Senior Technical Lead — R&D Mission Platforms Security Clearance

Position: Senior Technical Lead — R&D Mission Platforms with Security Clearance
Senior Technical Lead — R&D Mission Platforms

Location:

Remote, United States
Travel:
Approximately 15% for R&D events, technical demos, collaboration sessions, and mission-focused engagements
Clearance:
Active Secret clearance preferred. U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance required.

Role Overview
Rackner is seeking a Senior Technical Lead — R&D Mission Platforms to help design, prototype, demonstrate, and advance mission-relevant technical capabilities within our internal R&D environment. This is a hands-on technical leadership role for someone who can move quickly from concept to working capability, operate in ambiguous environments, and communicate clearly with both engineering and mission-focused stakeholders. You will work closely with Rackner’s technical leadership and R&D team to build modern software and platform capabilities, support technical demos, and help translate operational needs into practical technical solutions.

The right candidate is technically credible, mission-aware, and comfortable balancing deep technical work with stakeholder engagement. This is not a traditional heads-down remote engineering role. It is designed for someone who can build, explain, iterate, and represent technical work in collaborative, mission-focused environments. What You’ll Do
Lead the design, prototyping, and development of mission-relevant software and platform capabilities
Build backend services, APIs, full-stack applications, and cloud-native components using modern engineering practices
Translate ambiguous mission needs, user workflows, and technical concepts into working software
Support rapid build, demo, feedback, and iteration cycles for R&D initiatives
Collaborate directly with technical leadership, R&D engineers, and stakeholders on architecture and implementation decisions
Participate in technical demos, customer-facing discussions, and mission-focused events
Help shape system design, platform direction, and technical tradeoffs across emerging capabilities
Guide or mentor engineers through architecture decisions, prototyping efforts, and implementation challenges
Deploy and support applications in cloud-native, containerized, or Kubernetes-based environments
Use modern development workflows, including AI-assisted tools where appropriate, to accelerate prototyping, testing, and delivery
Represent Rackner’s technical work with clarity, professionalism, and credibility in collaborative settings

Minimum Qualifications
U.S. citizenship required due to federal contract requirements
Eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance
Professional background developing software systems, backend services, APIs, full-stack applications, platform capabilities, or mission-focused solutions
Proficiency with Python, JavaScript / Type Script, or similar modern programming languages
Hands-on knowledge of cloud platforms, containers, Kubernetes, Dev Sec Ops , or cloud-native deployment environments
Ability to work independently in ambiguous, prototype-driven, or fast-moving technical settings
Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
Demonstrated ownership of engineering outcomes from concept through implementation
Willingness to travel approximately 15% for R&D events, product demonstrations, collaboration sessions, or mission engagements

Preferred Qualifications
Active Secret clearance or higher
Background supporting DoD, Air Force, Platform One, Big Bang, Dev Sec Ops , mission planning, C2, ISR, autonomy, or defense software initiatives
Ability to engage with operators, mission users, customers, or non-engineering stakeholders to understand workflows and translate needs into practical solutions
Familiarity with Python, Type Script, JavaScript, React, Go, FastAPI, Postgres, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, or CI/CD tooling
History of leading engineering projects, serving as an informal technical lead, or guiding architecture decisions
Involvement in technical demos, pilots, field events, customer-facing discussions, or live exercises
Background building in R&D,…