OUR CAPABILITIES / THE WORK WE TAKE ON

SOFTWARE / DATA / MISSION-CRITICAL / EMBEDDED / AI

Engineering and technical consulting for government programs, prime contractors, and companies building things that have to work.

01
Built for the real world.

Software & systems engineering

Architecture and implementation for systems where correctness, performance, and maintainability decide whether the thing survives. We work through requirements, interfaces, failure modes, and deployment constraints alongside your team — and we write the code, not just the deck.

How we work in this discipline ↗
  • Rust development
  • Systems architecture
  • Integration
02
Strong foundations. Better decisions.

Database architecture

Design and review of data models, schemas, access patterns, and migrations. We find the queries that will hurt at ten times the volume, the constraints that should be in the database instead of the application, and the migration path that does not require a maintenance window nobody will approve.

How we work in this discipline ↗
  • Data modeling
  • Schema design
  • Performance
03
When getting it right matters.

Mission-critical engineering

Engineering for software that has to behave when conditions get bad. We work through what the system must do, what it should do when its assumptions break, and what evidence proves either — then build the error handling, tests, and observability that back it up.

How we work in this discipline ↗
  • Reliability
  • Systems review
  • Technical assurance
04
Where software meets the world.

Embedded systems

Design and implementation close to the metal. We work through resource limits, timing, peripheral interfaces, and device behavior — including what happens on brownout, on a wedged bus, and on the update that has to land in the field without a technician.

How we work in this discipline ↗
  • Device software
  • Hardware integration
  • Resource constraints
05
Past the demo.

AI engineering & consulting

Applied AI for teams past the prototype: retrieval and data design, tool and structured-output interfaces, evaluation harnesses that make a prompt change measurable, latency and cost budgets, and a straight answer about the places a model does not belong.

How we work in this discipline ↗
  • LLM applications
  • Retrieval & RAG
  • Evaluation harnesses
HOW WE CAN WORK TOGETHER

Three ways
this usually starts.

COMPANY DETAILS

On the
record.

Legal entity
TOUGH CENTS LLC
Location
Herndon, Virginia
Focus
Rust · Data · Mission-critical · Embedded · AI
Website
toughcents.com
Contact
contact@toughcents.com

Bring us the part
that keeps slipping.

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