Staff Software Engineer

Alarm.com; Tysons (VA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Alarm.com is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the architecture and delivery of IoT and smart automation protocols with a focus on Z‑Wave, Matter, PowerG, and ZigBee. You will own initiatives from design through deployment, mentor engineers, and clearly communicate an architectural vision that aligns devices, gateways, mobile apps, and cloud services.

You will collaborate across Product, Firmware, Panels, and Operations to deliver secure, reliable, and interoperable experiences.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Extensive knowledge of the software development process and corresponding technologies.
• Excellent understanding of design patterns and architectural styles.
• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Strong object-oriented programming skills; C# a plus.
• Experience with database design and development.
• Experience with at least ONE modern IoT protocol: Matter, Z-Wave, ZigBee, a plus.
• Familiarity with a JavaScript framework like Ember, Angular, or React.
• Strong soft skills, including attention to detail, problem‑solving, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Assist with guiding the architectural direction of our Protocols domain
• Lead design of major components and systems for the Protocols team
• Mentor engineers and establish reusable patterns and best practices
• Assist with setting the Protocols roadmap and communicate tradeoffs and decisions to executives, partners, and cross functional teams
• Deliver robust implementations for Z Wave, Matter, PowerG, and ZigBee, including capability negotiation and backward compatibility
• Build gateway and cloud services that normalize device semantics with attention to latency, throughput, and cost
• Partner with Ops on deployments, on call rotations, incident response, and post incident reviews
• Guide data models and storage for protocol payloads and device state, and contribute concise architecture docs and runbooks
• Other duties as assigned

Skills

Years of experience

Object-oriented programming

IoT protocols

JavaScript frameworks

Database design

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/related field

Tools

Ember

Angular

React

C#

C/C++ for embedded

Job description

Staff Software Engineer, Protocols Team We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the architecture and delivery of IoT and smart automation protocols with a focus on Z‑Wave, Matter, PowerG, and ZigBee. You will own initiatives from design through deployment, mentor engineers, and clearly communicate an architectural vision that aligns devices, gateways, mobile apps, and cloud services. You will collaborate across Product, Firmware, Panels, and Operations to deliver secure, reliable, and interoperable experiences.

WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ALARM.COM?

Define and communicate the protocol architecture for onboarding, secure transport, command and control, telemetry, and OTA updates across Z Wave, Matter, PowerG, and other IoT protocols. Drive discovery, design, and implementation, set near term and long-term plans, review solutions, and provide clear documentation and examples. Lead interoperability and certification, build gateway and cloud translation services, and deliver tools that enable partners. Raise reliability through observability, on call support, and capacity planning with operations. Join a small, friendly culture with a broad technology surface and immediate impact.

Responsibilities

• Assist with guiding the architectural direction of our Protocols domain
• Lead design of major components and systems for the Protocols team
• Mentor engineers and establish reusable patterns and best practices
• Assist with setting the Protocols roadmap and communicate tradeoffs and decisions to executives, partners, and cross functional teams
• Deliver robust implementations for Z Wave, Matter, PowerG, and ZigBee, including capability negotiation and backward compatibility
• Build gateway and cloud services that normalize device semantics with attention to latency, throughput, and cost
• Partner with Ops on deployments, on call rotations, incident response, and post incident reviews
• Guide data models and storage for protocol payloads and device state, and contribute concise architecture docs and runbooks
• Other duties as assigned

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, a related field, or equivalent work experience
• Extensive knowledge of the software development process and corresponding technologies.
• Excellent understanding of design patterns and architectural styles.
• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Strong object-oriented programming skills; C# a plus.
• Experience with database design and development.
• Experience with at least ONE modern IoT protocol: Matter, Z-Wave, Zigbee, a plus.
• Familiarity with a JavaScript framework like Ember, Angular, or React.
• Strong soft skills, including attention to detail, problem‑solving, and communication skills.

NICE TO HAVE

• Thread, BLE, Wi Fi, or cellular experience
• MQTT, HTTP, WebSockets, or gRPC, including QoS and session management
• Security across TLS, DTLS, key management, device identity, secure boot, and threat modeling
• Embedded and gateway experience with C or C++ on RTOS or Linux, and packet analysis with sniffers and spectrum tools
• High throughput telemetry ingestion and storage with schema versioning and compression
• Large scale rollout and OTA strategies, including staged deployments, rollback, and fleet health metrics

Please note that sponsorship of new applicants for employment authorization, or any other immigration-related support, is not available for this position at this time.

WHY WORK FOR ALARM.COM

• Collaborate with outstanding people: We hire only the best. Our standards are high and our employees enjoy working alongside other high achievers.
• Make an immediate impact: New employees can expect to be given real responsibility for bringing new technologies to the marketplace. You are empowered to perform as soon as you join the Alarm.com team!
• Gain well rounded experience: Alarm.com offers a diverse and dynamic environment where you will get the chance to work directly with executives and develop expertise across multiple areas of the business.
• Community and Camaraderie: One of our core values is to 'Keep It Fun,' which to us means fostering a strong sense of community. Our culture is built on collaboration and connection, where we celebrate our successes and believe that a positive, engaging environment is key to doing our best work.
• Alarm.com values working together and collaborating in person. Our employees work from the office 4 days a week.

Company Info

Alarm.com is the leading platform for intelligently connected properties. Millions of homeowners and businesses rely on Alarm.com's technology to secure, monitor, and manage their environments from anywhere. Our comprehensive suite of solutions—including security, video surveillance, access control, active shooter detection, intelligent automation, energy management, and wellness—is delivered exclusively through a trusted network of thousands of professional service providers and commercial integrators across North America and worldwide. Alarm.com's common stock is traded on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ALRM. Alarm.com delivers serious security for serious people.

Company Benefits

Our total rewards package is designed to support you holistically—in your health, your finances, and your life outside of work. The package includes medical plans with company subsidies, a Health Savings Account (HSA) with a company contribution, and a 401(k) with an employer match. We encourage a healthy work-life balance with paid vacation that increases with tenure, paid holidays, wellness time, and paid maternity and bonding leave. To complete the package, we also provide company-paid disability and life insurance, all within a collaborative and casual work environment.

Alarm.com is an Equal Opportunity Employer

In connection with your application, we collect information that identifies, reasonably relates to or describes you ("Personal Information"). The categories of Personal Information that we may collect include your name, government-issued identification number(s), email address, mailing address, other contact information, emergency contact information, employment history, educational history, criminal record, and demographic information. We collect and use those categories of Personal Information about you for human resources and other business management purposes, including identifying and evaluating you as a candidate for potential or future employment or future positions, recordkeeping in relation to recruiting and hiring, conducting criminal background checks as permitted by law, conducting analytics, and ensuring compliance with applicable legal requirements and Company policies. By submitting your application, you acknowledge that we may retain some of the personal data that you provide in your application for our internal operations such as managing our recruitment system and ensuring that we comply with labor laws and regulations even after we have made our employment decision.

Notice To Third Party Agencies

Alarm.com understands the value of professional recruiting services. However, we are not accepting resumes from recruiters or employment agencies for this position. In the event we receive a resume or candidate referral for this position from a third‑party recruiter or agency without a previously signed agreement, we reserve the right to pursue and hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to you. If you are interested in working with Alarm.com, please email your company information and standard agreement to [e-mail].

Base Salary Range

$150,000—$190,000 USD