Lead Software Engineer / Software Engineering Manager

Role Description and Intent

The intent of this role is effective technical leadership combined with project management oversight for a team delivering software solutions, many of which incorporate AI components. Success in this position relies fundamentally on core strengths such as: demonstrable expertise in software engineering principles, strong coding ability, and a solid track record in project management and successful delivery.

Our work increasingly involves AI (applying off-shelf or open source solutions), and we recognize this is a developing field. Consequently, we prioritize proven engineering capabilities and emerging leadership qualities over deep, pre-existing AI/ML knowledge. We are looking for someone capable of applying rigorous software engineering discipline to projects within this evolving context, with motivation to learn and adapt.

This position is designed for experienced software engineers ready to journey onto team mentorship responsibilities or current technical leads seeking to apply their skills within the AI space. The structure of the role allows for progressive growth in understanding and guiding AI-related work as part of your leadership journey.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Mentorship: To initially focus on providing strong technical guidance and project leadership for a small team of software and AI engineers. Responsibilities include mentoring team members, fostering collaboration, and ensuring project success. This role offers a clear path and support to progressively develop into broader team leadership, eventually encompassing formal duties like career development guidance and performance management.
• Project Management & Delivery: Oversee the entire lifecycle of AI-related projects, from planning and scoping to execution, monitoring, and deployment. Ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and to high-quality standards.
• Technical Guidance: Provide architectural oversight and technical direction, leveraging your strong software engineering background. Ensure the team adheres to best practices in coding, testing, and deployment. Facilitate technical decision-making.
• Stakeholder Management: Collaborate effectively with product managers, data scientists, business stakeholders, and other engineering teams to define requirements, manage expectations, and communicate progress, risks, and dependencies.
• AI Application Focus: Guide the practical application of AI/ML tools and services within projects, ensuring solutions are feasible, effective, and aligned with business objectives. Stay informed about relevant AI trends to guide project strategy.
• Resource Planning: Assist in resource allocation, roadmap planning, and hiring efforts for the team.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5-8 years of professional experience in software engineering, with either some direct leadership experience (e.g., 1-2 years) or clear potential demonstrated through technical leadership and project oversight.
• Strong Project Management Skills: Proven track record of successfully delivering complex software projects using Agile/Scrum or similar methodologies. Experience with project planning tools.
• Solid Software Engineering Foundation: Deep understanding of software architecture, design patterns, data structures, testing methodologies, and the full Software Development Lifecycle. Proficiency in one or more relevant programming languages (e.g., Python, Java).
• Proven Leadership & Maturity: Demonstrated ability to mentor and inspire engineering teams. Strong decision-making skills and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving.
• Understanding of DevOps Practices: Solid understanding of DevOps principles and practices, including Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, automated testing, infrastructure-as-code concepts, and monitoring, as applied to the software development lifecycle.
• Demonstrated AI/ML Understanding: Experience delivering projects that incorporate AI/ML components OR a clear, demonstrable understanding of core AI/ML concepts and their practical application. You should be able to guide a team working on these technologies effectively.