About Nominal
Nominal is building the software infrastructure that powers the world’s most advanced hardware systems — from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation industrial machines. Our platform ingests high-rate telemetry, validates complex autonomy software in real time, and helps engineering teams iterate faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We’re a small, fast-moving team of engineers and operators who own problems end-to-end, work across disciplines, and thrive on solving challenges at the intersection of hardware and software. As a dual-use platform, we're serving top-tier commercial and defense customers, including the U.S. Navy, United States Air Force, Shield AI, and Anduril.
We’re backed by top-tier investors — Sequioa, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures — who share our mission to accelerate innovation in mission-critical systems. Our team brings experience from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common goal: enabling hardware engineers to push the boundaries of advanced technology with speed, safety, and precision.
We’re looking for a Deployment Systems Engineer to join our team building high-scale, mission-critical infrastructure for advanced hardware systems. You’ll tackle high-scale, mission-critical problems, deploy and monitor complex distributed systems, and own projects end-to-end—all while collaborating with a team of top engineers. This role includes hands-on work in air-gapped environments, frequent travel to end-user sites, and requires U.S. TS Clearance eligibility.
🚀 About the role
- Deploy & integrate: Take Nominal's tech from concept to operation on the ground, tailoring Nominal’s software platform to fit our clients' high-stakes environments perfectly. Collaborate with software engineers to design and implement the deployment of Nominal’s software to its first air-gapped on-premises environment.
- Take us from 1 to N: Contribute to the strategy of deploying Nominal on customer-owned cloud accounts, air-gapped physical data centers, hybrid environments, and other heterogeneous infrastructures.
- Innovate at the edge: Innovate at the cutting edge of data infrastructure, considering high frequency, high volume, streaming data with transformation and alerting capabilities. Implement and manage infrastructure as code to ensure efficient and repeatable deployments.
- Manage tradeoffs. Understand the tensions between effort vs value, short-term vs long-term growth, and any others that may arise.
- Solve & streamline: See an issue? You're on it, with the autonomy to fix problems fast and keep our technology ahead of the curve.
🔍 We're looking for someone with
- Proven engineering expertise or a strong learning drive: You've been in the trenches of software engineering, with firsthand experience developing, deploying, and monitoring infrastructure for high-scale distributed systems or complex tools. You've deployed on-premises before and understand the problems of air-gapped environments. Alternatively, you demonstrate a strong desire and capacity to rapidly learn and apply these skills.
- Technical sharpshooter: Your intellectual curiosity drives you to solve complex problems. You think in systems and see the big picture, yet you're all about nailing the details.
- Dynamic leader & team player: With a mix of humility, eagerness to learn, and empathy, you're a natural at leading and lifting those around you. You don't just spot problems; you solve them.
- Project maestro: You've got a solid track record in turning technical concepts into reality and managing the full cycle from planning to deployment.
- Ready to roll: Frequently traveling to spend time with end-users on-site (e.g., rocket test stands, spacecraft clean rooms, automated manufacturing facilities).
- Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. TS Clearance
⚡ Skills that supercharge us
- Unix/Linux systems
- Kubernetes
- Minio/S3 Object Storage
- Postgres
- Grafana/Prometheus/Loki/Mimir observability stack
- Infrastructure as code
✨ Benefits/Perks
- 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- 🚀 Professional Development Stipend
- ✈️ Annual company retreat
$120,000 - $200,000 a year
This job description is written to capture a range of experience levels from 2 years to 15+ years, which is why you’ll see a wide band listed. Your actual base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on a range of considerations, including job-related knowledge and skills, education, prior experience, and other business needs. The listed salary range represents an estimate for base compensation only. Base salary is just one part of the total rewards package. Eligible employees may also receive highly competitive equity grants in the form of stock options, allowing you to share in the company’s long-term success.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
