Staff Physics Programmer, C++ – Modeling & Simulation

• Architect and implement the core C++ runtime behind a large-scale, interactive wargaming platform




• Own the structure, performance, and long-term health of a substantial engine codebase




• Design and evolve an entity-component-system architecture for large numbers of heterogeneous simulation entities




• Build data-oriented component storage, entity lifecycle management, system queries, execution graphs, and dependency-aware scheduling




• Define engine interfaces for physics, AI, sensor, weapon, behavior, and environmental models




• Create stable extension points for model developers without destabilizing the engine core




• Design simulation loops, time stepping, event processing, system ordering, state transitions, and deterministic replay




• Develop multithreaded and task-based execution systems




• Optimize memory layout, allocation, cache locality, component access, serialization, and data movement




• Profile and improve CPU utilization, memory use, latency, throughput, and simulation rate against explicit performance budgets




• Build spatial indexing, broad-phase query, collision-candidate, visibility, and proximity-query infrastructure




• Integrate externally developed physics and mathematical models into a consistent runtime




• Develop checkpointing, snapshotting, state replication, save-and-restore, and reproducible replay systems




• Establish architecture for networked and distributed simulation, including ownership, synchronization, prediction, and state transfer




• Build tooling for entity inspection, system debugging, model-cost profiling, and simulation-state analysis




• Identify and eliminate architectural bottlenecks as scale and complexity increase




• Lead engine design reviews, mentor programmers, and raise standards for C++ architecture and performance engineering




• Remain hands-on in implementation, profiling, debugging, and code review




• Work on Code Metal's next-generation wargaming and decision-support platform used to help the Department of War make force-design decisions

Requirements

• Extensive professional C++ development experience, or equivalent experience, building performance-critical production software




• Significant experience in commercial game development, game-engine development, or a similarly performance-constrained real-time environment




• Experience shipping at least one commercial game, engine, platform, or interactive real-time product




• Demonstrated ownership of foundational engine systems rather than primarily gameplay features, scripting, tools, or application-level integrations




• Experience building or substantially extending a physics engine, game engine, simulation runtime, ECS, job system, or comparable core technology




• Expert command of modern C++, including object lifetimes, ownership, templates, concurrency, synchronization, profiling, and low-level debugging




• Strong understanding of data-oriented design, memory layout, cache behavior, allocation strategies, and performance-sensitive data structures




• Experience designing or extending an entity-component system or comparable composition-based runtime architecture




• Experience with engine loops, execution graphs, task systems, event systems, dependency management, or runtime scheduling




• Demonstrated ability to optimize against hard CPU, memory, latency, and frame- or tick-time budgets




• Experience using commercial profiling and debugging tools to diagnose CPU stalls, memory issues, thread contention, allocation problems, and cache inefficiencies




• Working knowledge of real-time physics concepts such as coordinate systems, numerical integration, collision detection, spatial partitioning, constraints, and simulation stability




• Experience designing APIs, plugin systems, SDKs, or extension frameworks used by other programmers




• Experience maintaining and improving a large C++ codebase while continuing to deliver production capabilities




• Experience leading major technical initiatives while remaining an active individual contributor




• Active Secret clearance or eligibility to obtain one




• 7+ years of experience for Staff level




• Strongly preferred: experience with SIMD, GPU compute, custom allocators, job systems, lock-free structures, or platform-specific optimization




• Strongly preferred: experience supporting very large worlds or simulations containing large numbers of active entities




• Strongly preferred: experience with engine-level serialization, snapshotting, replay, world partitioning, or streaming




• Strongly preferred: familiarity with aerospace, robotics, autonomy, and defense simulations




• Strongly preferred: experience supporting Air Force, Space Force, joint, or broader DoW acquisition and mission-analysis programs




• Strongly preferred: experience developing models for sensors, weapons, electronic warfare, jamming, communications, logistics, or command and control




• Strongly preferred: active U.S. security clearance (Secret, Top Secret, or SCI/SAP)




• U.S. work authorization and security-clearance eligibility may be required for certain project assignments

Core Competencies

Demonstrates extensive expertise in C++ development, particularly in performance-critical environments, with a strong focus on engine architecture, optimization, and real-time simulation. Capable of leading technical initiatives while actively contributing to the implementation and maintenance of complex systems.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• C++ Development




• Game Engine Development




• Entity-Component System Architecture




• Performance Optimization




• Multithreaded Execution Systems

Soft Skills

• Mentoring




• Technical Leadership




• Collaboration

Certifications & Qualifications

• Active Secret Clearance

Industry Keywords

• Real-Time Simulation




• Game Development




• Performance-Critical Software




• Aerospace Simulations




• Defense Simulations

Tools & Technologies

• Commercial Profiling Tools




• Debugging Tools




• Simulation State Analysis Tools