Solutions Architect - Autonomous Systems & Industrial Base
Role Overview

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Solutions Architect to work with autonomous systems manufacturers, Federal Systems Integrators, and commercial technology companies looking to deliver capabilities into the Federal defense market.

This role sits at the intersection of customer mission needs, complex hardware platforms, and modern cloud-native software. The Solutions Architect will facilitate technical and strategic conversations with customers and partners to understand their systems, identify integration opportunities, and define how cloud-native software, data transport technologies, and modern software deployment patterns can be incorporated into drones, satellites, weapons systems, and other mission-critical platforms.

The ideal candidate can move comfortably between executive-level conversations, system architecture discussions, and hands-on technical discovery. They should be able to translate mission and business requirements into practical architectures that account for constrained, disconnected, intermittent, and bandwidth-limited environments.
Key Responsibilities

• Facilitate technical discovery and architecture conversations with autonomous drone manufacturers, Federal Systems Integrators, defense technology companies, and mid-sized commercial companies pursuing federal opportunities.
• Work closely with customers to understand their platforms, mission requirements, existing software architecture, data flows, deployment models, and operational constraints.
• Identify where cloud-native technologies can improve the development, deployment, management, and sustainment of software running across drones, satellites, weapons systems, edge devices, and supporting infrastructure.
• Design and communicate architectures for deploying and operating cloud-native applications in distributed, edge, disconnected, and resource-constrained environments.
• Help customers understand how data transport, synchronization, messaging, and software distribution technologies can support information movement between tactical edge systems, platforms, and enterprise environments.
• Map Defense Unicorns capabilities and broader cloud-native technologies to customer use cases and system architectures.
• Partner with engineering, product, sales, and business development teams to translate customer requirements into technical solutions and product opportunities.
• Develop reference architectures, technical diagrams, integration approaches, demonstrations, and proofs of concept that illustrate how modern software can be incorporated into existing and next-generation platforms.
• Support Federal Systems Integrators and technology partners in incorporating Defense Unicorns solutions into larger federal programs and platform architectures.
• Help commercial technology companies understand the technical, architectural, and operational considerations associated with deploying their products into federal and defense environments.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customers throughout the evaluation, integration, and adoption process.
• Capture recurring customer requirements and market signals to help inform Defense Unicorns product and technical strategy.

What Success Looks Like

A successful Solutions Architect in this role will be able to walk into a conversation with a drone manufacturer, satellite company, weapons-system developer, systems integrator, or commercial software company and quickly understand how their system operates, where software and data move through the architecture, and where modern cloud-native approaches can create meaningful operational value.

They will help customers move from broad questions such as "How do we bring cloud-native software onto this platform?" to a concrete architecture for how applications are packaged, transported, deployed, updated, secured, and operated across the system.
Desired Experience

• Experience designing or supporting distributed, cloud-native, edge, or mission-critical software systems.
• An understanding of Kubernetes, containers, software supply chains, application deployment, and modern DevSecOps practices.
• Familiarity with data transport, messaging, networking, synchronization, and distributed-system architectures.
• Ability to reason about systems operating in disconnected, intermittent, limited-bandwidth, or resource-constrained environments.
• Experience working with defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, robotics, satellites, weapons systems, or other complex cyber-physical platforms is highly desirable.
• Experience working with Federal Systems Integrators, Department of Defense organizations, or companies selling technology into the federal government is preferred.
• Strong technical communication skills with the ability to explain complex architecture concepts to engineers, program leaders, executives, and government stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical discovery, whiteboarding sessions, architecture reviews, and customer workshops.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments where the problem is not fully defined and the architecture must be developed collaboratively with the customer.

Ideal Background

This role may be a strong fit for someone who has previously worked as a Solutions Architect, Systems Architect, Platform Engineer, Cloud Architect, Field Engineer, Sales Engineer, or Technical Product Leader supporting defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, or highly distributed computing environments.

Role primarily based out of Los Angeles and San Francisco Areas.

What We Work On

• Kubernetes
• Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
• Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)
• Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
• GitOps
• Containers
• CNCF projects and open source products and packages
• Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping
• Building and improving security delivery
• Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy
Health:

• Medical/Dental/Vision
• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Savings Account
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance

Financial:

• 401k Retirement Plan
• Company Stock Options
• Home Office Budget

Leave:

• We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year's
• Paid Parental Leave

Learning:

• Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
• Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)

Don't have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed.

At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role!