Staff C++ Software Engineer – Electronic Warfare
Location: Dayton / Fairborn, OH – Wright-Patterson Air Force Base area
Work Setting: 100% onsite in a secure SCIF environment; no hybrid or remote flexibility
Travel: Minimal, expected to be 10% or less
Compensation: Approximately $130,000–$186,000 base salary depending on experience and leveling
Benefits: 10% employer retirement contribution, 4+ weeks of PTO starting immediately, 100% tuition support, comprehensive medical and employee benefits, and potential sign-on assistance for qualified candidates
Security Clearance: Active TS/SCI clearance required on Day 1
Position Summary
A mission-driven research and development organization supporting U.S. national security is seeking a Staff C++ Software Engineer to join a highly technical multidisciplinary team supporting classified work in the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base environment.
This is a senior, hands-on engineering role focused on architecting and developing high-performance, scalable C++ systems for sophisticated national-security applications. You'll work alongside C++ engineers, RF engineers, ELINT specialists, cloud/database engineers, and other technical experts while helping establish architecture, engineering standards, and technical direction.
The ideal candidate is an experienced modern C++ engineer who enjoys solving complex system-level problems involving performance, concurrency, memory management, and distributed architectures while remaining highly engaged in hands-on development.
Key Responsibilities
- Architect and develop scalable, high-performance, low-latency software systems using modern C++
- Establish technical direction and architecture for core software platforms
- Optimize system throughput, memory efficiency, resource utilization, and overall application performance
- Develop production-level software in Linux environments using modern C++ practices
- Design and improve distributed, concurrent, and multithreaded software systems
- Identify technical debt and lead modernization and refactoring efforts across legacy applications
- Establish engineering best practices, coding standards, automated testing strategies, and rigorous code review processes
- Mentor junior and mid-level engineers while influencing technical practices across the team
- Collaborate with software, RF, ELINT, cloud, database, and other engineering disciplines supporting complex classified programs
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant software engineering experience OR Master's degree with 6+ years of relevant experience
- Active TS/SCI security clearance required – inactive or previously held clearances cannot be considered
- Strong professional C++ development experience, ideally with C++17, C++20, or C++23
- Experience designing or architecting complex production-level software systems
- Strong Linux development experience
- Experience with concurrency, multithreading, distributed systems, and low-level resource or memory management
- Strong understanding of software architecture, design patterns, debugging, and performance optimization
- Experience with automated unit, integration, and performance testing
- Ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary engineering environment
- Ability and willingness to work 100% onsite in a secure SCIF environment
Preferred Backgrounds
- Electronic Warfare (EW), SIGINT, ELINT, radar, RF, intelligence, or other national-security programs
- High-performance computing, real-time systems, embedded software, or other performance-critical applications
- CMake and modern C++ development environments
- Performance profiling tools such as Perf, Valgrind, VTune, or similar platforms
- Linux kernel or system internals, OS-level scheduling, TCP/UDP, sockets, or network programming
- Boost, LLVM, Abseil, Docker, or cloud technologies
- CI/CD pipelines and modern software development practices
- Open-source contributions or demonstrated experience optimizing complex C++ applications
Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate is a senior C++ engineer who still loves being hands-on with technically difficult software.
You'll bring deep modern C++ expertise along with the ability to think beyond individual features and influence architecture, performance, coding practices, and technical direction. You should be comfortable mentoring other engineers without needing formal management authority and enjoy collaborating with experts across multiple technical disciplines.
Most importantly, you should be motivated by the opportunity to apply sophisticated software engineering to challenging classified work with a direct national-security mission.
Why This Opportunity
- Work on sophisticated classified technology supporting critical U.S. national-security missions
- Join a multidisciplinary team of approximately 20–30 engineers and technical specialists
- Highly technical role combining hands-on C++ development with architecture and technical leadership
- Opportunity to solve challenging problems involving performance, concurrency, distributed systems, and low-level engineering
- Exceptional 10% employer retirement contribution — significantly above a traditional employer match
- 4+ weeks of PTO beginning immediately
- 100% tuition support for continued education
- Compensation flexibility for exceptional senior engineers, with leveling based on experience
- Join a mission-focused R&D environment with a strong population of engineers, scientists, and military veterans
