Defense Unicorns is seeking a mission-driven Rust Software Engineer to build resilient software systems that enable human-machine-AI teaming and autonomous capabilities for military operators at the tactical edge. In this role, you will design and implement high-performance systems in Rust that operate in constrained, contested environments and contribute across the full system lifecycle.
What You'll Do
- Design and implement high-performance, distributed software systems in Rust, targeting cloud-native as well as resource-constrained and edge computing environments
- Participate in system architecture, network topologies, hardware part evaluation, and engineering reviews for both existing product revisions and new systems
- Develop software and model systems that support human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop autonomy workflows for distributed operations
- Build infrastructure enabling deterministic builds, reproducible environments, and configuration management to ensure traceability and maintainability
- Implement and maintain systems with over-the-air (OTA) update mechanisms for field-deployed systems including virtual machines, containers, and embedded packages
- Integrate software with microcontroller peripherals and hardware buses such as SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, USB, and AXI
- Develop and execute comprehensive experiment and test strategies including unit testing, Software-in-the-Loop, Hardware-in-the-Loop, and functional, end-to-end system, field, and scale testing
- Collaborate with mission heroes and multidisciplinary teams to deploy and sustain systems, supporting integration and various exercises and operational events
- Optimize systems for performance, reliability, power consumption, and maintainability
What We're Looking For
- Professional experience in software engineering, embedded systems, or firmware development delivering production-grade products
- Strong proficiency in Rust, with experience in low-level, embedded, or no_std environments a bonus
- Experience integrating with microcontroller peripherals and hardware interfaces like SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, and USB
- Familiarity with software design, algorithm implementation, debugging, testing, profiling, and performance optimization
- Working knowledge of distributed systems, data-distribution and network architectures
- Working knowledge of networking protocols and technologies including TCP/UDP, BLE/LoRa, and routing
- Working knowledge of trust systems, certificate management, and encryption schemes
- Working knowledge of modern data patterns, CRDTs, offline-first, and synchronization or replication
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering disciplines
- U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret / SCI security clearance
Nice to Have
- Experience developing autonomy, robotics, or human-machine-AI teaming systems
- Experience applying machine learning techniques, including supervised and unsupervised learning, clustering, and classification
- Experience with software-defined radio, MANET, and industrial or robotics communications systems
- Experience optimizing systems for speed, size, power consumption, and cost
- Experience contributing to open-source projects or industry standards bodies
- Experience deploying systems in contested or disconnected edge environments
Technical Stack
- Rust, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Azure
- Terraform/Pulumi, GitOps, Containers
- CNCF projects, Helm/Kustomize
Team & Environment
You will work alongside engineers, researchers, and operators in a multidisciplinary team.
Benefits & Compensation
- Compensation range: $148,750—$201,250 USD
- Medical, Dental, and Vision premiums 100% Company Paid
- Health Reimbursement Account
- Life Insurance and Disability Insurance
- 401k Retirement Plan and Company Stock Options
- Home Office Budget
- Flexible Time Off plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s
- Paid Parental Leave
- Reimbursement for approved trainings and subscriptions
- Conferences covered for travel, lodging, and fees
Work Mode
This is a remote position for candidates within the United States.
Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
