Senior/Staff Software Engineer - C++

About the job Job Title: Senior / Staff Software Engineer – C++ & Systems Location: San Leandro, CA (On-site) Job Type: Full-Time About SirenOpt SirenOpt helps manufacturers make better, safer, and more reliable micro- and nano-materials. These materials are the building blocks of critical sectors of the global economy such as batteries, computer chips, aircraft components, and power systems. But, surging material demand and growing complexity are pushing production to unprecedented scales and speeds, leaving manufacturers effectively flying blind. Small, undetected variations during production lead to wastage, lower performance, higher costs, and safety risks. SirenOpt is changing this by developing a manufacturing intelligence platform that non-destructively probes materials during production, revealing critical internal information without damaging them. Using a novel combination of cold atmospheric plasma, physics-informed machine learning, and predictive analytics, SirenOpt generates unique, real-time material fingerprints that capture material signals not accessible through conventional measurement techniques. These insights give manufacturers unprecedented visibility into how materials behave as they are made. We turn hidden data into actionable intelligence to help manufacturers reduce variability and thus increase yield and performance. The technology can be deployed as a standalone tool or integrated directly into factory production lines. SirenOpt is currently deploying early versions of its platform with some of the largest industrial manufacturers in the world across North America, Europe, and Asia. Role Overview SirenOpt is seeking a Senior / Staff Software Engineer to design and build the high-performance C++ and systems software that powers our manufacturing intelligence platform. In this role, you will help ensure the reliability, performance, and scalability of SirenOpt's software as it runs on real customer production lines, while contributing to the architecture and technical foundations needed for a growing commercial product. Working closely with firmware, hardware, and application engineering teams across every phase of product development, you will design and optimize multi-threaded, asynchronous software on Linux, analyze and improve performance across CPU, memory, storage, networking, and I/O, and debug complex issues that span software and hardware boundaries. You will also read, maintain, and extend existing Python tooling used for automation, testing, and data analysis, and take ownership of software components throughout the full product development lifecycle. This position is well suited for a self-driven engineer who takes ownership of their work, writes clean and maintainable modern C++ (C++17/20), and enjoys understanding how software interacts with operating systems and hardware to achieve exceptional performance. You will contribute at a high level in a collaborative, fast-moving engineering environment, participating in architecture, technical design, and code reviews as you help ship robust software for commercial products. What You'll Do

• Design, develop, and optimize high-performance software using modern C++ (C++17/20)

• Develop scalable, reliable, and maintainable software for Linux-based systems

• Design multi-threaded and asynchronous software architectures

• Analyze, profile, and optimize software performance across CPU, memory, storage, networking, and I/O

• Read, understand, maintain, and enhance existing Python code used for automation, testing, and data analysis

• Collaborate closely with firmware, hardware, and application engineering teams

• Participate in software architecture, technical design, and code reviews

• Debug complex system-level issues across software and hardware boundaries

• Take ownership of software components throughout the product development lifecycle

What We're Looking For The ideal candidate is passionate about building high-quality commercial software and solving challenging systems problems. You take ownership of your work, write clean and maintainable code, and enjoy understanding how software interacts with operating systems and hardware to achieve exceptional performance. Experience building and shipping software for commercial products is highly valued. You thrive in a collaborative environment and enjoy working across software, firmware, and hardware disciplines to build products used in real customer environments. Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field

• 5+ years of professional software development experience (Senior) or 8+ years (Staff)

• Strong proficiency in modern C++ (C++17/20)

• Working knowledge of Python with the ability to read, understand, maintain, and modify existing Python code

• Strong experience developing software on Linux

• Strong understanding of: Operating systems, Memory management, Multi-threading and concurrency, Software architecture, Performance optimization

• Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills

• Experience using Git and modern software development workflows

Nice to Have

• Experience designing and developing large-scale commercial software systems

• Experience developing and shipping software for commercial products

• Experience with scientific instrumentation or data acquisition systems

• Experience collaborating with firmware and hardware engineering teams

• Familiarity with low-latency, real-time, or data acquisition software systems

• Experience developing desktop applications using Qt Widgets and Qt Charts

• Familiarity with scientific computing, signal processing, physics, or machine learning

• Experience with Linux systems programming

• Experience with performance profiling tools such as perf or Valgrind

• Experience with CMake and GDB

• Familiarity with Embedded Linux

• Experience with hardware communication interfaces such as Ethernet, USB, PCIe, or Serial

• Familiarity with CI/CD and automated testing