Defense Unicorns

Defense Unicorns forward deployed engineer jobs

5 open FDE rolesDefense & governmentdefenseunicorns.com

Posted base

$148–201k

vs all FDE jobs

—

market median $203k

Posted range

$148–201k

lowest to highest posted base

Roles with pay

1 of 5

US, full-time · how we count

What Defense Unicorns calls the role

  • Data & AI Engineer1
  • FDE Data Engineer1
  • Senior Data Engineer1
  • Senior Platform Engineer1
  • Software Engineer1

Where and how

  • Springfield, VA3
  • Remote (US)2
On-site 2Remote 2Hybrid 1Mid 3Senior 2

Skills in the postings

Kubernetes 4Python 4AI Agents 2LLMs 2RAG 2Top Secret Clearance 2Airflow 1Apache Iceberg 1C++ 1Clearance 1Data Engineering 1DevSecOps 1

4 of 5 roles involve government or cleared work

Defense Unicorns FDE hiring in numbers

Does Defense Unicorns hire forward deployed engineers?
Yes. As of 2026-11-14, Defense Unicorns has 5 open FDE roles on Top FDE Jobs (3 mid and 2 senior). The postings are titled "Data & AI Engineer" (1), "FDE Data Engineer" (1) and "Senior Data Engineer" (1).
How much does Defense Unicorns pay forward deployed engineers?
Only 1 of Defense Unicorns's 5 open FDE postings list a US base salary, from $148k to $201k. That is too few for a reliable median; across all FDE postings the median base is $203k.
Where are Defense Unicorns's forward deployed engineer jobs?
Most are in Springfield, VA (3) and Remote (US) (2). By workplace: 2 on-site, 2 remote and 1 hybrid. 4 of the 5 roles involve government or cleared work.