Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Shift5 builds operational intelligence for onboard operational technology across defense, aerospace, and commercial transportation. The Principal Platform Engineer leads platform architecture and technical strategy across release engineering, cloud infrastructure, supply-chain security, operating-system lifecycle, and AI enablement, while mentoring engineers and supporting team leadership.
Responsibilities
- Release Engineering: Architect, develop, and operate end-to-end release infrastructure and GitOps delivery pipelines using tools like Atlantis, ArgoCD, Earthly Lunar, GitHub, and internally developed tools
- Cloud Infrastructure: Architect and manage a complicated AWS estate spanning commercial and govcloud using services like EKS, RDS, S3, VPC, Transit Gateway, etc
- Supply Chain Security & Compliance: Lead artifact security (Harbor, Cosign, Vault Transit Engine) and build automated, compliance-by-default pipelines (NIST controls, SBOM generation) to eliminate program friction
- OS Lifecycle & AI Enablement: Support hardware OS image builds (Yocto, Manifold) and productionize internal AI gateways, RAG tooling, and developer AI workflows (Cursor)
- Technical & Team Leadership: Author RFCs/design docs, run architecture reviews, plan roadmaps, and mentor mid/staff-level engineers. Provide direct management (1:1s, hiring, performance reviews) during transitions or scale
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with security, embedded, and field teams to ensure seamless delivery across airgapped and edge environments
Skills
- 10+ years in software/platform engineering, with 5+ years managing production infrastructure at scale
- Proven track record leading projects, designing architecture, mentoring engineers, and readiness (or prior experience) for direct people management
- Hands-on mastery of Kubernetes, ArgoCD, GitHub Actions/Earthly, and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/OpenTofu, AWS/GovCloud)
- Strong background in artifact registries, container signing (Cosign/Sigstore), Vault, and SBOM generation
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Security Clearance
- U.S. Citizenship required
- Background in defense, aerospace, or regulated environments (NIST 800-53, IL4/IL5, CMMC)
- Embedded Linux/OS experience (Yocto, SLE Micro) and airgapped/edge deployment models
- Experience deploying internal AI/LLM infrastructure (RAG, model gateways, governance)
- Scripting proficiency in Go, Python, and Bash
Benefits
- Bonus program and equity in a fast-growing startup
- Competitive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and their families
- Health Savings Account with annual employer contributions
- Employer-paid Life and Disability Insurance
- Uncapped paid time off policy
- Flexible work & remote work policy
- Tax-deferred public transit benefits with Metro SmartBenefits (DC/MD/VA)
Company Overview