About The Role:

We are looking for an architect-level Lead Engineer to own our custom internal tools initiative. You will lead a lean, AI-augmented team to design, build, and operate internal software that replaces major enterprise SaaS platforms. This role combines strong backend architecture and system design with hands-on delivery: you will define the technical blueprints, host and scale applications from scratch, and mentor new college graduates into productive engineers.

What You'll Do:

• Backend Architecture & System Design: Design scalable backend services, data models, and integration architectures for internal tools replacing complex SaaS platforms. Set and enforce architectural standards across the team.
• Understanding Use Cases: Work directly with stakeholders to understand business use cases deeply, translate ambiguous requirements into clear technical designs, and make pragmatic build-vs-buy and scope trade-offs.
• Hosting & Scaling from Scratch: Own the full lifecycle of internal applications — provisioning infrastructure, deploying, scaling, monitoring, and operating them in production.
• CI/CD Ownership: Build and maintain end-to-end CI/CD pipelines with automated testing, code scanning, and branch-protection guardrails — the definitive quality gate for all code, including AI-generated code.
• AI-Assisted Development: Use AI development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) to accelerate delivery, and establish team practices for reviewing, refactoring, and hardening AI-generated code.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Sales, Pre-Sales, Project Management, and other internal teams to prioritize work, gather feedback, and iterate quickly.
• Technical Mentorship: Guide new college graduates and junior engineers on architectural first principles, code quality, security, and effective AI-assisted development.

What You Bring:

• 7+ years building production-grade, full-stack applications (e.g., Python, Node.js, Go, React, relational and vector databases).
• Strong backend architecture and system design skills — proven ability to design distributed systems and critically evaluate, refactor, and modularize sub-optimal code, including LLM-generated code.
• Core knowledge of Kubernetes, Docker, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP), and distributed systems; experience running multi-service containerized environments in production.
• Demonstrated experience hosting and scaling internal applications from scratch, including building CI/CD pipelines end to end (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins).
• Adept with AI development tools and agentic coding workflows; hands-on experience using them to ship real products.
• Working knowledge of secure SDLC practices: automated static/dynamic code scanning, secret detection, and OWASP Top 10 awareness built into the pipeline.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills; able to work directly with non-engineering stakeholders and turn use cases into shipped software.
• Track record of mentoring junior engineers.