Research & Development Engineer

\*This event will be **ONLINE ONLY** Are you an experienced tech professional aiming for top-tier roles at MANGA, AI companies, hedge funds, or just the next step? Your coding skills are solid, but **can you perform under pressure?** * Do you freeze when the timer starts? * Struggle to articulate your thought process clearly while coding? * Pass the coding screen but get rejected after the onsite? * Find it difficult to demonstrate "Senior" scope during technical discussions? Top-tier tech companies don't just look for the correct code. At the senior level, it’s no longer just about solving the algorithm - it’s about **communication, trade-off analysis, edge-case handling, and clarity of thought.** We are bringing in a **Senior Engineer directly from Amazon** to conduct a **Live Mock Interview session**. This is your chance to see exactly what happens inside a top-tier technical interview and understand the specific rubric hiring managers use to grade candidates. **This is not a theoretical lecture.** This is a real-time simulation of the high-stakes interview environment, followed by a detailed breakdown of what went right and what went wrong. **What We Will Cover:** * **The Interviewer’s Lens:** How a Senior Amazon Engineer evaluates a candidate in real-time (beyond just the syntax). * **Structured Problem Solving:** How to approach ambiguous problems, ask the right clarifying questions, and drive the solution forward. * **Communication is Key:** Mastering the "Think Out Loud" technique effectively to show your reasoning. * **The Senior Difference:** How to demonstrate seniority through code modularity, optimization discussions, and handling constraints. **Who Should Attend:** ⚠️ **Please Note:** This event is tailored for **experienced professionals** in the tech industry (e.g., Senior Software Engineers and tech professionals with more than 2 years of experience) who want to crack the interview process at major tech firms. **RSVP today to elevate your interview game.** **Hosted by TopCoding**

HYBRID EVENT, VIRTUAL SPEAKER In this talk, Sean Hoar will explore the transformative journey of AI’s role in modern software engineering, from rapid prototyping (“Vibe Coding”) to strategic AI integration by skilled practitioners. It clarifies the distinctions between AI-assisted, AI-enabled, and practitioner-led approaches, offering insights into how developers can effectively adapt to and harness AI tools. The presentation also highlights recent advancements and practical strategies for leveraging AI in daily workflows and long-term development.

Federal Executive GovCon - "Supporting Government Efficiency with Thought Leadership" When: Thursday, January 22, 2026, 5:30 – 8:00 Location: Lost Rhino, 21730 Red Rum Dr, Ste 142, Ashburn, VA 20147 (\*\* NEW LOCATION \*\*) Come network with other local GovCon Executives and enjoy a few free beers on us and engage with our sponsors and Industry speakers. Please register here for your spot and please enter full name and company so a badge will be waiting for you. Sponsorships: 1 of 2 spots are available. DM me to claim the 2nd sponsorship to highlight your company to an invitation-only executive audience.

Join local video game developers, artists, musicians and writers to talk about the art and science of game development. Bring a device and demo your game, talk shop, find like minded folks to join forces with, have a snack or a beverage among new friends. We are an informal meetup where we share what we've been working on and socialize. Come for all or just a bit of the time!

Gaming, AdTech, EdTech, Media Streaming, and FinTech are just a few of the workloads where high-availability cloud infrastructure matters. Whether you’re doing battle daily in one of these spaces or are just curious about ways to improve performance, meet us in Reston for an in-person discussion on bare metal cloud architecture. You’ll meet our product lead, James MacKenzie, who will walk through how modern bare metal serves as a control plane for hybrid and private cloud architectures. **What we will cover** * Ways to leverage bare metal, containers, and orchestration for better performance and predictable economics; * Real-world hybrid, disaster recovery, and data-intensive architectures; * Our approach to eliminating ingress and egress fees. **Who should attend** * Cloud architects and platform engineers; * DevOps professionals and infrastructure leads; * FinOps stakeholders managing data-heavy or hybrid workloads. **Why attend** This is a technical, architecture-first conversation. You will leave with a clearer understanding of high-availability cloud infrastructure and how organizations are scaling cost-effectively. Food and drinks will be provided. Space is limited to keep the discussion interactive.

**Location**: Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (Virginia) Conference Room A game development **Working Session** involves 3 key parts: 1. Tell people what you're going to do 2. Actually do stuff 3. Show people what you did That's what we'll be doing for this meeting. We'll briefly tell each other what we're going to do, then work on our projects, then at around 5:30 wrap up to show each other what we did and chat for a bit. You don't have to stay the whole time, so feel free to drop in and out as you have time. All game development skill levels welcome. Whether you're bringing a game you're trying to ship in a month, or you're just planning on following some tutorials or trying out a new tool to improve your skills, use this time to make progress. Working sessions also train you to think about the scope of your work: pick a chunk of work that you can complete in the time that we have. That way you can end the working session with a feeling of accomplishment! **What to bring**: Laptop, Charger, maybe a power strip if you have one handy, any other game development tools you need. Try to download any software you need before the working session. There is Wifi at this location, but it may be slow if you have to download any large files.