Senior Principal Software Engineer​/Team Lead Herndon, VA

Senior Principal Software Engineer / Team Lead

Herndon, VA

Clarity Innovations is a trusted national security partner, dedicated to safeguarding our nation’s interests and delivering innovative solutions that empower the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) to transform data into actionable intelligence, ensuring mission success in an evolving world.

Our mission‑first software and data engineering platform modernizes data operations, utilizing advanced workflows, CI/CD, and secure Dev Sec Ops  practices. We focus on challenges in Information Warfare, Cyber Operations, Operational Security, and Data Structuring, enabling end‑to‑end solutions that drive operational impact.

We are committed to delivering cutting‑edge tools and capabilities that address the most complex national security challenges, empowering our partners to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensuring the success of their critical missions. At Clarity, we are people‑focused and set on being a destination employer for top talent, offering an environment where innovation thrives, careers grow, and individuals are valued.

Join us as we continue to lead innovation and tackle the most pressing challenges in national security.

The team lead partners with the program manager to ensure team members are empowered to do their best work building solutions for our customer.

The team lead enables their team to sustainably and efficiently make and implement the best possible technical decisions through experience, guidance, and mentorship. A good technical lead shapes their team with the right tools and attributes to deliver the best possible product for Clarity's customers.

• Assess, maintain, and nurture a healthy team culture
• Meet one‑on‑one with team members monthly at a minimum
• Collaborate with each team member’s manager to provide effective mentorship and establish tailored development plans
• Provide feedback on team members’ performance to managers
• Work with program manager and talent acquisition team to ensure the team is staffed with appropriate technical talent
• Verify onboarding process is defined and followed for all new members
• Ensure team members understand their roles and responsibilities
• Apply team members’ technical strengths to corresponding work whenever possible
• Establish and assess team members’ technical performance expectations
• Promptly resolve performance issues in coordination with a team member’s manager

• Keep the team on target; communicate priorities and ensure their tasking aligns with it
• Implement Clarity’s engineering processes, standards, and quality expectations for your team, including tailoring and documenting deviations where appropriate
• Review your team’s code, provide feedback, and ensure technical excellence in delivery
• Raise any issues impacting delivery, such as staffing, budget, or scope, to the PM
• Ensure your team defines and adheres to design, development, versioning, release, and deployment workflows
• Oversee your team’s documentation of design and architecture decisions

• Establish and communicate the "product" vision
• Represent the team in external, technical engagements
• Ensure the team’s backlog is well‑documented, groomed, and prioritized
• Provide time for team to work on enablers like maintenance tasks and automation for building, testing, and deploying
• Deliver regular demonstrations of technical progress to customer

• Identify opportunities for on‑contract growth based on observed gaps in
• Act as a key contributor to proposals within or related to the program's scope and customer base

• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Strong interpersonal skills to effectively engage with various stakeholders from customers to senior leadership
• Experience providing formal and informal technical mentorship to teammates

• Proficient with Kubernetes (K8s) deployment strategies, cluster lifecycle (deployment, troubleshooting, scaling), and container orchestration
• Experience writing code in a general‑purpose language such as Python or Go
• Experience implementing modern Dev Ops practices and…