Staff platform engineer, platform development

Simplesense builds, deploys, and sustains the Installation Resilience Platform that enables mission operators to rapidly adapt and respond. The Platform protects critical infrastructure from cyber attack while unlocking previously siloed information to monitor, diagnose, and improve response times to incidents. Our adversaries rapidly adopt the latest technology: we help defense users respond in kind.

Simplesense is a non-traditional defense contractor and prime on the Air Force's Installation Resilience Operations Command and Control (IROC) program, which is now expanding to five additional Air Force, Space Force, and Army installations from the one prototype installation, Tyndall Air Force Base.

Our team combines over 100 years of direct mission experience solving hard problems with 50 years technical expertise deploying DevSecOps, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure, giving us a deep appreciation for our customers’ mission and end users’ priorities. We build for scale, architecting and prioritizing technical work for long term sustainability.

About the Role

As our Staff Platform Engineer, you will play a critical role in owning the technical strategy, architecture, and delivery of the operational platform to enable rapid decision-making and data visualization for critical infrastructure. You will oversee the end-to-end success of core platform components—from cloud network architecture to performance and reliability—and partner closely with the Product and Operations teams to ensure our platform remains resilient, secure, and ready for the mission.

Work Model

We prioritize candidates who reside in the Denver, CO, San Antonio, TX, and Brooklyn, NY areas, (hybrid as needed) but we are open to exceptional remote talent.

Locals: Onsite as needed for collaborative workspace time.

Remote: Quarterly travel to hub locations for team syncs and alignment.

Our Performance Culture

We measure performance across two key dimensions: How you perform your role (Our Core Values) and What your role entails (Your Execution).

How You’ll Work — Our Core Values

At Simplesense, we value high-trust autonomy. We look for builders who can comfortably navigate ambiguity and are deeply driven by our shared national security mission.

• People Always – Win as One Team: We foster a culture of psychological safety and mutual support. We operate as an integrated team where we assume noble intent as our default setting, ensuring that even the toughest feedback is rooted in trust. We trade our silos for a shared mission because collective impact always outweighs individual achievement.
• Empathize – Obsess Over the Customer: We don't just solve technical problems; we empathize and advocate for the operators using our products. We look beyond the surface to build what our customers—both internal and external—actually need to succeed, not just what they asked for.
• Focus – Ruthlessly Prioritize with Urgency: We focus on the highest-impact work and ruthlessly say no to distractions. We build resilient systems so that our solutions can repeat and scale under pressure.
• Let’s Go – Catalyze the Change You Seek: We don't wait for the industry to change; we drive it. We seek to understand why things are the way they are, but we never use “the way it’s always been” as an excuse. We aren't afraid to change course when the data or our mission demands it.

What You’ll Do

End-to-End Technical Ownership: Serve as a technical owner for the success of platform development projects, from initial concept evaluation and design to final delivery and maintenance. Responsibilities will span new feature development and integration, cloud network architecture updates and implementation of performance and reliability improvements.

Internal and External Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional Development, Product, and Operations teams, as well as external vendors, to ensure the platform meets stability, security, and scalability requirements on operational timelines.

Technical Leadership: Work with Engineering and Product leadership to ensure clear, actionable and achievable plans that span the organization.

System Design & Architecture: Lead planning sessions, create design documents, and make high-level technical decisions for core platform components (e.g., infrastructure-as-code, deployment pipelines, operational reliability, security controls, and disaster recovery planning).

Force Multiplier & Mentorship: Elevate the entire team by establishing best practices, conducting insightful code reviews, and unblocking teammates who are stuck, prioritizing the team's output over individual coding tasks.

Technical Contributor: Provide hands-on technical contributions for the most critical or demanding parts of the project, setting the technical pattern and standard for others, with a healthy time allocation of approximately 60% on solving technical problems (coding, design, reviews).

Team & Process Improvement: Dedicate time (approx. 40%) to planning, cross-team communication, defining scope with Product Owners, breaking down work, and identifying/fixing process issues (e.g., CI/CD pipelines, testing standards for platform components).

What You Bring

Required Qualifications:

• Experience: 7–15 years of professional experience in building and delivering scalable, secure, and reliable systems and cloud services.
• Technical Proficiency: Deep expertise with AWS systems and networking (e.g., EC2, SSM, VPCs, Route53, transit gateways), infrastructure automation (Terraform or CloudFormation), and proficiency in NodeJS or Python.
• Domain Knowledge: Demonstrated understanding of replatforming or rehosting services within AWS environments, and proven experience at a Staff/Principal level navigating technical ambiguity to lead large-scale cross-functional efforts.
• Travel: Ability to travel for a full week quarterly for team planning and client Program Management Reviews (PMRs).
• Compliance: Must be a U.S. Citizen and capable of obtaining a DoD NIPR network account and Common Access Card (CAC). Must also hold or be willing to obtain a security-relevant certification (e.g., CompTIA Security+, Cloud+).
• Security Clearance: Must have, or be able to obtain, a DoD Secret Clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strongly prefer candidates residing in the Denver, CO, San Antonio, TX, or Brooklyn, NY metro areas (with a special emphasis on Denver, CO).
• Prior experience working within DoD, Air Force, Space Force, operational intelligence, industrial technology, or fast-paced Federal contractor/dual-use startup environments.
• Relevant technical certifications, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect or AWS Certified DevOps Engineer.
• Experience with Windows domain environments and observability/monitoring tools (e.g., Splunk, Datadog).

What Success Looks Like (First 90 Days)

• 30 Days: Onboard, audit current platform workflows, and establish relationships with cross-functional Product and Engineering leads.
• 60 Days: Provide technical contributions to existing projects and develop a full understanding of the existing and planned platform development efforts.
• 90 Days: Identify opportunities to improve reliability, performance, security and/or development workflows and take a technical leadership role in forming the Platform technical roadmap.

Compensation and Benefits

Pay Range: $190k-$260k per year. Compensation is determined based on experience, skill level, and location. We review ranges regularly to ensure market competitiveness.

Competitive Benefits

• Equity
• Medical, Life, Short-Term Disability, and AD&D insurance
• Medical travel coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• 401k matching

Our Typical Hiring Process

• Find Your Fit: Your journey starts here. Explore and apply to our open positions to find the right role for your skills.
• Initial Chat: A brief call with our recruiting team to learn about your background and answer your initial questions about Simplesense.
• Values & Vision: A conversation with a hiring manager to discuss how your aspirations align with our mission and goals of the team.
• Show Your Skills: Complete a technical assessment that reflects the work you’d be doing.
• Team Interview: Interview with the team to discuss your experience and see if we’re a great match.
• Final Handshake: A final conversation to ensure we’ve answered all your questions before making a decision.

Welcome to Simplesense!

Simplesense is an equal opportunity employer committed to a policy of merit-based employment. All employment decisions—including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, and termination—are made based on individual qualifications, performance, and business needs. We strictly prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind on the basis of protected characteristics as recognized by federal, state, or local law. As a U.S. government contractor, Simplesense complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA). If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the application or take part in the interview process, please contact People Operations at careers@simplesense.io.