Lead Software Engineer

Description

• Make immediate contributions to projects and rapidly build trust with clients • Work pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines • Lead architecture and software design discussions • Collaborate on systems covering the full ML lifecycle from data ingestion and preprocessing through model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring • Generate potential technical and non-technical solutions with team members and clients • Lead or initiate formal feedback conversations through retrospectives • Articulate and document outcomes and drive action items forward • Contribute to team health and 8th Light’s culture by modeling company Values • Ensure the team has a healthy, prioritized, estimated backlog • Manage high-level project roadmaps for large engagements • Maintain relationships with client technical leaders • Conduct regular client syncs, provide status updates, identify and evaluate risks, and present potential solutions • Identify, mitigate, and resolve blockers to team progress • Mentor colleagues, lead or design workshops, represent 8th Light in the tech community, or support hiring processes

Requirements

• Typically 7+ years of repeated success across a variety of projects • Successfully led high-stakes consulting engagements from discovery to production • Broad and deep software development expertise enabling immediate project impact • Production-quality coding experience with languages and frameworks including Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL • Experience leveraging AI-assistive development tools for scaffolding, refactoring, debugging, test generation, and documentation • Experience building or integrating AI/ML-powered features such as recommendation engines, NLP models, computer vision, or predictive analytics • Experience with context-appropriate automated testing • Experience debugging and refactoring pre-existing code • Experience collaborating with Git, MacOS/Linux, and CI/CD • Experience addressing scalability, security, reliability, and performance concerns at the architecture level • Ability to bring together people from different functions and perspectives for collaboration and problem solving • Ability to make thoughtful recommendations and set direction amid ambiguity • Mentoring and knowledge-sharing experience • Ability to give and receive feedback effectively • Empathic communication with stakeholders and colleagues • Ability to balance technical considerations with product and user needs collaboratively • Strongly preferred: platform engineering, data engineering including Databricks, production agentic systems with RAG pipelines/vector search and frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, or n8n, DevSecOps/DevOps, MLOps, and Infrastructure as Code

Benefits

• A robust L&D program featuring unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert-led training on the O'Reilly learning platform. • Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning & development • Coworking support for our global team • Flexible PTO • 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees

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