Senior Software Engineer, Core Systems

The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout AI, we’re developing Fury, the first robotic foundation model for defense, to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.
The Role

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer who treats the code itself as the product. You’ll join the core software team at Scout AI and work across the systems Fury runs on: the onboard C++ code and core libraries, the cloud infrastructure that trains and evaluates the model, and the simulation and evals framework that tells us whether any of it works.
A lot of this job is hardening. As our platform rapidly scales, our senior engineers actively drive architectural stewardship - continually refining abstractions, hardening core systems, and evolving our software foundation to support our accelerated growth. We want someone who can take that on: read a large codebase, understand it, spot the anti-patterns, and restructure it well.
The same person should be comfortable building the test and validation systems that let the rest of the team move faster. We aren’t hiring for one narrow specialty. Depending on where you’re strongest, you might spend most of your time onboard C++, in GPU job infrastructure and cloud services, or in simulation and evaluation tooling. What’s common across all of it is a background building frameworks and libraries that other systems depend on, rather than applications on top of someone else’s framework. We use AI coding tools and expect you to as well, but we think of them as a multiplier on skills you already have. You should be able to write, explain, and debug your own code without them.
We’re a startup. You’ll be moving fast, context-switching daily, and helping define the culture and process as we go. This is a rare opportunity to come in early and architect the future of defense.
Responsibilities
Develop and maintain onboard C++ software and core system libraries

Build scalable, low-latency C++ and Python infrastructure for ML workloads

Design cloud systems for data storage and GPU job scheduling

Build simulation and evaluation pipelines, including synthetic agents, rendering tools, and scenario suites

Create evaluation criteria and internal tooling to analyze and compare software release builds

Refactor existing codebases to eliminate anti-patterns and improve system architecture

Construct data pipelines for sensor calibration and 3D reconstruction workflows

Implement automated test and validation frameworks across subsystem engineering teams

Qualification
Proficient in C++ or Python (either is fine) for core systems, simulation, evaluation, and tooling work

Demonstrated experience navigating, auditing, and refactoring large codebases

Track record of building shared software frameworks or underlying libraries

Ability to write, debug, and explain complex code independently without relying on AI tools

Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities

Passion about defense of the United States and its allies

May be expected to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Nice to Have
Cloud and infrastructure experience (GPU job scheduling, service deployment)

Simulation or evals background

Calibration or 3D reconstruction experience

Edge or embedded hardware familiarity

Why Join Scout
Work on the world’s most important frontier, ensuring U.S. and allied dominance in the age of intelligent machines

Be a core part of a team building the first defense-specific robotic foundation model

Collaborate with some of the top engineers in autonomy, AI, and national security

See your work deployed on real systems

Help define the future of intelligent defense systems

Backed by Draper Associates, Booz Allen Ventures, and other top investors

Benefits
Competitive Cash Compensation

Meaningful equity

Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution

Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar

Catered lunch daily and fully stocked kitchen

EV charging

Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)