DevOps Engineer
9 Mothers
Location: Onsite — Austin, TX Employment Type: Direct Hire, Full-Time Job Title: DevOps Engineer About 9 Mothers The modern battlefield has changed. Cheap, autonomous suicide drones have turned the tactical advantage upside down, and the world is looking for a solution. At 9 Mothers, we aren’t just "innovating"—we are building the shield. Backed by top-tier investors, we develop AI powered machines designed to intercept and neutralize Group 1/sUAS threats in real-time. Our flagship product is a low-power, counter-drone system built for the edge—on vehicles, at bases, or in a soldier's pack. Why 9 Mothers? While others build for "awareness" or "long-term research," we build for the immediate survival of those in harm’s way. We are a team of hackers, engineers, and mission-driven builders who value field-ready capability over polished slide decks. If you want to see your code or hardware in the field next month—not next year—this is your playground. Position Summary 9 Mothers is hiring a DevOps Engineer to support a rapidly growing defense engineering team. In this broad-scope IC role, you will automate fleet deployment activities, build low-latency CI/CD pipelines, and manage internal tooling to keep our software, hardware, and mechanical engineers operating at maximum velocity. From configuring AI-driven internal workflows and custom LLM agent tools to managing build runners, edge deployment targets (NVIDIA Jetson), and infrastructure environments, you will serve as a resourceful problem solver capable of tackling dynamic priorities in a fast-moving defense startup environment. Essential Duties - Fleet Deployment & Hardware/Software Integration: Automate hardware fleet deployment activities and troubleshoot complex software, hardware, edge compute, and networking issues across our platform. - Automated CI/CD & Build Infrastructure: Create and maintain modern GitHub Actions workflows, manage organizational repositories and rulesets, and build composable test environments, simulation harnesses, and release pipelines. - AI Tooling & Workflow Automation: Automate traditional IT and engineering tasks using AI-based workflows, build internal AI agents, and configure custom Claude skills and plugins to boost cross-functional staff productivity. - SaaS, Identity & Access Management: Manage internal system integrations, configure SSO/SAML policies, and oversee identity and access controls. - Infrastructure as Code & Environments: Provision and maintain infrastructure using composable configurations across cloud environments, internal lab setups, and developer workstations. - Compliance & Security Hardening: Enforce security best practices, access controls, and repository governance compliant with defense and export control standards. Requirements - Core Systems Experience: 5+ years of hands-on technical experience in DevOps, infrastructure, or systems administration. - Linux Shell & Networking: Highly comfortable working in a Linux shell environment with a strong understanding of TCP/IP networking, routing, and system diagnostics. - Build & Automation Tooling: Solid experience with configuration management tools, modern build pipelines, and GitHub Actions workflow development. Experience building or integrating custom LLM tools, Claude skills, or AI agents into daily workflows. - Independence & Problem Solving: Resourceful self-starter comfortable operating independently, taking ownership of ambiguous tasks, and navigating changing priorities with limited oversight. - Familiarity with NVIDIA Jetson: Hands-on experience with NVIDIA Jetson platforms (Orin, JetPack) or embedded Linux edge targets. - Compliance: This position requires access to export-controlled information under ITAR. Only U.S. citizens are permitted. Must be willing to submit a background check. Nice-to-Have - Experience in a regulated, ITAR, CMMC, or compliance-bound defense environment. - Cloud administration experience on Azure and familiarity with Entra ID (formerly