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Senior Principal Platform Engineer (K8s SME / Tech Lead)

Fort Meade, MD

Clarity Innovations is a trusted national security partner, dedicated to safeguarding our nation’s interests and delivering innovative solutions that empower the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) to transform data into actionable intelligence, ensuring mission success in an evolving world.

Our mission-first software and data engineering platform modernizes data operations, utilizing advanced workflows, CI/CD, and secure DevSecOps practices. We focus on challenges in Information Warfare, Cyber Operations, Operational Security, and Data Structuring, enabling end-to-end solutions that drive operational impact.

We are committed to delivering cutting-edge tools and capabilities that address the most complex national security challenges, empowering our partners to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensuring the success of their critical missions. At Clarity, we are people-focused and set on being a destination employer for top talent, offering an environment where innovation thrives, careers grow, and individuals are valued. Join us as we continue to lead innovation and tackle the most pressing challenges in national security.

Position Overview

The technical lead partners with the program manager to ensure team members are empowered to do their best work building solutions for our customer.

Rather than being the smartest person in the room or the team’s best engineer, the technical lead enables their team to sustainably and efficiently make and implement the best possible technical decisions. A good technical lead shapes their team with the right tools and attributes to deliver the best possible product for Clarity's customers.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership

  • Assess, maintain, and nurture a healthy team culture

  • Meet one-on-one with team members monthly at a minimum

  • Collaborate with each team member’s manager to provide effective mentorship and establish tailored development plans

  • Provide feedback on team members’ performance to managers

  • Work with talent acquisition to ensure the team is staffed with appropriate technical talent 

  • Verify onboarding process is defined and followed for all new members

  • Ensure team members understand their roles and responsibilities

  • Apply team members’ technical strengths to corresponding work whenever possible

  • Establish and assess team members’ technical performance expectations

  • Promptly resolve performance issues in coordination with a team member’s manager

Technical Delivery

  • Keep the team on target; communicate priorities and ensure their tasking aligns with it

  • Implement Clarity’s engineering processes, standards, and quality expectations for your team, including tailoring and documenting deviations where appropriate

  • Review your team's code

  • Write enough code to maintain awareness of your team’s developer experience

  • Raise any issues impacting delivery, such as staffing, budget, or scope, to the PM

  • Ensure your team defines and adheres to design, development, versioning, release, and deployment workflows

  • Oversee your team’s documentation of design and architecture decisions

Product Ownership

  • Establish and communicate the "product" vision

  • Represent the team in external, technical engagements

  • Ensure the team’s backlog is well-documented, groomed, and prioritized

  • Provide time for team to work on enablers like maintenance tasks and automation for building, testing, and deploying

  • Deliver regular demonstrations of technical progress to customer

Growth

  • Identify opportunities for on-contract growth based on observed gaps in 

  • Act as a key contributor to proposals within or related to the program's scope and customer base

Preferred Qualifications

  • Active US TS/SCI security clearance with CI polygraph or higher

  • More than 10 years of industry experience in a platform engineering or DevOps role.  Experience with either in the cyber operations domain is a bonus.

  • Experience communicating with customers and end-users

  • Experience delivering and managing capabilities in operational / production environments

  • Experience leading software design and architecture

  • Experience evaluating technologies and making informed decisions

  • Strong technical understanding of programming languages and tools in use

  • Strong understanding of at least one Agile methodology (e.g., Scrum, Kanban, SAFe)

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

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