Senior Principal Platform Engineer (K8s)
Clarityinnovates · Columbia, MD · Posted Jul 9, 2026
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Clarity Innovations is a trusted national security partner, dedicated to safeguarding our nation’s interests and delivering innovative solutions that empower the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) to transform data into actionable intelligence, ensuring mission success in an evolving world.
Our mission-first software and data engineering platform modernizes data operations, utilizing advanced workflows, CI/CD, and secure DevSecOps practices. We focus on challenges in Information Warfare, Cyber Operations, Operational Security, and Data Structuring, enabling end-to-end solutions that drive operational impact.
We are committed to delivering cutting-edge tools and capabilities that address the most complex national security challenges, empowering our partners to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensuring the success of their critical missions. At Clarity, we are people-focused and set on being a destination employer for top talent, offering an environment where innovation thrives, careers grow, and individuals are valued. Join us as we continue to lead innovation and tackle the most pressing challenges in national security.
Position Summary
The position is part of a team of software and platform engineers building a unified, multi-tenant control plane driven by Kubernetes, Crossplane, and Cluster API (CAPI), that abstracts infrastructure differences across AWS, Azure, on-premises, and air-gapped environments.
As a Senior Principal Platform Engineer (Services), you will bridge the gap between development needs and production deployment environments. Instead of just managing vendor charts, you will package, configure, and extend foundational services running on Kubernetes. Utilizing Go and Python, you will automate delivery workflows and serve as the technical authority on Kubernetes networking, identity, secrets, policy, observability, and secure supply chain requirements.
The ideal candidate is a highly independent engineer capable of driving complex initiatives from inception to completion with minimal supervision. You bring strong software engineering practices to automate, validate, and scale repeatable deployments, combined with a passion for modernizing delivery systems, strengthening secure supply chains, and leveraging AI to accelerate high-quality engineering work.
Key Responsibilities
Kubernetes Services Packaging Integration
Platform Service Packaging Integration : Package, configure, and seamlessly integrate foundational Kubernetes services, such as Keycloak, Vault, Istio, Kyverno, OPA, Grafana, Alloy, Mimir, and Loki, ensuring clean interoperability across identity, secrets management, service mesh, policy enforcement, and observability systems.
Packaging Standards Interfaces : Define reusable packaging patterns, schemas, validation rules, and automation that frontend and other teams can build on when enabling users to create bundles and packages.
OCI Image Bundle Management : Build, validate, and maintain OCI images, deployment bundles, Helm charts, and Kubernetes manifests with a focus on reproducibility, versioning, and reliable delivery across deployment environments, including air-gapped, disconnected, on-premise systems.
Software-Driven Automation : Use Go, Python, and CI/CD automation to validate service behavior, reduce manual deployment steps, and improve the reliability of service delivery.
Secure Supply Chain Engineering Excellence
Secure Software Supply Chain : Establish and improve secure supply chain practices for third-party application packaging, including artifact provenance, vulnerability management, dependency tracking, signing, and validation.
CI/CD Automation : Build and maintain GitLab CI pipelines that automate packaging, testing, scanning, validation, promotion, and publishing of service artifacts.
Deployment Reliability : Define validation, health check, rollback, and upgrade patterns that make service deployments repeatable and reliable across cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped environments.
Maintain Architecture Records : Contribute to and execute Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) regarding service packaging standards, deployment patterns, security controls, and platform integration decisions.
Cross-Team Technical Leadership : Partner with and mentor engineers across frontend, backend, control plane, and infrastructure teams to help them adopt service packaging patterns, understand Kubernetes deployment constraints, and operate within a software-defined, control-plane-first approach to Kubernetes cluster management.
Qualifications
Advanced Kubernetes Engineering : 5+ years of hands-on experience deploying, scaling, and troubleshooting production services, with deep expertise in control loops, reconciliation behavior, and extension patterns (CRDs, Operators, webhooks, admission policies) that goes beyond standard managed services (EKS/AKS).
Service Packaging Lifecycle Management : Deep experience packaging, configuring, upgr…