Lead Software Engineer

About the role

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