Valinor is a new type of defense and government tech company focused on solving the problems others don’t. Our unique model of centralized go-to-market and decentralized engineering allows us to move with unparalleled efficiency to identify unmet needs, build right-sized solutions, and get products where they matter most - in the hands of users. Unlike others in the space, who focus on the flashy problems, Valinor exists to solve the quiet, unaddressed problems–the small but significant ones that lead to cracks in the country’s strength, stability, and security.

Backed by General Catalyst, Founders Fund, and Friends & Family Capital, Valinor was founded in 2024 and has established strategic partnerships with Palantir, Anduril, and Helsing. We are building the dream team, and we want you on it.

About The Role

We're building defense and aerospace technology that has to actually work — in the field, under compliance constraints, across hardware and software simultaneously. To do that, we need someone who can build and own the internal systems that make every team faster.

You'll be the person who looks at a broken workflow, whether it's a hardware test pipeline, a supply chain process, a deployment bottleneck, or a security gap and builds something that fixes it for good. You'll tie together hardware, software, cloud infrastructure and AI tooling into a cohesive internal platform that Valinor's product companies run on.

You'll work across every subsidiary in the portfolio, embedded with engineering and ops teams, and you'll have wide latitude to choose the right tools and build the right systems

What You'll Do

• Embed directly with product companies across the Valinor ecosystem — you're not working from a distance. You'll sit with engineering and ops teams at each subsidiary, understand how they actually work, and build solutions shaped around their real constraints and workflows. Your impact is visible and direct.

• Turn what you learn in the field into lasting infrastructure — when you identify a broken process or a gap that's slowing a product team down, you own the fix end-to-end. You're not writing a recommendation and handing it off; you're building the thing and shipping it.

• Be the connective tissue across hardware, software, supply chain, and DevOps — you'll frequently be the person who sees that teams are solving adjacent problems in isolation and builds the integration that makes them work together. That cross-functional view is one of the most valuable things you'll bring.

• Own internal infrastructure end-to-end — cloud environments (Azure, AWS, GCP), edge deployments, and the pipelines that connect them. You set it up, you keep it running, you make it better.

• Build the internal developer platform — CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions workflows, artifact management (JFrog), containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and the tooling that lets engineers ship faster and safer.

• Automate hardware test pipelines and logging — build systems that capture, store, and surface data from hardware testing across embedded and physical systems. Make test results traceable and repeatable.

• Wire together supply chain and inventory workflows — integrate procurement, parts tracking, and inventory systems into the broader engineering and ops stack so nothing falls through the cracks.

• Build continuous security automations — STIG checks, FedRAMP control validation, vulnerability scanning, and compliance reporting shouldn't be manual processes. Automate them.

• Bring AI into internal workflows — identify high-leverage opportunities to use LLMs and AI tooling to accelerate engineering, ops, and compliance work. Build and deploy those tools internally.

• Own government accreditation deployments — manage the deployment process for software delivered to government environments, ensuring we meet IL5, FedRAMP, and STIG requirements at every step.

What We're Looking For

• 3+ years of real-world experience building and operating production systems — ideally across more than one domain

• A builder mentality: you've owned systems over time, not just handed them off after initial setup

• Strong scripting and automation skills in Python and/or TypeScript

• Hands-on experience with CI/CD (GitHub Actions), containers (Docker/Kubernetes), and cloud platforms

• AI is part of how you work you use it daily for coding, debugging, and documentation, and you've built AI-powered workflows for real internal use cases (compliance reporting, code review, log triage, security automation, etc.)

• You can build with AI APIs end-to-end LLM integration, prompt engineering, orchestration frameworks. Not an ML engineer, but a builder who ships AI-powered tools

• Comfort working across the stack and learning fast

• Some exposure to hardware-adjacent workflows (test data, embedded systems, firmware pipelines) is a strong plus

• Familiarity with government compliance environments (FedRAMP, IL5, STIG) or a strong appetite to learn them

• You work well with ambiguity — a lot of what you'll build doesn't have a spec yet

• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

What Valinor Offers

• Competitive salary, equity packages, and benefits, including health, dental, and vision insurance - fully covered for employees, 401K, development stipends, among others.

• Unlimited PTO and two-week company holiday at the end of every calendar year.

• We are a pro-mental health and pro-family company - we actually encourage employees to spend time with themselves and their families. Valinor also provides fertility benefits to those just beginning that journey.

• Fun work environment - we like to laugh and take care of each other, but we also deeply respect the mission in front of us.

• Headquartered in Washington DC with additional coworking spaces throughout the country. We also host team offsites and colocations around the U.S.

This role requires the candidate be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance at the SECRET level.

Valinor is an equal-opportunity employer committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. The Valinor team is made up of incredibly talented and unique individuals, who together are disrupting industry norms by creating new paths towards the future of defense and government technology. All qualified applicants will be treated with respect and receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, uniform service, Veteran status, age, or any other protected characteristic per federal, state, or local law, including those with a criminal history, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the CA Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. We actively encourage members of recognized minorities, women, Veterans, and those with disabilities to apply, and we work to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all applicants throughout the interview process. If you are someone passionate about working on problems that have a real-world impact, we'd love to hear from you!