Senior Software Engineer

About Forterra

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. In an era marked by rapid technological change and evolving threats, we design for flexibility, survivability, and operational dominance.

Forterra delivers weapons, sensors, and battlefield effects through integrated autonomous networks reaching operational areas faster, safer, and without placing human lives  systems operate with distributed control, dynamic routing, and real-time responsiveness, enabling sustained advantage across complex mission environments.

About the role

Forterra s C3 Integrations team enables market development of our core Command, Control, and Communications products through rapid prototyping and partner experimentation, delivering mission solutions that leverage Forterra s proven autonomy and C3 technologies.

We re looking for an experienced and driven Senior Software Engineer to design, extend, and deliver novel mission capabilities through our user interface software, Terra Link. In this role, you will lead the development of operator-facing workflows, integrations, and mission features while working directly with customers and partners to translate real-world operational needs into production-quality software.

Strong candidates combine deep hands-on software development experience with demonstrated technical leadership and a customer-facing mindset. You should be comfortable owning ambiguous problem spaces, delivering capability on aggressive timelines, and collaborating across internal teams and external partners to rapidly mature prototypes into deployable solutions.

You are an accelerator: you will rapidly prototype and mature operator-facing mission capabilities to support customer evaluations, demonstrations, and early operational deployments.

You are a technical leader: you will work with senior stakeholders, mentor and develop junior engineers, and contribute to the development of technical strategy.

• 8+ years of professional software development experience
• Experience developing production systems for complex or safety-critical environments within defense
• Strong expertise in C++ and Python, with demonstrated experience building user-facing applications leveraging modern web technologies (Node, React)
• Experience delivering user-facing applications, including UI-driven workflows, operator tools, and mission planning systems

• Technical leadership experience with proven ability to own complex features or subsystems end-to-end, from requirements through field deployment, while collaborating across teams and developing junior engineers

• Demonstrated success integrating in-house and third-party developed software components into cohesive, operator-ready capabilities

• Willing and able to validate solutions in real operational environments, working shoulder-to-shoulder with users during field tests, exercises, and demonstrations to rapidly iterate and harden capabilities. Prior Forward-Deployed Engineer (FDE) experience is a significant attribute

• Experience developing mission-oriented user interfaces, command-and-control tools, or operator-facing software for defense, robotics, or other autonomous systems

• Familiarity with distributed systems, extensibility, and service-oriented architectures, particularly as they relate to UI-driven mission workflows

• Experience with modern UI frameworks or visualization technologies used in operational or industrial software (specific frameworks optional)

• U.S. security clearanceeligibility

$170,000—$185,000

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is…