Senior Systems Software Engineer

Jobtailor; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor is seeking a seasoned software engineer to debug and optimize distributed real-time systems spanning software, messaging, networking, RF, and hardware. You will own cross-system debugging efforts, write production-grade code, and collaborate with hardware/SME teams to translate findings into system constraints.

Responsibilities include performance tuning, hardware boundary diagnostics, and contributing to system health metrics and observability.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience debugging distributed, real-time, or multi-service systems in production.

Responsibilities

• Debug and resolve cross-system issues spanning software, real-time messaging, networking, RF, and hardware.

Skills

C++ Programming

Python Programming

Real-Time Messaging

Networking Fundamentals

Linux Systems

RF Concepts

Hardware Diagnostics

Debugging Distributed Systems

Technical Communication

Tools

Multimeter

Oscilloscope

CI/CD Tools

Logging

Tracing

Job description

• Debug and resolve cross-system issues spanning software, real-time messaging, networking, RF, and hardware — owning the investigation even when the root cause sits outside your primary depth
• Pinpoint performance and latency issues in cross-system infrastructure (messaging fabric, gateway, runtime) supporting multi-agent coordination, and drive them to resolution
• Write and maintain software stacks under a systems architect's supervision, for work outside Core Engineering sub-teams' product ownership
• Investigate and characterize system behavior under degraded, intermittent, or contested link conditions
• Perform hands-on hardware diagnostics using basic bench tools (multimeter, oscilloscope) to isolate issues at the hardware/software boundary
• Hold credible technical conversations with networking, RF, and hardware SMEs — translate their findings into system-level constraints and software fixes
• Contribute to System Health: performance baselining, system-level verification, crash analysis to root cause, and KPI/dashboard evidence used for release go/no-go decisions, with a focus on driving measurable improvements in latency, reliability, and uptime
• Identify and mitigate cross-system risks impacting mission effectiveness, including in live exercises or deployments
• Support integration tooling, CI/CD for cross-system components, and automated regression in SIL/HIL environments
• Maintain Interface Control Documents and integration contracts between major platform components, and translate field/operational requirements into system constraints Core Engineering and architects can build against
• Build observability into cross-system components (logging, tracing, metrics) to make the next debugging pass faster

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant time debugging distributed, real-time, or multi-service systems in production
• Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Python, with the ability to write production-quality software with architect-level supervision on system design
• Experience with real-time or low-latency messaging/middleware (e.g., DDS, ROS/ROS2, ZeroMQ, MQTT, gRPC) in distributed or multi-agent contexts
• Solid working knowledge of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, multicast, basic routing) sufficient to debug connectivity/performance issues and converse credibly with networking engineers
• Working familiarity — conversational depth plus basic debugging, not specialist design work — with RF/wireless concepts (link quality, interference, basic link budget reasoning)
• Comfortable using basic hardware bench tools (multimeter, oscilloscope) to debug at the hardware/software boundary
• Demonstrated ability to debug across layers — application, network, RF, and hardware-adjacent — and to know when to pull in a specialist versus solve it directly
• Experience with Linux systems and command-line debugging tooling
• U.S. Citizenship with the ability to obtain a security clearance

Core Competencies

Demonstrates strong proficiency in C++ and Python for production-quality software development, with a focus on debugging distributed, real-time systems. Capable of performing hardware diagnostics and maintaining system health through performance baselining and integration tooling.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• C++ Programming
• Python Programming
• Real-Time Messaging/Middleware
• Networking Fundamentals
• Linux Systems

ATS Optimization Keywords

Hard Skills

• Debugging Distributed Systems
• Performance Tuning
• System Behavior Analysis
• Cross-System Risk Mitigation
• Application Layer Debugging

Soft Skills

• Technical Communication
• Problem-Solving

Certifications & Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship
• Security Clearance Eligibility

Industry Keywords

• Multi-Agent Coordination
• KPI/Dashboard Evidence
• Integration Contracts
• SIL/HIL Environments
• RF/Wireless Concepts

Tools & Technologies

• Multimeter
• Oscilloscope
• CI/CD Tools
• Logging
• Tracing