Senior Data Engineer / DevOps Engineer – Next-Gen Geospatial Data

Fairfax County, VA (Hybrid or Remote) | U.S. Person (ITAR) | Full-Time

We’re supporting a high-growth satellite intelligence company that’s on the cutting edge of RF geolocation data, expanding fast off the back of strong commercial traction, a proven tech stack, and series D backing. They build, launch, and operate their own satellite constellation – and what they do with the data is where you come in.

They’re hiring a Senior Data Engineer / DevOps Engineer to help build the infrastructure and pipelines powering machine learning at scale – ingesting, processing, and analyzing signal and sensor data at global scale. This role blends DevOps with distributed computing and cloud-native data engineering – all to serve internal data science and algorithm teams in their mission-critical work.

️ Why This Role?

• Real-world data, real-world impact – Their geolocation intelligence is already in use by defense and humanitarian teams worldwide.

• Mission-driven engineering – From raw sensor data to production ML models – your work enables real outcomes, not just dashboards.

• Modern tech – Apache Spark/Ray/Dask, Python, Kubernetes, MLflow, Terraform, Crossplane, AWS, GPUs, and more.

• Scale-up stage – They’re through D-round funding and scaling fast, with profitability and product-market fit in sight.

• High-impact seat – Join a close-knit, senior-level team where your voice shapes the future architecture and dev practices.

What You’ll Do

• Build distributed pipelines using Apache Spark, Ray, or Dask to ingest and transform data from their satellite constellation

• Work closely with Data Science and Algorithm teams to deploy ML workflows in real-world production settings

• Enable scalable ML training environments across AWS and on-prem GPU clusters

• Containerize ML applications and deploy via Kubernetes; implement CI/CD and MLOps workflows

• Own monitoring, rollback, and observability of deployed models using tools like MLflow, Prometheus, and Grafana

• Champion infrastructure-as-code practices using Terraform or Crossplane

• Maintain high availability, reliability, and performance of data infrastructure

• Debug, diagnose, and resolve system-level production issues in real time

What You Bring

• 3+ years professional software/data engineering experience

• Strong Python development background, including scientific stack (NumPy, Pandas, SciKit, etc.)

• Experience with distributed computing (Spark, Ray, or Dask)

• Solid background in DevOps/MLOps and cloud-native infrastructure (AWS preferred)

• Strong understanding of Docker, Kubernetes, and container-based orchestration

• Hands-on experience with IaC tools like Terraform or Crossplane

• Experience managing the full ML lifecycle: training, versioning, deployment, monitoring

• U.S. Citizenship or Green Card (due to ITAR requirements)

➕ Bonus Points For

• Familiarity with Apache Kafka or AWS Kinesis for real-time data streaming

• Experience with Snowflake, BigQuery, or other modern data warehouses

• Exposure to PyTorch or TensorFlow

• Experience supporting on-prem GPU compute clusters

• C++ experience for compute-heavy environments

Package & Perks

• Bonus: 20-25% annual bonus target, paid consistently

• Location: Hybrid (Northern Virginia preferred)

• Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, vision, PTO, and more

• Culture: Agile, high-impact, no red tape. Empowered engineers building truly useful systems

Location & Requirements

• Herndon, VA HQ – Preference for candidates local or open to relocate

• Security: Must be a U.S. Person

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Adam Slade