Staff Systems Development Engineer (GovOps)

P-298 About Databricks At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business. Founded by engineers — and customer obsessed — we leap at every opportunity to solve technical challenges, from designing next-gen UI/UX for interfacing with data to scaling our services and infrastructure across millions of virtual machines. And we're only getting started.

The Role

As enterprise data enclaves and Generative AI applications become mission-critical to national security and public sector modernization, maintaining the architectural resilience and operational integrity of the underlying platform is paramount. Databricks is seeking a Staff Systems Development Engineer (GovOps) to join our Cleared Engineering team in McLean, VA. Sitting at the vital intersection of core infrastructure operations and active platform reliability, this team serves as the ultimate technical authority for our platform across GovCloud, FedRAMP High, and air-gapped environments. In this staff-level capacity, you will operate as a technical force multiplier, moving beyond complex escalation resolution to architect long-term system stability, drive fleet-wide supportability features, and eliminate systemic operational bottlenecks across multiple platform domains, including Compute, Networking, Storage, IAM, and OS internals. Serving as a primary technical pillar, you will bridge the gap between uncleared core engineering teams and cleared high-side environments, providing high-side technical leadership, virtual and physical escorts, and precise cross-boundary communication. If you are a seasoned systems authority who thrives under pressure, excels at designing tooling for constrained environments, and wants to shape the secure infrastructure powering next-generation federal AI workloads, this role offers unmatched scope and strategic impact. The Impact You’ll Have Architect High-Side Platform Reliability: Serve as the subject matter expert across multiple platform domains (Compute, Networking, Storage, OS), designing end-to-end operational workarounds and resolving the most complex escalations within air-gapped and GovCloud enclaves. Bridge Engineering Boundaries: Act as the lead technical interface and escort between uncleared core engineering teams and secure facilities, ensuring precise, succinct relay of system states, compliance constraints, and high-side operational requirements. Drive Fleet-Wide Supportability & Tooling: Identify systemic issue patterns across federal environments and author custom Python, Bash, or Go diagnostic tools, notebooks, and automated workflows to raise operational efficiency across the entire engineering organization. Partner with Core Engineering: Collaborate directly with Product and Core Engineering leaders to root-cause platform defects, influence product roadmaps, and integrate long-term supportability features into the core codebase. Lead Critical Incident Response: Anchor high-consequence platform incidents under intense pressure, establishing triage structure, making authoritative technical calls with incomplete data, and framing strategic communications for senior government and internal stakeholders. Uphold & Evolve Compliance Guardrails: Navigate and refine operational frameworks inside secure facilities (SCIF), ensuring platform interactions and deployment pipelines strictly align with FedRAMP High, ITAR/IL5, and federal security benchmarks.