Staff Engineer

About Raft Company Website Raft is a leading defense technology company dedicated to empowering the U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. We transform complex data into actionable insights, enabling mission-critical decisions, and changing the way we fight on earth, and beyond.

Raft Company Website

R

teamraft.com

201-500 employees

Software Development

McLean, Virginia

Privately Held

40k LinkedIn followers

Raised $60M

• tradeoffs across performance, scalability, security, and maintainability and
• building alignment across engineering and product stakeholders
• Lead major technical epics from conception through delivery, decomposing
• ambiguous problems into executable plans and keeping cross-functional teams
• moving with clarity and momentum
• Simplify and rationalize distributed system architecture as the platform
• scales, reducing incidental complexity and improving operational reliability
• without sacrificing capability
• Optimize platform performance across both edge and cloud deployment targets,
• identifying and resolving bottlenecks in data-intensive, latency-sensitive
• operational environments
• Establish strong engineering foundations and reusable technical patterns that
• improve developer productivity and code quality across the team
• Mentor engineers at multiple levels, conducting design reviews, providing
• substantive code feedback, and actively elevating technical execution across
• the platform
• Partner with AI/ML engineers on model integration, inference optimization,
• and the operational deployment of agentic workflows within [R]AIMS
• Engage directly with customers and program stakeholders at operationally
• demanding environments across the Department of Defense, representing Raft’s
• technical capabilities with credibility and clarity
• [R]AIMS has a coherent, well-documented architecture that engineers at all
• levels understand and can contribute to confidently
• Major platform initiatives ship on time with high engineering quality, low
• rework rates, and clear technical rationale behind key decisions
• The engineering team is measurably stronger because of your presence: better
• design reviews, sharper code, cleaner systems
• Customers trust Raft technically. When you’re in the room, they leave the
• conversation with confidence in what we’re building and how we’re building it
• Platform complexity is decreasing relative to capability, not increasing

Required

• 6+ years of hands-on experience building and shipping production software
• systems across the full stack (frontend, backend, infrastructure, and ML)
• Deep software engineering fundamentals with demonstrated ability to design,
• build, and evolve complex systems that perform reliably at scale
• Exceptional technical communication skills; able to lead through influence
• across engineering, product, and leadership stakeholders without requiring
• direct authority
• Proven experience designing and evolving distributed systems, including
• service decomposition, inter-service communication patterns, fault tolerance,
• and observability
• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native platform
• architecture in production environments
• Experience building data-intensive or AI-enabled production systems with real
• operational users and real performance constraints
• Demonstrated technical leadership over large, cross-functional engineering
• initiatives with clear ownership and accountability for outcomes
• Strong system design and architecture decision-making ability, with a track
• record of making the right call under incomplete information
• Some experience or exposure to training, fine-tuning, or deploying machine
• learning models in production contexts
• Ability to obtain Security+ certification within the first 90 days of
• employment
• US citizenship required; ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI
• clearance
• Prior work in defense, national security, or classified program environments
• Must be eligible for and willing to obtain a Top Secret/SCI clearance; active
• And More!
• We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our
• obsession with the mission.
• 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.
• 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.

Preferred

• orchestration frameworks, tool-use patterns, and LLM integration in
• production
• Experience with streaming and event-driven architectures, particularly Kafka,
• Experience with platform engineering and internal developer tooling,
• including golden-path frameworks, shared libraries, and developer experience
• improvements
• Experience with real-time inference or operational AI systems in
• latency-sensitive environments
• Experience building secure, compliant systems for regulated or
• mission-critical environments, including familiarity with IL4/IL5/IL6

• Remote within the U.S.; preference for candidates located near a Raft hub
• (McLean, VA; Colorado Springs, CO; Tacoma, WA; Oahu, HI, Tampa, FL; Boston,
• Up to 25% travel
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) and company match
• Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays