Jace is a software engineer at General Dynamics Mission Systems who specializes in the Rust programming language. Jace works at our facility in Dedham, MA, which is home to teams who support high assurance products and command, control and communications (C3) systems.
Jace is a software engineer at our Dedham, MA office who supports products for our military and intelligence community customers. After several years of experience with embedded C++ development, Jace began learning Rust, a memory safe programming language that can help improve the development and security of high assurance products.
For Jace, the appeal of Rust goes beyond technical preference. It aligns directly with what matters most in his work.
"Our top priority when building our products is always security, so I am excited to work with a language that shares the same priority," he remarks.
Career Path & Education
Jace's path to General Dynamics Mission Systems started at Boston College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science. During his junior year, he interned at General Dynamics Mission Systems in the Cyber Systems group, exploring emerging cryptography concepts. He joined General Dynamics full-time after graduating in 2020 and has spent the past six years working on products that support military and intelligence community customers. In 2023, he completed a master’s degree in Engineering Management.
Specializing in the Rust Programming Language
In 2023, guidance from the government called for future software to be written in memory-safe programming languages like Rust.
General Dynamics Mission Systems has invested in Rust training across the organization, developing its own internal training program and sending engineers to industry conferences to stay current as the language evolves.
Jace began his Rust education in 2024 through a combination of online resources and a General Dynamics Mission Systems-sponsored course. What drew him in wasn't just the language itself - it was what the language made possible.
"Adopting Rust has allowed me to focus more on the actual functionality of what I am writing," Jace explains. For someone who spent years navigating the memory leaks and vulnerabilities common in C++ development, that shift in focus was significant. Rust's ability to eliminate entire classes of memory safety errors meant less time chasing bugs and more time building.
A Typical Week as a Rust Developer
Jace's work doesn't follow a fixed routine. Some weeks are heavy on collaboration — brainstorming software designs, mapping out architecture or building a roadmap with his team. Other weeks shift into focused coding sessions or testing phases where he gets to see the product in action and identify what needs fixing.
“My day-to-day is always changing,” Jace explains. “When I am working on a new software design, I spend a lot of time talking with my coworkers to brainstorm ideas about how the new software should work. Then when it’s time to implement the design, I tend to be more focused on writing the code.”
“Similarly, some weeks are very different than others depending on the phase of the project we are in,” Jace continues. “Some weeks are focused on planning the next few months of work. This allows us to explicitly define what we hope to accomplish in the immediate future, plus we can see everything we need to do to complete the project. It is always a good break from working on code because it provides context on how the software fits into the overall development effort. Other weeks or months might be focused on testing, such as at the end of a project. Doing system-wide testing is always a cool way to see the product in action.”
"I enjoy having this type of balance because I am not doing the same thing every day," he says.
The Future of Secure Software Development
Jace is watching the Rust ecosystem closely. Large companies are beginning to adopt it at scale, but he's particularly interested in how Rust can be applied in embedded contexts to build secure devices.
"As memory safety continues to be a major factor in all software development, Rust will only increase in popularity," he predicts.
For engineers considering a career in this space, Jace's message is straightforward: the technology is here, the investment is real, and the problems being solved matter.
"I believe that General Dynamics Mission Systems is the perfect place to see how the latest technology can be combined with mission critical needs,” he said.
