Mission Software Engineer

About the Team

The Imaging team builds and fields state-of-the-art camera and sensor systems deployed to solve real security challenges for the United States and its allies. We work across the full stack, from bare-metal hardware and firmware to networked services and cloud integrations, and we own our systems all the way through to the field. When something breaks in a deployed environment, we fix it.

About the Role

We're looking for a Mission Software Engineer to join the Imaging Interfaces team. This is not a pure product development role. You will spend meaningful time keeping fielded systems alive, triaging issues across the full stack, and serving as a technical representative for our products in integrations with external teams and customers.

The work is varied and sometimes ambiguous. You might spend a morning extending a gRPC service, an afternoon diagnosing a time sync issue on a deployed device over the phone with a field operator, and a week traveling to support a customer integration. You'll need to be comfortable with that range--and ideally energized by it.

If you want to own your software end-to-end in a fast-moving environment where the stakes are real, this role is built for you.

What You'll Do

Own fielded system success. You are responsible for the health and uptime of deployed imaging systems. When issues arise--whether the root cause is in your code, the firmware, the network, or the hardware--you triage, diagnose, and drive resolution.

Build and maintain production services. You'll develop and extend modular software services that run on edge-compute devices in austere environments. These services need to be reliable, observable, and maintainable by engineers who didn't write them.

Support field operations. You'll work directly with field operators and non-technical users to diagnose and resolve issues on deployed hardware. Clear communication under pressure is part of the job.

Represent the team externally. You'll serve as a subject matter expert in integrations with other products and teams; sometimes remotely, sometimes on-site. You don't need to know everything, but you need to be able to speak credibly across the full system stack and know what you don't know.

Maintain end-to-end system understanding. Our devices sit at the intersection of hardware, firmware, networking, and software. You'll develop broad fluency across that stack over time, and apply it to optimize how our services interact and degrade gracefully when components fail.

Collaborate across teams. You'll plan, build, and test complex functionality alongside firmware, hardware, and platform engineers. You'll need to be effective working across team and organizational boundaries.

Travel expected approximately 25% of the time for field testing and customer integrations.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 3+ years of software development with meaningful production ownership: not just shipping features, but owning systems after they ship (their health, uptime, and behavior once they are in users' hands).
• Deep proficiency in at least one of C++, TypeScript(node.js/React), or Python, and the ability to work effectively across the stack boundary in a second language (reading, debugging, and modifying code outside your primary). Our work spans a large TypeScript/React operator-facing UI and a growing body of C++ services running on edge hardware, and C++ depth is increasingly central as we expand across our imaging product lines.
• Comfort ramping quickly into unfamiliar languages, tools, and deployment systems. Our language and tooling mix varies by product and shifts over time; we value engineers who get productive in a new stack rather than staying in one lane.
• 3+ years working in Linux-based environments, including hands-on work with bare-metal hardware.
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose and resolve issues across system boundaries (networking, services, hardware interaction) without always having full visibility into every component.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical problems clearly to non-technical audiences, including operators in the field.
• Eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret clearance.

Preferred

• Strength with performance-sensitive, real-time, or resource-constrained systems (edge or embedded).
• Experience with gRPC or similar RPC frameworks.
• Familiarity with systemd service management and observability practices on Linux.
• Familiarity with Nix or NixOS: uncommon, but genuinely valuable, and something you will use daily on our stack.
• Experience supporting fielded or deployed systems, not just development environments.
• Experience with imaging, EO/IR, ISR, or command-and-control (C2) systems.

What Makes Someone Successful Here

The engineers who thrive in this role share a few traits that don't always show up on a resume:

They close loops. When they pick up a problem they own it until it's resolved, not until it's someone else's problem.

They communicate proactively. They don't wait to be asked for a status update. They document what they find, share what they learn, and keep the people who need to know informed.

They're comfortable with ambiguity at the stack boundary. When a device behaves unexpectedly in the field, the root cause could be anywhere. They have a methodology for narrowing it down systematically rather than guessing or waiting for someone else to have the answer.

They represent the team well externally. In customer integrations and partner engagements, they're the face of what we've built. They take that seriously.