Lead Software Engineer

Job Description
***Please note: This position is hybrid and not fully remote. Candidates must be based in the Houston area, as relocation assistance is not provided. Only individuals authorized to work in the U.S. will be considered.***

Job Title : Lead Software Engineer

Job Type : Full-Time/Contract *this role is a 12-month assignment.

Job Location : Houston, TX 77002 *must be located in the Houston area.

Job Schedule: M-F, 8am-5pm - Hybrid


Job Salary : $62.00/hour

Role Summary

The Lead Software Engineer will join a team responsible for mission-critical applications that deliver real-time warnings, alerts, and related information to constituents. This hands-on role blends feature development, production support, and technical leadership to deliver enhancements, improve reliability, and reduce single points of failure across the application environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze business and technical requirements and translate them into implementable solutions.
• Participate in Sprint planning and backlog grooming to refine scope and acceptance criteria.
• Design and propose technical approaches that meet functional and non-functional requirements.
• Develop, test, and deploy code in collaboration with the implementation team and QA.
• Support CI/CD pipelines and contribute to automated testing and release processes.
• Identify and resolve defects discovered during testing and in production.
• Deploy to Production and provide post-deployment support and troubleshooting.
• Respond to Service Tickets and support requests in a timely manner.
• Drive reliability improvements to reduce single points of failure and increase system availability.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• CJIS clearance or ability to obtain CJIS clearance prior to start.
• 5+ years professional experience in application development and production support.
• Strong experience with backend development and relational databases (examples: Java or .NET; SQL).
• Experience with web services / APIs , integrations, and distributed systems.
• Familiarity with CI/CD , automated testing, and deployment processes.
• Proven experience working in Agile/Scrum teams and delivering sprint commitments.
• Strong debugging and incident-response skills; experience resolving production incidents.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate with business, QA, and operations teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with public safety, emergency notification, geospatial, or similar real-time systems .
• Experience with cloud platforms, containerization, or infrastructure as code.
• Familiarity with monitoring, observability, and incident management tools.

Performance Expectations and Deliverables

• Follow the established Sprint process and complete committed User Stories within sprint timelines.
• Deploy code to Production on scheduled release cadence.
• Provide accurate time estimates and maintain timely reporting.
• Resolve assigned Service Tickets and defects within agreed SLAs.
• Contribute to reducing single points of failure and improving system reliability.