Solutions Engineer — R&D Mission Platforms

About this role

Senior Technical Lead — R&D Mission Platforms

Location: United States Work Model: Remote Travel: Approximately 15% for R&D events, technical demos, and collaboration sessions Clearance: U.S. citizenship required. Active Secret clearance preferred; candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.

Role Overview

Rackner is seeking a Solutions Engineer — R&D Mission Platforms to support internal R&D efforts focused on demonstrating, implementing, and refining mission-relevant technical capabilities.

This role sits at the intersection of engineering, technical delivery, stakeholder engagement, and R&D feedback loops. You will work closely with Rackner’s technical leadership and R&D engineers to help translate operational needs, customer feedback, and demo outcomes into practical technical solutions.

The right candidate is technically credible, comfortable in customer-facing settings, and able to explain complex engineering concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. This is not a traditional sales role. It is a hands-on technical role supporting demos, prototypes, implementation efforts, and mission-focused solution development.

This role is well suited for someone who enjoys working with engineers, users, and stakeholders to understand problems, shape solutions, and help move concepts from demonstration to usable capability.

What You'll Do

• Support technical demos, R&D events, solution walkthroughs, and mission-focused engagements

• Work with R&D engineers and technical leadership to understand platform capabilities and communicate them clearly to stakeholders

• Translate customer, user, or mission feedback into actionable technical requirements for the R&D team

• Help bridge the gap between operational needs and software/platform implementation

• Assist with technical implementation, configuration, integration, and validation of prototype capabilities

• Participate in build, demo, feedback, and iteration cycles for emerging R&D solutions

• Explain technical concepts, system behavior, and solution tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences

• Capture stakeholder feedback and help prioritize improvements, enhancements, or follow-on development

• Collaborate with engineers to test, troubleshoot, and refine software capabilities in cloud-native or containerized environments

• Support documentation, demo preparation, technical briefings, and post-event feedback summaries

• 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

• Background in solutions engineering, software development, systems engineering, platform engineering, DevSecOps, or a related technical discipline

• Experience collaborating with engineering teams to deliver software, cloud, infrastructure, or platform capabilities

• Ability to explain complex concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences

• Skilled at gathering user, customer, or stakeholder needs and converting feedback into actionable requirements

• Familiarity with APIs, cloud services, containers, DevSecOps practices, and modern software delivery approaches

• Ability to work independently in ambiguous, prototype-driven, or fast-moving settings

• Willingness to travel approximately 15% for R&D events, demos, collaboration sessions, or mission engagements

Preferred Qualifications

• Active Secret clearance or higher

• Background supporting DoD, Air Force, Platform One, Big Bang, mission planning, C2, ISR, autonomy, or defense software initiatives

• Participation in demos, pilots, field events, customer-facing discussions, technical briefings, or live exercises

• Experience collaborating with operators, mission users, customers, or cross-functional stakeholders

• Hands-on skills with Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, React, Go, FastAPI, Postgres, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, or CI/CD tooling

• Knowledge of solution integration, prototype validation, platform configuration, or implementation activities

• Ability to create documentation, demo materials, solution briefs, and stakeholder feedback summaries

• Exposure to AI-enabled systems, LLMs, automation-focused software, data-driven tools, or autonomy-related technologies

• Familiarity with secure delivery practices, observability, infrastructure-as-code, and compliance-focused engineering approaches

Travel & Event Support

This role requires approximately 15% travel for R&D events, technical demos, collaboration sessions, and mission-focused engagements. Travel is planned in advance whenever possible and may include participation in customer-facing or internal engineering events.

About Rackner

Rackner is a software consultancy focused on building mission-critical systems for the U.S. government. Our teams work across cloud platforms, DevSecOps, AI/ML, distributed systems, and modern software engineering initiatives supporting federal agencies and national security missions.

Rackner engineers and technical teams collaborate closely with leadership, program teams, and mission stakeholders to design, demonstrate, and improve software systems that address complex operational challenges.

Benefits & Perks

Rackner invests in its people, because when you grow, we all win.

• Company-supported certifications aligned to current and future program work, including cloud, Kubernetes, DevSecOps, security, AI/ML, project management, and related technical areas

• Clear advancement tracks and future leadership opportunities

• 401(k) with 100% match up to 6%

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverage

• Generous PTO and paid holidays

• Home-office equipment plan and remote work support

• Fitness and wellness reimbursement

• Weekly pay schedule and modern perk

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