Lead Backend Engineer

Software Guidance & Assistance, Inc., (SGA), is searching for a Lead Backend Engineer for a CONTRACT assignment with one of our premier Regulatory clients. This position is fully remote.
You will lead backend engineering for a platform helping financial analysts monitor U.S. market integrity, built on one of the largest financial regulatory datasets in the cloud. You will guide technical approach of the team, remove engineering impediments, mentor engineers, and drive delivery across the full project lifecycle - bridging hands-on engineering with technical leadership.
Responsibilities :
Big Data Engineering & Technical Leadership

• Lead design, development, and delivery of solutions using distributed microservices and big data technologies (Hive, Presto, Spark, Hadoop) on AWS
• Serve as the technical authority for big data performance - diagnosing bottlenecks and guiding the team on complex system-level issues at scale.

Project Leadership & Impediment Resolution

• Own end-to-end project delivery and proactively remove engineering impediments - technical, process-related, or cross-team.
• Translate business requirements into clear technical road maps and actionable work for the engineering team.

Team Mentorship & Engineering Excellence

• Mentor engineers through code reviews, constructive feedback, and enforcement of engineering best practices.
• Partner with product, architecture, QA, and DevOps to deliver scalable solutions.

AI-Assisted Development

• Champion adoption of AI tools (Kiro or similar) across the team throughout the full SDLC, setting the standard for responsible use: you do not merge what you cannot explain.

Required Skills :

• 5+ years with Hadoop, Spark, or Presto - internals, performance tuning, and optimization
• Proven experience with AWS EMR (Hive/Presto), ECS, Lambda, and S3 at scale
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership.
• 3+ years in Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, or SQL; 2+ years building REST/web services.
• Proven record leading end-to-end project delivery and resolving team impediments.
• Experience mentoring engineers and elevating team-wide engineering standards.
• Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, CloudFormation) and scripting (Unix Shell or Python)
• Hands-on experience with LLM-based coding tools (Kiro, GitHub Copilot, or similar) across the full SDLC, with the ability to lead the team in responsible AI-assisted development.

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SGA is a technology and resource solutions provider driven to stand out. We are a women-owned business. Our mission: to solve big IT problems with a more personal, boutique approach. Each year, we match consultants like you to more than 1,000 engagements. When we say let's work better together, we mean it. You'll join a diverse team built on these core values: customer service, employee development, and quality and integrity in everything we do. Be yourself, love what you do and find your passion at work. Please find us at .
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