Staff Software Architect, Intelligence Systems

Reston · Reston, VA (NOVA-01) · USD 220,000-292,000 · 10+ years experience · Full-time · Posted Oct 13, 2026

At a glance

We are looking for a Software Architect to join our rapidly growing team in Reston, VA, responsible for defining the architectural direction of large-scale, real-time, mission-critical software.
You will lead the design of high-performance systems spanning tactical edge deployments to distributed backend infrastructure, make critical trade-offs between performance, modularity, and maintainability at scale, and mentor senior engineers across the organization.

Define and drive the architectural vision for large-scale software systems that ingest, fuse, and act on data from diverse sensors in real time
Lead the design and implementation of performant, real-time, embedded bare-metal systems in Rust at production scale
Make high-leverage architectural trade-offs across performance, modularity, testability, and maintainability for mission-critical, edge-deployed systems
Mentor and technically lead senior engineers, setting coding standards, review processes, and CI/CD best practices across the team
Engage directly with customers to ensure successful outcomes for mission-critical needs
Troubleshoot complex, real-world system issues spanning software, math assumptions, sensor behavior, and networking
Contribute to all phases of the software development lifecycle including prototyping, modeling & simulation, field testing, and deployment
Help shape hiring and technical growth of the broader organization as it hyper scales

10+ years of software engineering experience with a Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Applied/Computational Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Controls/Dynamical Systems, Statistics, or related field
Proven experience architecting large-scale, production-grade codebases in real-time or high-performance environments
Experience with modern IPC frameworks and fundamentals
Experience architecting and designing REST APIs for public consumption to articulate complex real-time systems
Experience with CI/CD, unit testing, git version control, and microservices
Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Secret clearance.

M.S. or Ph.D. in a technical field (dual academic background in software + math highly valued)
Domain expertise in embedded bare-metal systems
Expert-level proficiency in modern Rust, including asynchronous and multithreaded programming (e.g., Tokio for Rust)
Experience with FPGA
Deep knowledge of networking protocols and systems
Expertise or experience in cryptographic algorithms and the fundamentals of both symmetric and asymmetric cryptography
Prior DoD program experience (Army, Air Force, MDA, SCO, Navy)
Experience with GPU / CUDA kernel development

comprehensive, competitive benefits package available at little to no cost to employees
highly competitive equity grants included in the majority of full time offers
top-tier benefits for full-time employees supporting health, recovery, and whatever comes next