Associate Software Engineer

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP. Role Description: Defense Unicorns is seeking an Associate Software Engineer to join our UDS Product Engineering team. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, designers, and end users to help build the right solutions and build them well. As an Associate Software Engineer, you’ll grow at the intersection of product development and technical execution. You’ll contribute to the design, implementation, testing, and deployment of well-scoped features with guidance from experienced engineers, building practical experience on systems that support mission outcomes. Our engineers work across a portfolio that includes UDS Data — open source data platform for all DOW mission sets from the enterprise to the edge UDS Fleet — manage distributed systems across Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) and fully airgapped environments UDS Image Factory — developer tooling for composing complete, mission-ready system images (OS, Kubernetes, applications, configuration) into a single deployable artifact UDS Foundation — core platform and tooling that power UDS, serving Platform Engineers building and operating UDS across environments UDS Registry — reliably manage and deploy UDS packages to any mission environment Zarf — an open source tool enabling continuous software delivery on disconnected systems The UDS Product Engineering team values action, ownership, and focus. In this role, you’ll be supported as you build judgment, technical depth, and the confidence to take work from idea to impact. How You’ll Contribute: Deliver well-tested, maintainable code for clearly scoped product features and fixes Take ownership of small to medium tasks from implementation through review and release Participate in design discussions and learn to connect product needs with technical tradeoffs Ask good questions, clarify requirements, and make steady progress with appropriate support Build growing understanding of the systems, users, and mission domains you work in Develop stronger architectural design instincts by pairing with experienced engineers on larger features Practice breaking ambiguous work into concrete next steps with team guidance Responsibilities: Build, ship, and maintain well-scoped features, fixes, and improvements that support mission-critical environments Contribute to implementation plans and technical discussions with support from senior teammates Collaborate with engineering, product, and design to translate clear requirements into working software Clarify product and technical requirements by asking thoughtful questions and documenting assumptions Debug issues, improve reliability, and learn production support practices as part of the team Help integrate with existing defense systems while learning interoperability and security expectations Contribute to open source projects and internal tooling through scoped issues, fixes, and documen