Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer, US Government (Baseline Team)

Title of Role: Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer (US Government)
Location: Washington, D.C. (Hybrid)
Company Stage of Funding: Public Company
Office Type: Hybrid (Washington, D.C. + up to 50% travel)
Salary: $135,000 – $200,000 base + equity

Company Description

Our client is a publicly traded, mission-driven technology company operating at the forefront of national security, defense, and large-scale data systems. Their platforms power some of the most critical infrastructure and operational workflows across government environments — from cloud to on-prem to edge deployments in complex, high-security networks.

This team serves as the infrastructure backbone for hundreds of production environments globally. Engineers here work on systems that directly impact real-world operations, partnering closely with forward-deployed and product engineering teams to ensure performance, reliability, and scalability at scale.

This is a rare opportunity to join a high-caliber infrastructure team where you will both build and operate mission-critical systems — with real ownership from day one.

What You Will Do

As a Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer, you will operate at the intersection of software engineering, systems design, and production operations.

You will:

• Build, deploy, and maintain high-performance, scalable infrastructure across cloud, on-prem, and restricted environments

• Own production systems end-to-end, including monitoring, alerting, upgrades, and lifecycle management

• Deploy new platform capabilities into customer environments and lead infrastructure migrations

• Debug and optimize distributed systems for long-term reliability and scalability

• Automate manual workflows, operational processes, and runbooks wherever possible

• Partner with forward-deployed and product engineering teams on systems design and production readiness

• Participate in an on-call rotation supporting mission-critical environments

• Travel up to 50% to support deployments and operational needs

Every day is different — you may be launching a new environment, scaling Kubernetes clusters in a restricted network, or diagnosing a production issue impacting a high-priority mission.

Ideal Candidate Background

We’re looking for early-career engineers (1–3 years of experience) who are builders first — not just operators.

Strong candidates will have:

• 1–3 years of experience in infrastructure engineering, SRE, or production-focused software engineering

• Hands-on experience building and deploying production systems (not solely support or ticket-based work)

• Strong proficiency in Java

• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker)

• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or Ansible

• Experience working in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

• Strong Linux systems knowledge

• A degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field

• Active U.S. security clearance (Top Secret or higher preferred)

• Ability to work in the Washington, D.C. area and travel as required

This role requires U.S. work authorization and eligibility to obtain or maintain required security credentials consistent with government contract requirements.

Preferred

• Experience in defense technology or highly complex technical organizations

• Experience working in air-gapped or high-security network environments

• CI/CD pipeline development experience

• Experience deploying infrastructure across multiple cloud providers

• Exposure to large-scale distributed systems

Compensation and Benefits

• Base Salary: $135,000 – $200,000

• Competitive equity package

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage

• 401(k) with company contribution

• Hybrid work model (Washington, D.C.)

• High-impact, mission-driven work with direct real-world application

• Opportunity to work alongside exceptionally strong engineers in a production-first culture

If you’re motivated by solving consequential infrastructure challenges and want to operate at the intersection of national security and elite engineering, this is an opportunity to build systems that truly matter.