Software Engineer, National Security Startups
About:Zelcast is an AI-native talent firm working with dozens of ambitious, venture-backed, early-stage startups. Many of them are seed-stage teams building AI and data products for the U.S. government, including defense and intelligence agencies and other federal customers. Furthering American ambition is the reason we exist, and these teams do it as directly as anyone.This is a general profile for several software engineering roles across those companies. The exact product, technical stack, location, compensation, and clearance requirements vary by team. We’ll only introduce you to opportunities that match what you’re looking for.The work: The companies and products differ, but the engineering problems are similar. You would build AI systems that perform meaningful work for government customers, often using large amounts of messy, fragmented real-world data.Most roles involve working directly with those customers to learn how the work is done today, identify what should change, and turn that understanding into reliable software people depend on.What you’ll do:Build agents and LLM-powered workflows that automate or accelerate work people currently perform manuallyBuild the underlying data systems, from ingestion and processing through analysisEvaluate whether AI-generated outputs are accurate and determine when human review is necessaryTake features from an initial prototype to a reliable production systemWork directly with customers and support the software once they depend on itWhat we’re looking for:3+ years of experience building and shipping production softwareExperience building with LLMs and using AI coding tools as part of your daily workflowStrong generalist engineering ability across full-stack, backend, systems, or data-intensive applicationsThe ability to independently own technical problems from definition through deploymentA genuine interest in national security and the government missionU.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearanceNice to haveAn active or recent security clearanceMilitary, intelligence, defense, or government experiencePrior work as a forward-deployed engineer or in another customer-facing technical roleExperience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, or data platformsExperience at an early-stage startupIs an early-stage startup right for you?You’ll likely be a good fit if:You have taken something from zero to production usersYou are comfortable owning several projects at onceYou want to work directly with the people using your software, including on-site when neededYou would rather shape the technical foundation than inherit a mature systemYou have seen how a large company works and are choosing a startup on purposeYou care about the national security mission and don’t need to be sold on itYou may not be a fit if:You want a defined roadmap and a large team around youYou are unable or unwilling to complete the security-clearance processYou want a fully remote role with no customer travelYou are primarily looking for the predictability or cash-heavy compensation of a larger companyHow it works:We start with a conversation about your work and what you want next. We introduce you only to companies where there's a real case for why you belong there, and we stay with you through the introduction, the offer and the decision.