Project Q GmbH ("Q") is a Germany-based DefenseTech company with offices in Berlin and Munich. We network market-available sensors, effectors, or situational awareness systems into a tactical IoT backbone that reliably provides armed forces and security agencies with cross-domain information superiority — automated, scalable, and cost-efficient.
Our solutions integrate seamlessly into existing defense and maritime infrastructures, delivering fast data fusion and AI-enhanced analytics for robust situational awareness in dynamic environments. We build platform-agnostic systems that enable real interoperability across domains.
As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll directly impact the technical direction of our orchestration products – Hydris – the coordination engine for sensors and mission systems, and the interoperability API that underpins it.
You'll work at the layer where heterogeneous real-world systems like radars, AIS receivers, LoRa mesh radios, satellite feeds, and C2 platforms become a single coherent picture. The problems lie in distributed systems, protocols, and data modeling areas. They play out in environments that are bandwidth-constrained, intermittently connected, and operationally unforgiving.
The role is deeply hands-on, but it expects you to shape what we build and how we build it, not just deliver what's specified.
What you'll do
Core engine development
Design and build the systems that power Hydris.
Go is your primary language. You should be comfortable reading Rust and TypeScript across the codebase, even if you're not writing in them day-to-day.
Own the architecture of a system that must run reliably on edge hardware, in disconnected mesh networks, and at scale — often all of that simultaneously.
Protocol and integration architecture
Evolve the schema that defines how every sensor, asset, and mission system talks to Hydris.
Make API design decisions that hold up across our client libraries without creating a maintenance burden.
Continue refining the integration framework that lets Hydris connect to new sensor types, data sources, and command systems.
Set the patterns for how built-in integrations (ADS-B, AIS, ASTERIX, Meshtastic, SpaceTrack, TAK, federation) are structured, tested, and maintained.
Make it straightforward for external developers and system vendors to build their own plugins/integrations to Hydris.
Distributed systems
Architect the peer-to-peer mesh and federation layer that keeps Hydris operational in disconnected, denied, intermittent, and limited-bandwidth environments.
Solve the hard coordination problems: conflict resolution across federated nodes, eventual consistency of entity state, and track correlation across unreliable links.
Ensure the system degrades gracefully rather than failing completely when connectivity is lost or constrained.
Technical leadership
Set technical standards for the codebase: how we test distributed behavior, how we handle protocol versioning, how we think about backward compatibility in an API-first product.
Review code with a focus on long-term maintainability and operational correctness, not just feature completion.
Make build-versus-integrate decisions and help the team clearly understand the trade-offs.
You should apply if you
Have built and shipped distributed systems that run in production, ideally in environments where reliability matters more than convenience.
Are comfortable working across the stack, from Protobuf schema design and systems-level Go, to the TypeScript that puts a map in front of a user.
Have well-formed views about API design and protocol evolution, informed by experience maintaining APIs that other people depend on.
Can operate effectively with a high degree of autonomy but are adept at collaboration with colleagues toward high-quality technical decisions, at scale.
Are interested in contributing to European military, maritime, and critical infrastructure defence systems.
Write clearly and communicate architectural decisions in a way that survives beyond the conversation where they were made.
Working language is English. German is not required.
You'd be a great fit with
Experience with geospatial systems, sensor fusion, or track management.
Familiarity with defense or ISR data standards like CoT/TAK, ASTERIX, SAPIENT, MIL-STD-2525.
Background in networking, mesh architectures, or systems designed for contested or degraded communication environments.
Experience working on developer-facing open-source infrastructure where adoption depends on the quality of the API and documentation.
We Offer
Remote work anywhere in Germany, or hybrid/on-site in Berlin or Munich if you're already based there and prefer an office.
High degree of autonomy and ownership, a flat structure, and real input into technical direction.
Annual €1500 Learning & development budget (available after probation).
Bike Leasing and Urban Sports Club membership.
30 days of paid time off.
Note: We're unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role – candidates must already be eligible to work in Germany.
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