About the Job

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 #J-18808-Ljbffr