Staff Platform Engineer

About Manifold

Strategy is the act of choosing what to do when you can’t know enough to be sure. Manifold builds software for the people making those decisions on behalf of the United States. The ones whose decisions shape the next decade, not the next quarter.

This work is still done largely by hand, by smart people with slide decks, spreadsheets, and instinct. We think it should be done with better tools. Not tools that make the decisions, but tools that sharpen the judgement of the people responsible for them. Cognitive enhancement, in the literal sense.

About the Role

Manifold is looking for a Staff Platform Engineer to build the secure infrastructure and deployment foundation for our software from the ground up.

You will own the systems that take our application from source code to production across commercial and classified environments. This includes CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, security scanning, deployment architecture, observability, software supply-chain security, and the technical work required to support accreditation and ATO.

This is an early, high-ownership role. You will work closely with our software engineers, customers, and deployment partners to turn a rapidly evolving application into a secure, repeatable, and portable production system.

What You Will Do

Own Manifold’s deployment architecture from first principles

You will design and build the infrastructure that takes our software from source code to production across commercial, unclassified, and classified environments.

Build secure CI/CD and software delivery pipelines

You will automate build, test, security scanning, artifact creation, and deployment, including SAST, DAST, secret scanning, dependency scanning, image scanning, STIG validation, and end-to-end testing.

Turn our infrastructure into a portable, repeatable artifact

You will use Infrastructure-as-Code to make our environments reproducible, auditable, and portable across deployment targets while implementing applicable DISA STIG and NIST 800-53 controls.

Partner directly with external vendors and customers

You will help shepherd Manifold through the ATO process across multiple classification levels, translating accreditation and environment constraints into practical engineering decisions.

Own the security and reliability foundations of the platform: You will establish secrets and PKI management, software supply-chain provenance, artifact promotion, observability, backups, rollback procedures, and incident response practices.

Make engineers faster

You will build developer environments, internal tooling, configuration standards, and deployment workflows that let the application team ship quickly without sacrificing security or reliability.

What We Value

• High ownership: Comfortable building systems from first principles
• Strong Technical Judgement: Bias towards simple, durable architectures
• Hands-On Execution: Rather than purely architectural or managerial ownership
• Tolerates ambiguity: Can operate effectively in ambiguous, high stakes environments
• Clear Communication: With engineers, external partners, and customers
• Analytical Rigor: Attention to operational detail

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of experience in Platform Engineering, DevSecOps, DevOps, SRE, or related roles
• Deep experience deploying and operating cloud software in AWS
• Hands-on experience building CI/CD pipelines using tools such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including testing, version control, debugging, and system design
• Proficiency in Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Bash, or similar languages
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code, preferably Terraform
• Experience with Docker and containerized application deployment
• Familiarity with Kubernetes or comparable orchestration platforms
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions to customers and stakeholders
• Ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance
• U.S.-based U.S. citizen

Preferred Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI security clearance
• Hands-on knowledge of AWS GovCloud, SC2S, or other classified cloud environments
• Experience supporting ATO, RMF, STIG implementation, or continuous monitoring
• Familiarity with DISA STIGs and NIST 800-53
• Proven ability to deploy software into secure, disconnected, or air-gapped environments
• Proficiency with observability platforms such as Prometheus and Grafana
• Strong understanding of PKI, certificate management, secrets management, and key management
• Experience with software supply-chain security, SBOMs, artifact signing, and provenance

Nice To Haves

• Experience building a platform or deployment architecture from zero at an early-stage company
• Experience taking a prototype application into production
• Experience working directly with government or defense customers
• Experience designing systems that span multiple security classifications
• Experience building internal developer tooling or paved-road deployment workflows

Benefits

• 401(k) with matching
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents
• Unlimited PTO
• Health & Wellness stipend
• Lunch stipend 3 times per week and dinner stipend after 8 p.m.
• Company-wide break the last two weeks of the year
• Supportive leave of absence including time off for military service, medical events, and parental leave