Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

Location: Northbrook, IL

We're looking for a highly skilled and motivated Lead Software Engineer with 8+ years of experience to drive the delivery of complex, high-impact software solutions. In this role, you'll support the Digital Workplace team's mission to remove technology friction for every employee, with a focus on applying AI and automation. You'll help build and maintain generative AI capabilities within enterprise platforms and design automated workflows that connect internal tools to engineering systems, playing a key role in shaping technical direction and ensuring the delivery of high-quality, scalable, maintainable software aligned with product goals.

Responsibilities

• Provide strong technical leadership and guidance to the engineering team, setting technical vision and ensuring alignment with product goals
• Lead the design, development, and deployment of complex software solutions, owning technical deliverables from conception to launch within an iterative development process
• Define and own the technical strategy and architecture for generative AI capabilities across the platform, in alignment with governance and risk guidelines
• Drive the roadmap and technical direction for AI-assisted tooling that improves how employees find information and get work done, partnering with product and engineering leads to prioritize impact
• Own the design, build, and ongoing maintenance of a knowledge graph connecting fragmented knowledge sources (Drive, intranet, Slack) into a structured, AI-queryable data layer powering enterprise-wide semantic search and retrieval
• Actively participate in and champion team ceremonies, contributing to sprint goals and continuous process improvement
• Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to define requirements, provide technical insights, author user and technical stories, and ensure seamless integration of solutions
• Establish and enforce agile development best practices, coding standards, and architectural patterns for code quality, maintainability, and scalability
• Mentor and guide junior and mid-level engineers, fostering technical growth and a collaborative team environment
• Tackle complex technical challenges, troubleshoot issues, and provide innovative solutions
• Drive technical design discussions, contributing to overall system architecture and robustness
• Conduct thorough, constructive code reviews to ensure code quality and knowledge sharing
• Champion high standards for knowledge management, ensuring clear, accessible documentation for all features and solutions
• Stay current with emerging technologies and trends, proactively identifying opportunities for improvement
• Identify and mitigate technical risks to ensure timely, successful delivery

What You'll Bring

• Strong technical leadership skills with the ability to set vision and guide a team
• Deep understanding of agile methodologies and the software development lifecycle
• Experience building LLM/GenAI applications (prompt engineering, RAG, agentic workflows), ideally within GCP Vertex AI
• Experience with Slack app development or workflow automation (Slack API, Bolt SDK, Workflow Builder) and API/webhook integration
• Experience building and maintaining knowledge graphs or structured data layers supporting AI/ML retrieval systems (RAG pipelines, semantic search)
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and debugging skills
• Strong communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated ability to mentor other engineers
• Solid understanding of software architecture principles, design patterns, and system scalability
• Proficiency designing and developing scalable, maintainable software iteratively
• Knowledge of agile best practices, coding standards, and testing methodologies
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and related technologies
• Ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• Minimum 8 years of professional software development experience
• Proven experience leading delivery of complex software solutions in an agile environment
• Strong proficiency in one or more relevant programming languages (Java, Python, JavaScript, Go)
• Experience with AI/ML or LLM-based application development
• Experience with workflow-automation platforms
• Experience with testing frameworks and methodologies