[chris11]

I'd look into companies focused on SBIR grants. The SBIR program is a governmental program designed to spur R&D in small businesses. Over $2.5billion is awarded annually. For instance one grant deals with researching detecting and suppressing attacks on GPS receivers on missile systems.

You can staff projects off of grants, so it removes the need to sell the product. And the companies are probably going to be more academic, with a high percentage having graduate degrees. But companies will be under pressure to win grants. And because they have less of a need to sell a product, your work might not be widely used after the project ends. Also, the DoD is a major source of grants, so it would be helpful if you were comfortable with working on military research projects.

But it might be something to look into if you want to get into software development in an academic environment.