Lead Software Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Oversee software development projects for a diverse range of clients, typically managing one to two clients annually.

• Make immediate contributions to projects and quickly establish trust with clients.

• Pragmatically balance technology selections while ensuring the delivery of high-quality work within set deadlines.

• Facilitate discussions around architecture and software design.

• Collaborate on systems throughout the entire ML lifecycle, from data ingestion and preprocessing to deployment, integration, and performance monitoring.

• Develop both technical and non-technical solutions in partnership with team members and clients.

• Lead or initiate formal feedback discussions through retrospectives.

• Document results and drive actionable items.

• Exemplify 8th Light’s Values and enhance team and company culture.

• Ensure the team maintains a healthy, prioritized, and estimated backlog.

• Manage overarching project roadmaps for larger engagements.

• Cultivate relationships with client technical leaders.

• Conduct status update meetings with clients to identify risks, evaluate progress, and present solutions.

• Identify, mitigate, and resolve obstacles hindering team progress.

• Mentor, lead or design workshops, represent 8th Light within the tech community, and assist in the hiring process.

⛳️ Requirements

• Generally, 7+ years of proven success across various projects.

• Experience in leading high-stakes consulting projects from the discovery phase to production.

• Proficient in production-quality coding with languages and frameworks such as Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL.

• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools for scaffolding, refactoring, debugging, test generation, and documentation.

• Experience in building or integrating AI/ML-powered features into products or systems.

• Knowledge of automated testing methodologies.

• Experience in debugging and refactoring existing code.

• Proficient in collaborating with Git, MacOS/Linux, and CI/CD practices.

• Experience in addressing scalability, security, reliability, and performance challenges.

• Ability to unite cross-functional perspectives and promote collaboration.

• Capability to make informed recommendations and set direction in ambiguous situations.

• Experience in mentoring and knowledge sharing.

• Ability to effectively give and receive feedback.

• Empathetic communication skills with stakeholders and colleagues.

• Ability to balance technical considerations with product and user needs.

• Strongly preferred: expertise in platform engineering, data engineering (including Databricks), production agentic systems (including RAG pipelines and vector search), DevSecOps/DevOps, MLOps, and Infrastructure as Code.

🏝️ Benefits

• Comprehensive L&D program providing unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert-led training available on the O'Reilly learning platform.

• Annual financial stipend and allocated time for learning and development.

• Support for co-working arrangements for the global team.

• Flexible paid time off (PTO).

• 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees.

• Coworking spaces for team members located outside of hub cities.