yet have predefined answers.

Who Will Thrive Here

The strongest candidates will have experience that extends beyond traditional cloud infrastructure or systems administration. Successful individuals often have backgrounds spanning software development, platform engineering, DevOps, developer tooling, automation, infrastructure engineering, and site reliability engineering.

This role is best suited for engineers who understand how software is built, tested, deployed, and operated and who enjoy owning technical solutions across multiple phases of the SDLC.

The client is specifically seeking a software engineer with strong infrastructure expertise rather than an infrastructure architect whose experience has been concentrated primarily in cloud administration, AWS architecture, or platform support.

A Few Things Worth Knowing

Compensation: $180,000 - $230,000 base salary plus equity and comprehensive benefits

Employment Type: Direct Hire

Location: Arlington, Va

Work Model: Hybrid. While there is no formal onsite cadence, candidates should anticipate spending approximately 2 days per week onsite on average. The organization recently invested in a state-of-the-art office environment and places a strong value on in-person collaboration, technical problem-solving, and team engagement. Onsite expectations may fluctuate based on project priorities, team activities, and business growth initiatives.

Growth Opportunity: This role offers significant influence over platform architecture, engineering standards, software delivery practices, developer tooling, and cloud infrastructure strategy as the U.S. engineering organization continues to expand.

Clearance: U.S. citizenship required. Ability to obtain a security clearance required; active clearance preferred but not required.