Technology R&D Lead Engineer

Role Description

The Lead, Technology R&D Engineer leads the design, development, and validation of emerging technology solutions, translating research into scalable prototypes and pilot-ready capabilities. This role drives technical execution across the R&D lifecycle, from experimentation through pilot deployment, ensuring solutions are feasible, valuable, and aligned to enterprise strategy. The Lead Engineer partners across AI, Automation, and Innovation Enablement teams to accelerate the transition of R&D outputs into business impact.

The role starts with enterprise problems, not product demos, and applies emerging or mature technology where it can unlock measurable business value.

Job Responsibilities

• R&D Solution Design and Delivery
  • Start with enterprise problems and work backward to technology solutions
  • Lead the design and development of prototypes, proofs-of-concept, and pilot solutions
  • Build full-stack prototypes independently when needed
  • Translate research objectives into scalable technical architectures and implementation approaches
  • Design with scalability, supportability, and integration patterns in mind
  • Ensure solutions are technically sound, secure, and aligned with enterprise architecture
• Technology Evaluation and Innovation Pipeline Support
  • Identify high-impact problems and make the case for R&D investment
  • Evaluate emerging technologies for business applicability and integration potential
  • Evaluate mature technologies applied in new ways, not only emerging tools
  • Lead build-vs-buy analysis, vendor assessments, and platform evaluations
  • Contribute to shaping the R&D pipeline and prioritization of opportunities
  • Align technical exploration to enterprise strategy and innovation objectives
• Experimentation and Technology Validation
  • Decompose ambiguous business challenges into data questions, technology hypotheses, and prototype plans
  • Define experiment design, success criteria, and evaluation frameworks
  • Lead technical validation of emerging technologies, identifying strengths, risks, and limitations
  • Synthesize findings into clear recommendations on whether to advance, pivot, or discontinue initiatives
• AI, Data, and Platform Enablement
  • Use AI-assisted development tools as a natural part of daily engineering workflow
  • Embed AI/ML capabilities into prototypes and pilot solutions where appropriate
  • Support outcome measurement and production handoff planning for successful pilots
• Pilot Deployment and Transition to Production
  • Engage compliance, risk, legal, and information security early in solution development
  • Lead the transition of successful prototypes into pilot implementations
  • Partner with engineering, product, and platform teams to support scaling into production environments
  • Ensure alignment with governance, compliance, and operational requirements
• Technical Leadership and Mentorship
  • Provide technical leadership across R&D initiatives, guiding design and development decisions
  • Set technical direction and create effective code review practices
  • Mentor and coach Engineers to enhance technical capability, execution quality, independent problem-solving, and sound technical judgment
  • Mentor across experience levels and working styles, including asynchronous collaboration
  • Establish best practices for experimentation, rapid prototyping, and iterative development
• Stakeholder Communication and Enablement
  • Communicate technical findings, insights, and tradeoffs to both technical and business stakeholders
  • Explain technology decisions through business outcomes, risks, and tradeoffs
  • Support decision-making by translating complex concepts into actionable recommendations

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent combination of education and/or related professional work experience
• 7 years of experience in software engineering, product development, or emerging technology roles
• Demonstrated experience developing prototypes, proofs-of-concept, pilot solutions, or production-ready capabilities
• Hands-on full-stack development experience sufficient to build working prototypes independently, including modern frontend frameworks, backend development, REST or GraphQL APIs, and relational and non-relational databases
• Strong experience with modern development frameworks, cloud platforms, system architecture, Git, CI/CD concepts, and collaborative development workflows
• Strong familiarity with the Microsoft technology ecosystem, including Azure cloud services, Azure AI, Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Fabric, Power Platform, and related tooling
• Experience assessing Microsoft-native solutions, external alternatives, vendor offerings, build-vs-buy options, platform evaluations, or technology strategy work against business and technical requirements
• Familiarity with AI/ML, automation, data-driven systems, and AI-assisted development tools for code generation, pair programming, testing, debugging, and technical analysis
• Direct experience working with data across multiple enterprise systems
• Experience operating in regulated environments preferred, with strong awareness of privacy, model governance, AI ethics, compliance, risk, auditability, and data governance expectations
• Proven ability to work across technical and business teams to deliver outcomes, support operational handoff, and partner with engineering, product, or platform teams
• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers, researchers, or early-career technologists through code reviews, design discussions, and technical coaching
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical insights, decisions, risks, and tradeoffs into business value
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills
• Strong problem-first thinking, curiosity, self-direction, and comfort with ambiguity
• Preferred: exposure to graph databases, knowledge graphs, network analysis, applied analytics, open-source contributions, technical writing, or innovation-focused team environments

Requirements

• At this time, we're not considering applicants that need any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but is not limited to: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc.

Benefits

• Base Salary Range: $125,100.00 - $187,700.00
• Medical, dental, vision, employee assistance program, life insurance, disability plans, parental leave, paid time off, 401k, and tuition reimbursement
• Flexible workplace that allows for work-life balance, career growth, and retirement assistance
• Annual incentive (bonus) plan eligibility
• Investment in technology and tools for hybrid working