Job title

Data Operations Technical Lead — SOF Cleared Program

Company

Intrepid Prosperity, Inc.

Workplace type

On-site (select Hybrid if the dropdown forces a choice — role is Tampa on-site with hybrid flexibility)

Job location

Tampa, Florida, United States

Job type

Full-time

Seniority level

Director

Job function

Engineering / Information Technology

Industries

Defense & Space, IT Services and IT Consulting

How to receive applicants

Email — [email protected] (or your ATS link)

Description (paste into the Description box — blind version, KBR-safe)

Data Operations Technical Lead — SOF Cleared Program Senior leadership role | TS/SCI required | Tampa, FL (on-site, hybrid flexibility)

The role. Own the foundational data infrastructure that turns SOF Enterprise data into a strategic asset. Lead the engineering team that builds and operates the platform beneath the analytics, AI/ML models, and mission applications.

About the program. Intrepid Prosperity is staffing senior technical leadership roles on a major multi-year cleared program in support of a U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) customer. Work is based in Tampa, FL with hybrid flexibility, plus a distributed footprint across U.S. and OCONUS locations (Germany, Korea, and other comparable sites). The mission: bring the data, analytics, and AI capabilities the SOF Enterprise needs to win in the digital warfare domain.

Why it matters. This is a senior, named-position technical leadership role on a multi-year program. You'll be a founding member of a senior team building from day one, in direct contact with senior mission owners. The team is built deliberately senior-heavy — you'll work alongside peers at the top of their craft.

What you'll do. Own the data infrastructure, data engineering, and data operations stack — the scalable systems beneath the analytics, AI/ML models, and mission applications. Lead the data engineering team — set the technical bar, mentor senior engineers, run on-call rotations, own production incidents and postmortems. Translate senior Government mission-owner requests into multi-team work plans; bridge customer requirements and the engineering teams that deliver them. Drive agile development across distributed teams — sprint cadence, backlog grooming, release management, retros. Manage data operations processes: data governance, data quality SLAs, VAULTIS compliance, data product delivery. Own the technical relationship with Government ISSOs and SCARs — drive RMF artifacts, ATO packages, and continuous monitoring for the data platform. Partner with the Data Science & Analytics Technical Lead, AI/ML Engineering Lead, and DevSecOps team to support the full analytics and AI lifecycle.

Must have. Active TS/SCI clearance (held within last 5 years; no break >24 months in eligibility). U.S. Citizenship. Minimum 8 years managing digital projects in support of SOF Enterprise customers. Hybrid skill set: technical depth (modern data engineering / data platform stack) AND a program management track record. Hands-on experience with at least three of: AWS GovCloud, Snowflake/Redshift, Apache Spark, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, Kubernetes, Terraform. Direct experience as technical owner of an ATO / RMF / STIG cycle on a production system.

Nice to have. 3+ years managing SOF agile development processes; 3+ years managing SOF data operations processes; 3+ years translating SOF customer requests into team assignments. CI Poly or FS Poly. Prior senior engineering leadership at a cleared defense data firm with SOF program experience. MLOps platform experience (MLflow, SageMaker, Kubeflow). Located in the Tampa Bay area today.

Compensation. Base $200,000–$260,000. Active CI Poly +10%; active FS Poly +15–20%. Full medical/dental/vision, 401(k) match, 15 days PTO + 11 federal holidays, professional development budget, relocation assistance to Tampa where applicable.

How to apply. Send your resume plus a brief note on (a) your active clearance level and (b) why this specific role, to [email protected]. We respond to every qualified senior applicant within 3 business days. Intrepid Prosperity is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Skills (LinkedIn Add skills — add up to 10, these drive match/recommendations)

Data Engineering · Data Operations (DataOps) · AWS GovCloud · Apache Spark ·
Apache Airflow · Kafka · Kubernetes · Terraform · Snowflake ·
Risk Management Framework (RMF) / ATO

Screening questions (LinkedIn knockout questions — set these as filters)

Add each as a screening question; set the ones marked (knockout) to Must-have so LinkedIn auto-flags applicants who miss them.

#

Question type

Question

Ideal answer / knockout

1

Security clearance

What is your current level of active security clearance?

TS/SCI (knockout: must be TS/SCI or higher)

2

Work authorization

Are you a U.S. Citizen?

Yes (knockout)

3

Years of experience

How many years of experience do you have managing digital/data projects for DoD or SOF customers?

8+ (knockout at 8)

4

Expertise (custom)

Have you served as the technical owner of an ATO / RMF / STIG accreditation on a production system?

Yes (knockout)

5

Expertise (custom)

Which of these have you used hands-on in production: AWS GovCloud, Snowflake/Redshift, Spark, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, Kubernetes, Terraform? (List all.)

3+ named

6

Background (custom)

Are you currently employed by the U.S. Government (active military or Government civilian)?

No (knockout — Gov employees are off-limits)

PART B — Hunt for the Job (LinkedIn Recruiter search fields)

KP #2 is not one of the 8 Tier-2 LCATs in the Starter Search Set — it's a senior hybrid tech-lead + program-manager profile, so titles span both engineering-leadership and technical-PM language. Set these filters field-by-field, then run the Boolean in Part C in the keyword box.

Universal filter set

Recruiter filter

Value

Notes

Job titles (current or past)

Data Operations · DataOps · Data Engineering Manager · Director of Data Engineering · Data Platform Lead · Lead Data Engineer · Principal Data Engineer · Chief Data Engineer · Data Platform Architect · Technical Program Manager · Data Program Manager

Hybrid role — pull both eng-lead and tech-PM titles

Location

Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL — 50 mi radius

Add MacDill AFB, Tampa, FL as keywords. Include Open to relocate candidates.

