Spear AI is seeking an experienced Software Engineer to lead the design, development, and modernization of the combat systems for US Nuclear Submarines. This role combines cutting-edge technology innovation with mission-critical engineering to bring new operational capabilities while ensuring seamless integration with existing systems.
The ideal candidate has worked in large legacy systems and has a passion for modernizing code. They enjoy working in small teams in disconnected environments. They MUST have an affinity for working with new/improved technologies and not be resistant to change.
Candidates with a GitHub (or other open-source) profile stand out because we can check their work for:
- Attention to detail
- Code quality
- Experimentation with new technologies
The candidate must be willing to obtain a US government Secret security clearance. Once a Secret clearance has been obtained, the candidate has the option of requesting a Top Secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI). For information on obtaining a Secret security clearance please see this link. Preference will be given for candidates already possessing a Secret security clearance. While some activities for this job will be performed on site, we expect most of the work to be performed at a home office that can meet heightened security requirements.
Programming (Essential)
Proficiency in low-level languages like C/C++ (Rust and Zig is an awesome plus)
Proficiency in high-level languages like Python / mypy (TypeScript is a plus)
Data structures and algorithms
Design patterns
Functional programming
Object-oriented programming
Complexity analysis (Big O notation)
Memory safety and thread safety
Expert at debugging (race conditions, deadlocks, etc.)
Testing (Essential)
Code quality
Type checking
Linting and formatting (Clang, Ruff, etc.)
Assertions
Unit and property-based testing
Code coverage
Integration testing
End-to-end testing
Profiling (metrics, tracing, etc.)
Benchmarking
Load and stress testing
Engineering (Essential)
Version control (Monorepos)
Documentation (README, comments, Architecture Decision Records)
CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.)
Experience reviewing pull requests (providing and receiving feedback)
Package management (Cargo, PyPI) - Semantic versioning
Build systems (CMake, Meson, etc.)
Artifact management (Cargo, PyPI, NPM)
Containerization (Docker / Docker Compose)
Cloud providers (AWS - Preferred, Bonus for Azure and GCP)
Large Language Model (Preferred)
Experience hosting LLM inference servers
Familiar with major LLM frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.)
Experience with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
Knowledge of vector databases and similarity search
Text embedding models and techniques
Prompt engineering and chain-of-thought reasoning
Token optimization and context window management
Model quantization and optimization
System Level (Preferred)
Linux
Process management and scheduling
Memory management (virtual memory, paging)
File systems and I/O
Network stack and sockets
Compiler optimizations
Static/dynamic libraries
Dynamic linking and loading
System calls and ABI stability
CPU cache optimization
Compensation
$150,000 - $250,000 a year
Salary will be based on experience and fit for the role.
We look forward to having you join our growing team as we bring commercial technology to the hardest problems within the Department of Defense!
