Build and own production software systems spanning embedded systems, real-time control, cloud services, and data pipelines. Responsibilities include architecture, coding, testing, reliability engineering, observability, incident response, technical design reviews, cross-functional hardware collaboration, hiring, and mentoring. The role requires strong systems fundamentals, distributed systems experience, debugging ability, and proficiency in at least one major programming language.
Description
About the role
You'll join a small, high-output engineering team building software systems for defense technology products. Our stack spans embedded systems, real-time control, cloud services, and data pipelines — the right candidate will own significant surface area across more than one of these. We move fast, ship frequently, and hold a high bar for reliability and correctness.
What you'll do:
- Design, build, and own core software systems end-to-end — from architecture decisions through production deployment.
- Write clean, testable, well-documented code that other engineers can build on confidently.
- Lead technical design reviews; identify failure modes before they reach production.
- Collaborate closely with hardware, mechanical, and systems engineers — understand the constraints their work imposes on yours.
- Own reliability: define SLOs, build observability, respond to incidents, and drive root-cause resolution.
- Hire and mentor junior engineers and raise the technical bar of the team through code review and shared standards.
Required:
- 7+ years of professional software engineering, with demonstrable ownership of production systems.
- Strong fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, concurrency, and systems design.
- Fluency in at least one of: Python, Go, Rust, C/C++, or TypeScript — and genuine comfort picking up new languages.
- Experience designing and maintaining distributed systems or service-oriented architectures.
- Strong debugging instincts — you find hard bugs methodically, not by luck.
- Working English, written and verbal.
Nice to have:
- Experience in defense, aerospace, robotics, or other regulated/safety-critical domains.
- Background in real-time or embedded software, or comfort working close to hardware.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, or platform engineering.
- Familiarity with government cloud environments (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government).
- Prior work on C2 systems, sensor fusion, or autonomous systems.
How we work: Small team, fast iteration cycles. You'll have direct line to hardware and systems engineers, and real ownership of what you ship. We expect you to hold opinions, document decisions, and defend them — by us, by test, and by the field.
Similar Jobs
Cloud • Information Technology • Productivity • Security • Software • App development • Automation
Lead a global onboarding team for Atlassian's Teamwork Collection, driving early customer outcomes in the first 60–90 days through change management, success planning, technical guidance, risk mitigation, scaling onboarding programs, and cross-functional collaboration while maintaining operational excellence in Gainsight.
Top Skills:
ConfluenceGainsightJIRASalesforceSuccess-AiTableau
Cloud • Information Technology • Productivity • Security • Software • App development • Automation
Manage and grow a portfolio of enterprise customers to drive retention and expansion. Build executive relationships, lead renewals and cross-sell/up-sell motions, collaborate on account planning, forecast revenue, and communicate product value to maximize customer lifetime value.
Top Skills:
ClariSalesforceTableau
Artificial Intelligence • Fintech • Hardware • Information Technology • Sales • Software • Transportation
Leads Motive’s internal communications strategy, narrative, and cadence across company-wide forums, executive messaging, video, Slack, intranet, email, and other channels. Advises executives, supports crisis and change communications, aligns internal and external messaging, measures employee sentiment, and improves engagement programs. The role also partners with Corporate Communications, Legal, and People teams and mentors communications talent while remaining an individual contributor.
Top Skills:
Ai-Enabled ToolsEmailIntranetSlackVideo Communications
What you need to know about the Chicago Tech Scene
With vibrant neighborhoods, great food and more affordable housing than either coast, Chicago might be the most liveable major tech hub. It is the birthplace of modern commodities and futures trading, a national hub for logistics and commerce, and home to the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association. This diverse blend of industry influences has helped Chicago emerge as a major player in verticals like fintech, biotechnology, legal tech, e-commerce and logistics technology. It’s also a major hiring center for tech companies on both coasts.
Key Facts About Chicago Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 245,800; 5.2% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: McDonald’s, John Deere, Boeing, Morningstar
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, fintech, software, logistics technology
- Funding Landscape: $2.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Arch Venture Partners, MATH Venture Partners, Jump Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners
- Research Centers and Universities: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
.png)