Years of experience

8+ (hard floor per PWS)

Bias to 10+. Below 8 is an auto-disqualifier.

Seniority level

Director, Manager, Senior, Owner

This is a leadership slot — not IC-only

Keywords — clearance (always on)

(TS/SCI OR TS SCI OR Top Secret OR SCI OR cleared)

Required. Many under-claim for OPSEC — a bare Top Secret is a maybe, message anyway if rest fits.

Keywords — customer signal (always on)

(SOCOM OR USSOCOM OR SOF OR MacDill OR CDAO OR TSOC OR special operations)

Highest-signal terms. SOCOM on a profile cleared/clearable 90%+. Lead with it.

Keywords — RMF signal

(ATO OR RMF OR STIG OR authority to operate OR VAULTIS OR ISSO)

KP #2's hardest must-have — the ATO/RMF ownership requirement

Skills

AWS GovCloud · Apache Spark · Kafka · Airflow · Kubernetes · Terraform · Snowflake · Databricks

Need 3+ of the platform stack

Current companies (prioritize)

Clarity Innovations, Raft, LEVELUP, Patriot Strategies, Booz Allen Hamilton, Leidos, SAIC, Peraton, CACI, Palantir, Anduril, ManTech, Accenture Federal

See tiered list in Part C

Past companies (bonus)

LEVELUP, Clarity Innovations, Raft

Ex-incumbents / SOCOM-ecosystem alumni are the highest-value targets

Industries

Defense & Space, IT Services and IT Consulting, Computer Software

Don't over-restrict

Schools (soft bonus)

USF, FSU, UCF, Embry-Riddle, U.S. service academies

Florida/veteran bias — not required

Spotlights

Open to work, More likely to respond, Have company connections

Work warm signals first

Title exclude

NOT (recruiter OR sales OR business development OR BD OR capture manager)

Kills noise

Off-limits exclude

Skip anyone whose current employer is a uniformed service or federal agency

Active mil + Gov civilians are off-limits (hard constraint)

Search hygiene #1: Save every search in Recruiter before closing the tab. Name it SEDTP — KP2 DataOps Lead — v1. Tweak save as v2, don't overwrite. Leyla and Jary audit search history.

Search hygiene #2: Set Past Company = LEVELUP (or Clarity Innovations) on a dedicated pass — these people already know the SOCOM ecosystem and are top-priority.

PART C — Boolean Search Kit

Paste into the LinkedIn Recruiter keyword box. Start with Primary. Too many results Tight. Too few Broad. Sales Nav string is supplementary.

At-a-glance

• Experience: 8+ years SOF/DoD digital project management (hard floor) + data-platform technical depth
• Result volume: narrow role — expect 10–40 per variant, not hundreds
• The make-or-break signal: SOF/SOCOM experience AND ATO/RMF ownership AND 3+ of the platform stack. A profile missing the SOF piece does not substitute with broad DoD.

Primary Boolean (start here)

(data operations OR data engineering OR data platform OR DataOps OR platform engineering) AND (lead OR manager OR director OR principal OR technical lead OR program manager) AND (TS/SCI OR Top Secret OR SCI OR cleared) AND (SOCOM OR USSOCOM OR SOF OR MacDill OR CDAO OR special operations) AND (AWS OR GovCloud OR Snowflake OR Spark OR Kafka OR Airflow OR Kubernetes OR Terraform)

Tight Boolean (if Primary > 60 results)

(data operations OR data engineering manager OR data platform lead OR DataOps OR principal data engineer) AND TS/SCI AND (SOCOM OR USSOCOM OR MacDill OR SOF enterprise OR CDAO) AND (AWS GovCloud OR Snowflake OR Kafka OR Airflow OR Kubernetes OR Terraform) AND (ATO OR RMF OR STIG OR authority to operate)

Broad Boolean (if Primary < 15 results)

(data operations OR data engineering OR data platform OR DataOps OR infrastructure lead OR engineering manager) AND (cleared OR TS OR Top Secret OR SCI) AND (SOF OR SOCOM OR DoD OR intelligence community) AND (Tampa OR Florida OR MacDill OR relocate OR remote)

RMF/ATO-owner variant (find the hardest must-have first)

(ATO OR RMF OR STIG OR authority to operate OR continuous monitoring OR ISSO OR ISSM) AND (data engineering OR data platform OR data operations OR platform lead) AND TS/SCI AND (SOCOM OR SOF OR MacDill OR DoD)

Incumbent / ecosystem-alumni hunt (run as a Past-Company pass)

Set Past Company = Clarity Innovations OR LEVELUP OR Raft + Title contains (data OR engineering OR platform OR operations) + keyword TS/SCI. These are people who already know the customer.

Sales Navigator variant (supplementary sourcing only)

(title) Data Operations OR Data Engineering Manager OR Data Platform Lead OR Principal Data Engineer — Skills: AWS GovCloud, Snowflake, Kubernetes, Airflow, Terraform — Current company: Clarity Innovations, Raft, LEVELUP, Booz Allen Hamilton, Leidos, Peraton — Geography: Tampa Bay 50 mi

Notes

Smaller pool than the Tier-2 LCATs because of the 8-year SOF floor + ATO/RMF ownership combo. Don't expand by dropping the SOF requirement — broad DoD does not substitute (it's an explicit disqualifier). Raft's Tampa office is a prime hunting ground — the current best on-paper KP #2 fit (Michael Foster, Chief Data Engineer, Raft Tampa) sits there; mine his peer network. Prioritize anyone showing GovCloud + production ATO + SOCOM together.