Senior Data Engineer / DevOps Engineer

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RF & Satellite Communications

1

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

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