Software Engineer Level 3

Posted by Varite, Inc

Fort Meade, MD

Permanent

Pay Rate Range: $95 - $102.11/hr. on W2
Clearance Required: Active Top Secret/SCI with Full Scope (FS) Polygraph (within last 5 years)
Position Overview

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Level 3) to support a mission-critical program within the Intelligence Community at Fort Meade, MD.
This is an on-site SCIF position requiring a TS/SCI clearance with an active Full Scope Polygraph prior to consideration.
The SWE Level 3 is a senior engineer capable of designing, implementing, and improving distributed application orchestration logic across a Kubernetes-native platform in a classified environment. This role carries architectural authority and mentorship responsibility: the successful candidate will lead the development of reusable Helm charts, GitOps templates, and deployment strategies; contribute to platform-wide architecture decisions; and guide junior engineers through design decisions and tradeoffs.

Key Responsibilities
Distributed Application Orchestration and Kubernetes Platform

Design scalable workflows for deploying and managing Kubernetes-native applications including multi-tenant and multi-cluster configurations
Lead development of reusable Helm charts, GitOps templates, and deployment strategies
Build system-aware controllers or agents that automate application lifecycle tasks
Contribute to platform-wide architecture decisions including deployment strategy, multi-cluster config, and observability

Event-Driven and Agent-Based Systems

Design and implement event-driven architectures using Kafka, controller patterns, or equivalent technologies
Build and maintain custom Kubernetes controllers and operators using Go or Python
Ensure event-driven systems meet reliability and security requirements for classified operations

Infrastructure Automation and DevOps

Implement infrastructure-as-code using Terraform, cloud-init, Ansible, or equivalent tooling
Support GitOps pipeline design using ArgoCD, Fleet, or equivalent
Collaborate with DevOps and platform teams to ensure secure, compliant deployments
Contribute to CI/CD pipeline design and code review standards

Leadership and Mentorship

Mentor junior and mid-level engineers; conduct code reviews for reliability and security
Guide the team through design decisions and engineering tradeoffs
Help shape internal standards, shared tooling, and reusable component frameworks
Think in systems, not just services: evaluate cross-cutting concerns in all designs

Security-Compliant Deployments

Ensure containerized deployments adhere to DISA STIGs and program security policies
Balance automation and operator oversight in classified environments
Support secure secrets management and certificate lifecycle integration in Kubernetes

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field. Equivalent experience may be substituted.
Experience: 8+ years of software engineering experience, with majority in cloud-native, Kubernetes-based, or distributed systems contexts.

Additional Required Qualifications:

Active TS/SCI clearance with Full Scope Polygraph - must be active prior to start
Deep experience coding in Go and/or Python in cloud-native contexts
Strong Kubernetes expertise: CRDs, Helm, GitOps, multi-tenant deployments
Experience with event-driven or agent-based systems (Kafka, controller patterns)
Familiarity with infrastructure automation (Terraform, Ansible)
Demonstrated end-to-end system component delivery ownership
Proven mentorship and technical leadership capability
Comfortable balancing automation with operator oversight in classified environments

Desired Skills