U.S. Citizen — Clearance Eligible Open to SWE Internships

Garrett Ellis

C/C++ Software DeveloperWeb Developer — Pinellas County Clerk of CourtComputer Science @ University of South Florida

I build AES-256 encrypted court-filing software and public platforms used by roughly half a million Florida residents. Off the clock, I write C++17 simulation and pathfinding engines — benchmarked, multithreaded, and CI-tested on every push. 3.95 GPA, graduating December 2027.

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Tampa Bay, FL · On-site or remote B.S. Computer Science · Dec 2027
Portrait of Garrett Ellis
~500K
Public users served by web applications I build and maintain
$15K/yr
Annual county costs eliminated through remediation & throughput gains
3.1×
A* speedup over Dijkstra, benchmarked across 1,000 runs
1M+
Multithreaded simulation runs executed in a single batch
01 — About

Systems-level engineering, shipped under real constraints

I work close to the metal — C and C++17, data structures, algorithms, concurrency, and manual memory management — while shipping production software that government staff and the public depend on every single day.

At the Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court, I designed a fully offline, AES-256 encrypted application that automates Florida probate guardianship court filings, and I maintain public platforms in the DNN CMS serving roughly 500,000 residents and 500+ internal staff. A court environment is unforgiving in a useful way: accuracy, auditability, and accessibility aren't features I add later — they're the requirements.

Outside of work I build C/C++ engines around graph algorithms, polymorphic architecture, and multithreading, and I hold them to the same bar: CMake builds, GitHub Actions CI, and regression checks on every push. I benchmark instead of guessing — that's how I know A* explores 97% fewer nodes than Dijkstra on my graphs rather than just assuming it does.

I'm seeking a software engineering internship — in defense, aerospace, or any team where correctness and performance genuinely matter. I'm a U.S. citizen and eligible for a security clearance, and I'm equally at home on a systems codebase or a full-stack product team.

02 — Experience

Two years building software inside a Florida court

Hired as an intern, promoted to Web Developer — shipping secure, accessible, audited software the whole time.

Web Developer · Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller

Oct 2025 — Present
Administrative Support Specialist 1 · Clearwater, FL
  • Designed a fully offline, AES-256 encrypted web application that automates Florida probate guardianship court filings — replacing manual Excel workflows with guided data entry, automatic calculations, and filing-ready PDF/Excel export. Accelerated development using local LLM tooling (Ollama, Continue) for inline code assistance.
  • Developed and maintained public-facing web applications in the DNN (DotNetNuke) CMS serving ~500,000 public users and 500+ internal staff; owned the internal website request queue, cutting ticket turnaround from weeks to under 24 hours.
  • Led ADA/WCAG accessibility remediation across county public-facing pages, improving WAVE AIM scores by ~40% and saving the Clerk ~$10,000 annually by eliminating third-party document remediation outsourcing.

Management Intern, Web Development · Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court

Aug 2024 — Oct 2025
Clearwater, FL
  • Built Clerk's Closet, a Power Apps inventory management application integrated with SharePoint Lists and Power Automate, replacing ad-hoc email requests with an automated, validated request workflow.
  • Consolidated a dozen Clerk-wide SharePoint pages into a unified, branded intranet used by 500+ employees, standardizing document libraries, navigation, and content organization across multiple departments.
  • Ranked the department's highest-output docketer: processed 25% of all Intellidact filings at 70 filings/hour while working half the hours of nine peers, eliminating ~$5,000 in annual overtime costs.

B.S. Computer Science · University of South Florida

Expected Dec 2027
Tampa, FL · GPA 3.95 / 4.00
  • Emphasis on data structures, algorithms, program design, and computer logic design in C/C++.
  • Completing the degree while employed full-time — shipping production software the entire time.
03 — Selected Work

Engineering projects, with the numbers

Systems-level C and C++ — pathfinding, concurrency, polymorphic architecture, and custom data structures. Every project is open source, CMake-built, and benchmarked.

START GOAL 42 35 A* — 97% fewer nodes explored
Flagship Project Dec 2025 — May 2026

Graph Loot Engine — C++17 Simulation & Pathfinding Engine

A multithreaded simulation engine that finds optimal routes across weighted graphs and runs probabilistic outcome models at scale — architected for extension, configured by data, and validated by CI on every push.

