Principal Platform Engineer (Hybrid)

Principal Platform Engineer

At RTX, the world's largest aerospace and defense company, 185,000 great minds are united by purpose and inspired to make a difference solving the world's most complex problems. With our three market leading businesses, world-class operations and investments in research and development, we offer capabilities and opportunity no one else can. Together, we push the boundaries of known science and find new ways to connect and protect our world.

Raytheon brings the strength of more than 100 years of experience and renowned engineering expertise to meet the needs of today's mission and stay ahead of tomorrow's threat. We deliver solutions that help our nation and allies defend freedom and deter aggression, creating a safer, more secure world. Join us and help shape the future of aerospace and defense.

We are seeking a Principal Platform Engineer to support this need as a hands-on engineer, but also to lead the design and evolution Developer ecosystem as a Product Owner, or in a Scrum Master capacity. This role focuses on building intuitive, self-service workflows that enable development teams onboard, deploy, and operate software efficiently across secure environments.

You will operate at the intersection of product, platform, and users — maintaining and translating developer needs into usable platform capabilities. The role requires strong frontend engineering instincts, backed by solid backend and cloud-native platform knowledge.

You will help define how engineers interact with the platform — not just build services but design the experience. This position involves architecting UI workflows, integrating APIs, enabling self-service automation, and shaping platform standards used across multiple programs and security domains.

This is not a traditional backend platform engineering role. You will support the role as a Product Owner yet still have your hands on the design and implementation and how developers interact with the platform itself — shaping onboarding, automation, and daily workflows across a large engineering organization. Success in this role is measured by developer adoption, efficiency, and satisfaction. You will be the person who turns infrastructure into a usable product.

Note This Position will be based out of Aurora Colorado but may be supported Hybrid at either Richardson TX; or Dulles VA: if local to these other areas.

What You Will Do

Provide Product Ownership to the deliverable design.

Implement user-focused workflows for onboarding, resource provisioning, and lifecycle management

Develop frontend experiences using modern web frameworks (React/TypeScript)

Implement backend services and APIs supporting the portal (Python/FastAPI)

Integrate platform systems (Kubernetes, CI/CD, identity, secrets, cost services, and infrastructure automation)

Partner with other platform teams to convert infrastructure capabilities into self-service products

Improve usability, adoption, and developer satisfaction across the platform

Gather feedback from engineering teams and translate it into product improvements

Create documentation and enablement materials

Communicate technical concepts to both engineers and leadership

Qualifications You Must Have

Typically requires BS/BA Degree in Science, Technology Engineering Math (STEM) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology or Physics and a minimum 8 years of related work experience

Experience with NodeJS and other UI Frameworks

Experience with one or more of the following: - Programming: Python, Java, TypeScript, Golang, Rust, Shell. - Frameworks: React/Next.js, Flask, Spring Boot, Svelte. - Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Ansible or equivalent. - Data formats: JSON, XML, YAML, SQL

Experience in one or more of the following: - Cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, or similar on-prem/self-hosted infrastructure; - Containerization: Docker, Podman. - Orchestration: Kubernetes, Rancher. - Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB. - Product tooling: Jira / Atlassian ecosystem. - Observability platforms. - Generative AI developer tooling

Ability to obtain a TS/SCI Security Clearance is required after day 1. U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance

Qualifications We Prefer

Experience with Windows and Linux operating systems (RHEL 8+ preferred)

Experience building or supporting Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)

Experience improving developer workflows or platform usability

Background in DoD, Intelligence, or Space environments

Experience working in scaled agile environments

Experience leading platform or product initiatives

Modern DevSecOps practices

Software testing methodologies

RESTful API and distributed architecture design

Secure system design principles

Technical documentation

Ability to understand business, product, and engineering context simultaneously

Ability to research, prototype, and recommend platform strategy

Experience defining engineering standards and processes

What We Offer

Our values drive our actions, behaviors, and performance with a vision for a safer, more connected world. At RTX we value: Safety, Trust, Respect, Accountability, Collaboration, and Innovation

Relocation Eligibility