Principal Software Engineer, Field Engineering

About the Role

As Principal Software Engineer, Field Engineering, you are Raft’s embedded technical lead at Aberdeen Proving Ground. You will work directly with Army customers, program offices, and partner integrators to deploy, integrate, and operationalize [R]DP, [R]AIMS, and [R]AP in their environments. You are a software engineer first. The field engineering context means your work has immediate operational impact, but between integration cycles you are writing code, building tooling, and contributing features back to the core product.

• Serve as Raft’s embedded senior technical lead at Aberdeen Proving Ground, working with Army customers, program offices, and partner integrators to install, integrate, and operate [R]DP, [R]AIMS, and [R]AP in their environments.
• Own end-to-end product deployment and fielding at APG and the Army units we support, including environment preparation, installation, configuration, integration with Army data sources and mission systems, validation, and sustainment.
• Write and contribute production-quality code in Go, Java, or Rust, turning field-driven gaps and fixes into durable product features between integration cycles rather than waiting for the core team to catch up.
• Build, improve, and maintain installation, integration, and troubleshooting playbooks that any Raft engineer or qualified customer administrator can confidently execute in connected, disconnected, and degraded environments.
• Apply Dev Sec Ops  practices end to end: CI/CD pipelines, container builds, infrastructure as code, secrets management, and RMF‑relevant security controls that keep fielded deployments secure, reproducible, and auditable.
• Deploy and debug Kubernetes workloads in customer environments, including Helm charts and manifests, pod and networking troubleshooting, storage, ingress, and operator management on clusters where Raft products run.
• Integrate Raft products with Army data sources, mission systems, and partner platforms, applying a working understanding of how data and decisions flow across Army echelons.
• Champion Raft products on site by running hands‑on enablement with operators and developers, answering hard technical questions, and building lasting trust through credibility and follow‑through.
• Capture lessons learned, customer feedback, and unmet needs from the field and translate them into actionable input for Raft’s product, engineering, and growth teams.
• Know when to reach back. Identify problems that need the broader Raft team, frame them clearly, and pull in the right help quickly rather than grinding alone in the field.

• 5+ years of hands‑on software engineering experience with demonstrated ability to write, debug, and ship production code in complex enterprise or government environments.
• Active Secret clearance required; U.S. citizenship required.
• Hands‑on production coding experience in at least one backend language such as Go, Java, or Rust; this is a development role, not just a deployment role.
• Strong Dev Sec Ops  experience: CI/CD, container builds, infrastructure as code, secrets management, and applying security controls in production deployments.
• Working proficiency with Kubernetes sufficient to confidently deploy, configure, and debug containerized products in customer environments, including Helm, manifests, operators, pod and networking troubleshooting, storage, and ingress.
• Strong scripting skills in Bash and Python for automation, integration tooling, and operational playbooks.
• Demonstrated ability to build runbooks and reproducible procedures that other engineers and customer administrators can follow without hand‑holding.
• Working understanding of the U.S. Army’s mission, organizational structure, and common Army data sources such as C2, intelligence, logistics, and sensor data.
• Strong customer‑facing skills; able to represent Raft credibly with senior Army stakeholders, partner integrators, and operators and translate clearly between mission users and engineering teams.
• Self‑directed in the field; able to make pragmatic decisions under ambiguity and incomplete information while maintaining the judgment to elevate when needed.
• Ability…