3.1×
faster than Dijkstra
97%
fewer nodes explored
1M+
parallel sim runs
11+
classes, polymorphic
  • Implemented Dijkstra and A* over an adjacency-list graph backed by std::unordered_map, using std::priority_queue with custom comparators; benchmarked with std::chrono across 1,000 runs.
  • Architected around a polymorphic world abstraction (World base, FortniteWorld derived) spanning 11+ classes, with a data-driven item system of 5 types across 5 rarity tiers configured via CSV — content changes require no recompilation.
  • Parallelized 1,000,000+ batch simulation runs with std::thread and mutex-protected result aggregation; interactive and headless CLI execution modes.
  • Built with CMake and validated on every push by a GitHub Actions CI pipeline running build and regression checks.
C++17STLstd::thread std::mutexCMakeGitHub Actions
Source on GitHub Run it in the browser
· c m h a r ' ■ ■ ■ TRIE — O(k) lookup · 493 records custom char index
Systems Project Dec 2024 — Apr 2026

Collection System Simulation — C/C++ Engine with Trie Indexing

A modular C engine that emulates object-oriented polymorphism without a class in sight, then gets wrapped in modern C++ through an extern "C" boundary with RAII-managed lifetimes.

O(k)
trie lookup time
493
indexed records
3
dispatch managers
  • Designed a modular C engine using function-pointer dispatch tables (ListManager, MenuManager, TrieManager) to emulate OOP-style polymorphism in C, backed by a doubly linked list supporting insertion, deletion, sort, and reverse.
  • Engineered a trie-based search system with custom character indexing to handle entries containing apostrophes, hyphens, and periods — enabling O(k) lookup across a 493-record dataset, where k is key length.
  • Refactored into a hybrid C/C++ architecture using extern "C" linkage to expose the C engine to a C++ wrapper class, managing construction and teardown through RAII.
CC++Trie Linked ListsFunction PointersRAII
Source on GitHub Run it in the browser
Coursework Project

Student Registration System — C Data Management Engine

An enrollment-workflow system in C with validated input pipelines, trie-indexed NetID lookup, and doubly linked list record management with sorting, filtering, and file-backed persistence.

CTrie Index Doubly Linked ListFile I/O
Source on GitHub Run it in the browser
04 — Technical Skills

What I work with

Depth in C++ and systems fundamentals, backed by production experience in secure, accessible government web platforms.

Languages

C++17 C Python JavaScript HTML / CSS

C++ Proficiency

STL Containers & Algorithms std::thread / std::mutex Templates RAII Inheritance & Polymorphism Structured Bindings File I/O

Algorithms & Data Structures

Dijkstra & A* Tries Adjacency-List Graphs Priority Queues Doubly Linked Lists Hash Maps Benchmarking

Tools & Systems

Git / GitHub GitHub Actions (CI/CD) CMake Make VS Code Ollama / Continue

Security & Compliance

AES-256 Encryption ADA / WCAG Remediation Offline-First Design Data Integrity & Auditability

Platforms

DNN (DotNetNuke) CMS SharePoint Power Apps Power Automate
05 — Education & Recognition

Academics

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science

University of South Florida — Tampa, FL
GPA 3.95 / 4.00 · Expected December 2027
Relevant Coursework
Data Structures & Algorithms Program Design Computer Logic Design Discrete Mathematics
In Progress
Intro to Artificial Intelligence Automata Theory & Formal Languages Probability & Statistics for Engineers

Awards & Additional

  • International Baccalaureate DiplomaRecipient, 2021
  • Florida Academic ScholarshipRecipient, 2021
  • Spanish — CEFR B2Upper-intermediate proficiency
  • U.S. CitizenEligible for security clearance
06 — Contact

Let's talk about your team

I'm actively seeking a software engineering internship — C++, systems, simulation, embedded, or full-stack. If you're hiring in defense, aerospace, or anywhere correctness and performance matter, I'd like to hear from you.

egarrett021@gmail.com LinkedIn GitHub Résumé
Oldsmar, FL (Tampa Bay) U.S. Citizen — clearance eligible Typically replies within 24 hours