Software Engineer Mid​/Senior — Embedded Systems & HITL

Position Description

Software Engineer Mid / Senior — Embedded Systems & Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL).

Location:

Reston, VA (on-site at customer facility; occasional Washington, DC).

ZTI Solutions, LLC is hiring an embedded software engineer to support a U.S. Department of Defense program developing mission‑critical embedded systems. The successful candidate will be embedded with a multidisciplinary team of software, hardware, and systems engineers responsible for the design, development, integration, and certification of low‑level software running on bare metal targets and interfacing with custom and government‑furnished hardware. This is a hands‑on engineering role requiring strong fundamentals in embedded software, networking, and test automation, as well as the ability to operate effectively in a regulated, security‑conscious environment.

• Design and develop low‑level bare metal infrastructure (boot, startup, board support packages, drivers, and runtime services) for embedded compute platforms.
• Design, implement, and optimize networking protocols and stacks (e.g., Ethernet, TCP/IP/UDP, MIL‑STD-1553, ARINC‑429, CAN, Space Wire, or program‑specific protocols) at the firmware/driver level.
• Profile, debug, and tune performance, memory utilization, and real‑time behavior on resource‑constrained targets.
• Produce design artifacts (interface control documents, software design descriptions, and design review materials) consistent with program and DoD documentation standards.
• Develop and maintain automated test suites suitable for product qualification, acceptance, and certification activities.
• Design, build, and operate Hardware‑in‑the‑Loop (HITL) test environments, including stimulus generation, instrumentation, and data capture.
• Author and execute test procedures aligned to applicable standards (e.g., DO‑178C, MIL‑STD‑498/882, or program‑specific verification plans) and support independent verification and validation (IV&V) activities.
• Triage failures, perform root‑cause analysis, and drive defects to closure within the program's configuration management and issue‑tracking processes.
• Integrate developed software with the core system baseline and with associated hardware components, ensuring interface compliance and end‑to‑end functionality.
• Collaborate with hardware, FPGA, systems, and cybersecurity engineers to resolve cross‑discipline integration issues.
• Support laboratory bring‑up, system integration test (SIT), formal qualification test (FQT), and field/flight test events as required.
• Participate in peer code reviews, design reviews, and technical interchange meetings (TIMs) with internal and government stakeholders.
• Keep up to date on the newest embedded, real‑time, and cybersecurity innovations in the field and apply relevant innovations to mission systems.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline; career experience, knowledge, and industry certifications will be considered in lieu of degrees.
• 5 years or more of professional software engineering experience, with a substantial portion in embedded, bare metal, or real‑time environments.
• Proficiency in C and/or C++ for embedded targets; working knowledge of assembly for at least one common architecture (ARM, Power
  
  PC, x86, or RISC‑V).
• 3 years of demonstrated experience implementing or extending low‑level drivers, board support packages (BSPs), or networking protocol stacks.
• 3 years of hands‑on experience developing automated tests and operating HITL or equivalent benchtop test environments.
• Familiarity with version control (Git), build systems (Make/CMake/Bazel), and continuous integration pipelines.
• Active U.S. DoD Secret security clearance at time of hire; U.S. citizenship required.

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Experience with safety‑or mission‑critical certification efforts (e.g., DO‑178C, ARP
  4754A, MIL‑STD‑882, NIST SP 800‑53/171, RMF).
• Experience with RTOS environments (VxWorks, Integrity, LynxOS, FreeRTOS, Zephyr)…