C++ Software Engineer, Distributed Systems

About the Company

At Forterra, we are unleashing autonomy at scale to transform the battlefield. Our mission is to build the foundational platforms that enable an intelligent ecosystem to coordinate, adapt, and execute with speed and precision even in the uncertainty and disruption of modern conflict.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of core Fabric services and libraries in modern C++
• Architect distributed systems that operate reliably over low-bandwidth, high-latency, and unreliable networks
• Design APIs and abstractions for data registration, serialization, replication, and querying
• Define and evolve patterns for discovery, addressing, routing, and replication
• Build and maintain high-performance messaging, transport, and synchronization layers
• Drive decisions around consistency models, reliability guarantees, and failure handling
• Collaborate with partner teams to ensure Fabric meets real-world requirements
• Establish best practices for correctness, performance, observability, and maintainability
• Contribute to long-term technical strategy and architectural reviews

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Expert-level proficiency in modern C++ (C++17 or later)
• Experience with publish/subscribe or message-oriented middlewares (e.g., gRPC, DDS, ZeroMQ, MQTT)
• Strong testing fundamentals using GoogleTest, Boost.Test, or similar
• Solid understanding of distributed systems (replication, consistency, leader election, failure detection)
• Experience building or operating production distributed systems
• Deep familiarity with Linux-based development and deployment environments
• Proven ability to lead technical projects from concept through production

Preferred Qualifications

• Networking expertise (unicast/multicast, routing, constrained links)
• Experience building systems for edge environments, robotics, or embedded platforms
• Familiarity with real-time or near-real-time systems
• Familiarity with consensus protocols (e.g., Raft, Paxos)
• Experience with CMake, Conan, or Bazel
• Exposure to observability tools (logging, metrics, tracing)
• Background in defense, automotive, robotics, or safety-critical software