Principal Physics Programmer, C++ (Modeling & Simulation)

Acceler8 Talent; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Acceler8 Talent is seeking a hands-on C++ engineer to build and operate production-grade modeling and simulation systems. We hire mid-level to principal level professionals for a role focused on high-performance physics and wargaming platform development.

You’ll architect the core C++ runtime, enhance ECS data layout, and implement multithreaded execution. Flexible hybrid/remote work with compensation around $200k+ for the right candidate.

Qualifications

• Extensive professional C++ experience building performance-critical production software.
• Experience shipping a commercial game/engine or comparable real-time product.
• Ownership of core engine systems and experience extending physics/game engine, ECS, or similar.
• Strong data-oriented design, memory layout, and cache-aware structures.

Responsibilities

• Architect/own a large-scale wargaming platform’s C++ runtime with a focus on performance and long-term health.
• Evolve ECS for heterogeneous entities and optimize data-oriented storage and execution graphs.
• Define interfaces for physics, AI, sensors, weapons, and environments while maintaining core stability.
• Design loops with fixed/variable timesteps, deterministic replay, checkpoints, and save/restore features.
• Implement multithreaded/task execution, optimize memory layout, and improve CPU, memory, latency, and throughput.

Skills

C++

ECS

Data-oriented design

Performance optimization

Multithreading

Profiling/debugging

Low-level debugging

Tools

Profiling tools

Debugging tools

Job description

We are hiring a hands‑on C++ engineer to build and operate production-grade modeling and simulation systems. Hiring across mid-level to principal level.

About the role:

Help redefine how the DoW makes multi-billion-dollar force-design decisions. We're looking for a Physics Programmer to bring the performance standards of commercial game development to our next-generation wargaming platform. You'll architect and build the core C++ simulation runtime that executes physics, behavior, and mission models developed by engineers and domain experts across the organization

What you’ll do:

• Architect/own a large-scale interactive wargaming platform’s C++ runtime: substantial-codebase structure, performance, and long-term health.
• Evolve its ECS for heterogeneous entities: data-oriented component storage, lifecycle, queries, execution graphs, dependency-aware scheduling.
• Define physics, AI, sensor, weapon, behavior, and environment interfaces/extensions without destabilizing the core; integrate external physics/math models consistently and performantly.
• Design loops: fixed/variable timesteps, events, ordering, state transitions, deterministic/reproducible replay, checkpoints, snapshots, replication, save/restore.
• Build multithreaded/task execution; optimize memory layout/allocation, cache locality, component access, serialization/movement; improve CPU, memory, latency, throughput, and simulation rate against explicit budgets.
• Build spatial indexing, broad-phase/collision-candidate, visibility/proximity queries; define networked/distributed ownership, synchronization, prediction, state transfer.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive professional or equivalent C++ experience building performance-critical production software; expert modern C++ knowledge spanning lifetimes, ownership, templates, concurrency, synchronization, profiling, and low-level debugging.
• Significant commercial game/game-engine or comparable constrained real-time experience, including shipping a commercial game, engine, platform, or interactive real-time product.
• Ownership of foundational engine systems, not mainly gameplay, scripting, tools, or application integrations and experience building/substantially extending a physics/game engine, simulation runtime, ECS, job system, or comparable core technology.
• Strong data-oriented design, memory layout/cache behavior, allocation, performance-sensitive structures, and ECS/composition-runtime experience; engine loops, execution graphs, task/event systems, dependencies, or scheduling.
• Proven optimization against hard CPU, memory, latency, frame/tick budgets using commercial profiling/debugging tools to diagnose stalls, memory issues, contention, allocation problems, and cache inefficiencies.
• Active Secret clearance or eligibility to obtain one.

Experience in defense, autonomy, robotics, gaming, logistics, geospatial systems, or similarly constrained technical domains is especially relevant.

Location:

Flexible hybrid or remote work arrangement

Compensation

Flexible for the right candidate, $200k+