{"id":926343,"url":"https://alion.io/job/focused-senior-software-engineer-fmd","title":"Senior Software Engineer (f/m/d)","company":{"id":24087,"name":"Focused Energy","domain":"focused.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/focused-ai","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":92,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.333,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":57,"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Darmstadt, Germany"],"countries":["DE"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":63000,"max_usd":111000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":62},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Rest API","optional":false},{"name":"TCP/IP","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"Time Series","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-15T07:24:37Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-15","last_verified_at":"2026-11-08T05:48:45Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":53,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":53},"description":"About Focused Energy\nFocused Energy is a pioneering international deep-tech company with locations in Germany and the US, dedicated to commercializing laser-driven nuclear fusion. Our mission is to deliver clean, safe, and virtually limitless energy to the world. As we rapidly scale, we seek talented individuals who thrive on bringing clarity and structure to fast-growing environments.\nAbout the Role\nAs a Senior Software Engineer, you will be the primary software point of contact for the Laser team and provide technical leadership across software, hardware, and experimental-system interfaces. You will help define the architecture and technology direction for a greenfield laser-software platform while remaining hands-on in developing reliable tools for calibration, operation, human-machine interaction, and experimental data processing.\nThis role offers the opportunity to work across software, hardware, and experimental-system boundaries while contributing to a strong engineering culture within the Darmstadt Software Department. You will help shape technical direction, establish the foundations of a new software platform, and grow toward a broader technical leadership role. The position does not initially include direct people-management responsibility.\nWhat You’ll Do\nAct as the primary software partner for the Laser team and coordinate software activities across laser projects.\n\nProvide technical leadership for software initiatives, including planning, technical alignment, risk identification, and coordination with laser physicists, engineers, and systems-integration partners.\n\nHelp define the architecture, technology choices, development practices, and interfaces for a new laser-software platform in a greenfield environment.\n\nDesign and implement reliable software for critical laser projects, from system-level interfaces to user-facing applications.\n\nDevelop and maintain automated calibration software that improves repeatability, reduces manual effort, and supports reliable laser operation.\n\nDesign and build clear, dependable human-machine interfaces, dashboards, and operational tools for monitoring and operating laser systems.\n\nDevelop software that interfaces with laser devices, diagnostic systems, cameras, and experimental equipment to support data acquisition, system monitoring, operational control, and visualization.\n\nDevelop data-processing pipelines and data-storage solutions for experimental and operational data, including diagnostic and camera data where appropriate.\n\nDefine robust interfaces between software, hardware, cameras, and experimental systems in an environment where requirements and technologies are still evolving.\n\nWork with networked device and system interfaces, potentially including TCP/IP, REST APIs, webhooks, DDS, SCADA, or comparable communication technologies.\n\nWrite automated tests, technical documentation, and operational guidance to support long-term maintainability and safe, reliable operation.\n\nIdentify and address reliability, performance, integration, debugging, and maintenance risks in software that interacts with real-world systems.\n\nContribute to technical design discussions, code reviews, and knowledge sharing across the Software Department.\n\nMentor engineers and help establish engineering practices as the software team grows.\n\nWho You Are\nYou are an experienced software engineer who enjoys solving complex, ambiguous technical problems and building systems from the ground up.\n\nYou are comfortable taking ownership of technical direction while collaborating closely with software specialists, laser physicists, experimental experts, and systems-integration partners.\n\nYou can move effectively between technical leadership, project coordination, architecture, and hands-on implementation.\n\nYou take ownership of the quality, reliability, testability, and long-term maintainability of the systems you build.\n\nYou communicate clearly with both software specialists and technical partners from adjacent disciplines.\n\nYou apply sound technical judgment when making design, implementation, and technology-selection decisions in an evolving environment.\n\nYou are curious, adaptable, and motivated to understand how software interacts with hardware, cameras, diagnostics, and experimental systems.\n\nYou are experienced in debugging and testing complex software and understand their importance in senior-level engineering work.\n\nYou value constructive feedback, knowledge sharing, and mentoring other engineers.\n\nYou are interested in developing toward technical leadership and project ownership. Formal people-management responsibility is not required at the outset.\n\nDesirable Skills & Knowledge\nStrong programming experience in C++, Python, or comparable programming languages.\n\nExperience designing, implementing, testing, debugging, and maintaining complex software systems.\n\nKnowledge of software architecture, code review practices, automated testing, technical documentation, and engineering best practices.\n\nExperience with greenfield development, platform or architecture definition, and making technology choices where requirements are still evolving.\n\nExperience with automated calibration, control-adjacent software, laboratory systems, automation, or physical-device interfaces.\n\nExperience developing human-machine interfaces, dashboards, or software for operating technical equipment.\n\nExperience with camera integration, image processing, diagnostic data, or experimental data-processing pipelines.\n\nExperience developing data-storage solutions for high-volume, time-series, experimental, or operational data.\n\nFamiliarity with software-hardware integration and working across experimental-system boundaries.\n\nExperience with networked device communication or system interfaces, such as TCP/IP, REST APIs, webhooks, DDS, SCADA, or comparable technologies.\n\nFamiliarity with control systems or optics is beneficial, but not required; the ability to learn and collaborate across these disciplines is more important.\n\nPrevious experience mentoring engineers or leading technical design discussions.\n\nFocused Energy is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.\nPursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Focused Energy will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.\nCompensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, benefits.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6800,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Germany","iso":"DE","kind":"country"},{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Nuclear Energy","Lasers & Laser Systems"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-15T07:36:39Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":25,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":0.4,"p_active":0.825,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":53,"expected_fill_days":57,"reasons":["seen:53","win:late"],"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/focused-senior-software-engineer-fmd","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/focused-senior-software-engineer-fmd.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-08T07:12:07Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":15626,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-09T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":24087},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=24087"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffocused-senior-software-engineer-fmd"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ffocused-senior-software-engineer-fmd"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ffocused-senior-software-engineer-fmd"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/focused-senior-software-engineer-fmd\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffocused-senior-software-engineer-fmd"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":926343}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"focused.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":926343},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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