Software Developer 3 — Cyber Capability Development with Security Clearance

Shadowgate Partners is seeking a CNO Developer 3 for a Client.

Salary: $277,000 per year, plus an additional 25% ($69,308) of your salary in fully and immediately vested employer 401(k) contributions. You will take a leading technical role designing, developing, testing, and maintaining advanced CNO capabilities against high-priority mission requirements. This role carries depth rather than headcount: you are the engineer others come to when the problem is hard, you mentor the team, and you are accountable for capabilities being genuinely ready when they are called on.

Key Responsibilities • Lead the design, development, testing, and maintenance of advanced CNO capabilities.

• Set technical direction on assigned capability efforts and drive them to delivery.
• Provide mentorship and technical guidance to the development team.
• Ensure delivered tooling meets operational readiness standards.
• Represent the team's technical work in design and readiness reviews. Required Qualifications • Six or more years of programming experience in Assembly, C, C++, Java, Perl, and/or Python.
• Five or more years developing in at least one of: Windows applications using Visual Studio or .NET environments; UNIX applications using make files or a comparable build environment.
• Four or more years working with CNO tools and techniques.
• Working knowledge of network protocols and sockets, common CNO techniques, exploit mitigations such as DEP and ASLR, and modern software engineering practice.
• Experience with reverse engineering frameworks (IDA Pro, Ghidra, OllyDbg) and disassemblers/debuggers.
• Familiarity with cellular standards and infrastructure (3GPP, 4G/5G).

Preferred Qualifications • Deep operating system internals or kernel-level development experience.

• Track record of taking a capability from concept to sustained operational use.
• Experience defining engineering standards adopted by a wider team.
• Background in vulnerability research alongside development.

Experience & Education Bachelor's degree plus eight years of experience, master's degree plus six years of experience, or twelve years of relevant experience in the field. Clearance Level This position requires an active Top Secret/SCI clearance with a Full Scope Polygraph. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and must hold, or be able to reinstate, the required clearance and polygraph prior to start. Clearance eligibility must be maintained throughout the duration of employment. Benefits In addition to the base salary and 401(k) contributions listed above, our Client offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision coverage.