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Staff Software Engineer

Arlington, VA (Hybrid)

This is a U.S. based position. All of the programs we support require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. All work must be conducted within the continental U.S.

Who we are:

Raft (https://TeamRaft.com) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional small business with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development, with headquarters in McLean, VA. Our range of clients includes innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting-edge tech stack, and cloud-native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

We’re looking for an experienced Staff Software Engineer to support our customers and join our passionate team of high-impact problem solvers.

About the role:

Raft is building a real-time data platform for the Department of Defense (DoD), aimed at enhancing operators' awareness of critical events, including instances like the Chinese balloon and Cessna over the White House incidents. Central to this data platform is the aggregation of real-time data from over 750 sensors. This data is subsequently enriched, rendered queryable, and ultimately presented as a common operational picture to empower operators in making time critical and pertinent decisions. Our system efficiently handles the processing of over a billion events daily, all achieved with millisecond-level latency. Key technologies include Kafka, Kafka Streams, Pinot, Java, Scala, and Kubernetes. Your involvement in this role will encompass hands-on collaboration with a team of accomplished individuals, collectively striving towards excellence.

  • Implement mission critical software as cloud-native containerized distributed services. 
  • Provide extensive experience based advise to the customer on how to best execute the creation of software and system tools in support of the mission needs. 
  • Support DevSecOps deployment of your applications with supporting tools and infrastructure as code for clustered and distributed application lifecycles 
  • Work with clients architecting, developing and implementing Kubernetes or Docker solutions both in the Cloud and on-premises 
  • Contribute to the integration and system engineering process to ensure that all parts of the software system can be fielded and will work as intended. 
  • Apply SWE best practices, design patterns, and solution architecture patterns in furtherance of solutions to some of our nation’s most pressing challenges. 
  • Support cross-company initiatives of the solution architecture and chief engineering teams.

What we are looking for:

  • 5+ years of hands-on relevant software and system development experience in one or more industries
  • 5+ years' experience with Docker and Kubernetes, provisioning production clusters and maintaining their compliance
  • Experience developing in one or more enterprise centric languages, such as Java, Scala, C++, Go, or similar
  • Experience fielding complex distributed, data intensive applications 
  • Experience with deploying and managing data-intensive platforms using popular streaming technologies such as Kafka, Pinot, or Flink 
  • Solid understanding of Helm Charts, Kubernetes networking technologies (Calico, Cilium, etc.), and related concepts
  • Experience operating stateful and data intensive services in orchestrated environments 
  • Experience with AWS and/or other cloud computing solutions 
  • Experienced with software packaging, build, and delivery approaches in distributed applications
  • Experience with Kubernetes monitoring (i.e. Prometheus, Grafana) and logging (i.e. Fluentbit, Kibana, Loki) solutions 
  • Experience with Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform, Ansible, etc.) 
  • Experience with configuring CI/CD pipelines using GitLab Runners 
  • Able to obtain a Security+ certification within the first 90 days of employment with Raft

Highly preferred:

  • Substantial experience with SDLC and PDLC concepts and concerns and implementing appropriate processes to ensure the project enables a well-oiled software delivery machine. 
  • Experience operating complex distributed applications. 
  • Experience shipping software and delivering products in compliance heavy regulated markets, such as DoD, FinTech, and/or MedTech 
  • Experience using a variety of package managers/dependency managers including Maven, Gradle, NPM, and Yarn 
  • Knowledge of Cloud-Native Application Tooling: Istio, Helm, Prometheus, Kubernetes, and similar. 
  • Experience with supporting enterprise Cloud applications or infrastructure 
  • Experience in automation languages like Python or GoLang 
  • Comfortable provisioning and debugging complete CI/CD pipelines

Clearance Requirements:

  • Active Secret clearance

Work Type: 

  • Hybrid - Arlington, VA
  • May require up to 25% travel

Salary Range:

  • $130,000 - $210,000 
  • The determination of compensation is predicated upon a candidate's comprehensive experience, demonstrated skill, and proven abilities

What we will offer you:

  • Highly competitive salary
  • Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
  • 401(k) and company match
  • Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
  • Education & training benefits
  • Annual budget for your tech/gadgets needs
  • Monthly box of yummy snacks to eat while doing meaningful work
  • Remote, hybrid, and flexible work options
  • Team off-site in fun places!
  • Generous Referral Bonuses
  • And More!

Our Vision Statement: 

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission. 

Our Customer Obsession: 

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there? 

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm. 

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration. 

We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

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