Lead Software Engineer

Description

The Lead Software Engineer serves as a senior technical contributor within the internal systems team, supporting software development, integration, CI/CD, application configuration, and light DevOps functions. This role provides hands-on technical leadership to unblock developers, improve engineering practices, and guide design decisions. The lead will partner closely with the Software Development Manager to support Scrum adoption, collaborate with stakeholders on requirements, and provide technical mentorship to junior team members. This role is critical for elevating technical standards while remaining embedded in the day-to-day execution of work. 

Key Result Areas:

Technical Leadership

Guide and mentor engineers in daily technical work while improving the dev environment

• Unblock developers through hands-on support, pair programming, or troubleshooting. 
• Lead design discussions and provide technical guidance on architecture and implementation approaches. 
• Work with the manager to evolve development practices aligned to team maturity. 
• Establish and advocate for engineering best practices across the team. 
• Take ownership of CI/CD pipelines, automation processes, and development workflows. 
• Improve deployment efficiency, quality assurance, and reliability. 
• Explore new tools, technologies, and approaches to improve system performance, development efficiency, and overall team capabilities. 

Technical Execution and Enablement

Drive projects while ensuring sound design, code quality, and system integrity

• Take ownership of assigned projects and service requests, executing technical work directly while coordinating with team members to ensure timely and effective delivery. 
• Mentor junior engineers and generalists, helping them improve technical skills and engineering mindset. 
• Provide code reviews and feedback in a constructive and growth-oriented manner. 
• Contribute to the evolution of quality assurance practices by identifying opportunities to automate testing to enhance coverage, accuracy, and efficiency. 
• Support knowledge sharing and documentation practices. 

Solution Planning and Delivery

Scope and coordinate technical work in partnership with stakeholders

• Engage in stakeholder discussions to gather context, clarify intent, and capture high-level functional and technical needs.
• Support the decomposition of complex initiatives into manageable stories and technical tasks that align with team capacity.
• Work closely with stakeholders and team leads to ensure incoming requests are clearly scoped, structured, and ready for development.
• Contribute to the conversion of business requirements into detailed user stories, acceptance criteria, and implementation guidance.
• Support Scrum ceremonies such as planning, backlog refinement, and retrospectives 

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in software development, systems integration, or internal tooling. A related degree may substitute for a portion of the experience.
• Strong coding skills and experience with one or more languages.
• Hands-on experience designing APIs, integrations, or web-based internal applications.
• Proven ability to support CI/CD pipelines and development automation.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to lead technical resolution efforts.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate across technical and business teams. 

Preferred Experience:

•  Languages: Python, Flask, Salesforce/Apex 
•  Data: Postgres, SQL 
•  Automation: Ansible, Airflow 
•  Work Management: Jira and agile software development (scrum) 

Skills:

• Strong technical leadership skills to support and unblock team members during development.
• Strong troubleshooting skills to resolve integration and system-level issues.
• Ability to translate requirements into scalable, maintainable technical solutions.
• Proficiency in evaluating trade-offs and guiding design decisions within architectural constraints.
• Experience mentoring junior developers and promoting best practices through code reviews and technical collaboration.
• Familiarity with test-driven development practices to ensure code reliability and maintainability from the outset. 

Physical Requirements:

• Occasionally move or lift office items 
• Must be able to work in an office environment 
• Must be able to communicate in an effective manner to perform job duties 
• Vision must be good or corrected in order to perform essential job duties