Senior C++ Software Engineer

Senior C++ Software Engineer - Scientific Software

Location: Glasgow, hybrid WFH (50/50 split between home and office)

Salary: Up to £65,000 DOE

KO2's client develops advanced cheminformatics software. Their software helps scientists understand and work better with chemical data. They're looking for an experienced Senior C++ Software Engineer to join their small, growing team in Glasgow. You'll modernise their core C++ codebase and turn complex scientific algorithms into robust, high-performance code.

The company is international and close-knit. The Glasgow team works closely with colleagues in small offices in Germany and France, so you'll be part of a collaborative, multicultural engineering group.

You'll work closely with chemistry subject-matter experts and implement their algorithms using sound design patterns and modern C++. You'll be one of the main code reviewers, protect the quality and consistency of the architecture, and mentor junior developers as they continue to grow.

Key responsibilities

• Maintain and modernise a legacy C++ codebase, migrating it gradually to modern C++
• Implement new cheminformatics algorithms specified by the SMEs
• Review algorithm specifications for feasibility and clarity before implementation
• Act as a primary code reviewer, protecting the team's architectural consistency and code quality
• Own the test strategy for your work, covering unit and integration tests, edge cases and regression protection
• Maintain the CMake build system and related Linux tooling
• Mentor junior developers on clean code, architecture and design patterns
• Work with colleagues in Glasgow, Germany and France

Essential skills and experience

• Significant commercial modern C++ experience, 17 onwards ideally.
• An architectural mindset, with OOP, SOLID principles and design patterns as part of your everyday work
• Confidence applying modern idioms to legacy code you didn't write
• Strong code review skills. You give thorough, constructive feedback and can spot subtle logic errors and design drift
• A solid understanding of concurrency, including writing, debugging and reasoning about multithreaded code, synchronisation and data races
• Experience with the Linux development toolchain: CMake, GCC/Clang, gdb, and dynamic linking (RPATH, SONAME)
• Familiarity with static and runtime analysis tools such as clang-tidy, Valgrind and sanitisers
• Experience of AI-assisted development, such as using Claude Code and directing coding agents on architectural decisions
• Implementing algorithms from specifications, and reasoning about their efficiency and complexity
• Network programming (TCP/IP and sockets)
• Python, and testing frameworks such as pytest and Catch2
• Docker and containerised build environments

What's on offer

• A competitive salary, depending on experience
• Flexible hybrid working, split 50/50 between home and the Glasgow office
• A small, growing Glasgow team that you can help shape
• Working with international colleagues in Germany and France
• Challenging, meaningful work on scientific software
• A senior role with real influence over architecture and code quality

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