Lead Software Engineer (Python / Technical Lead)

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced and hands-on Lead Software Engineer to serve as the critical technical bridge between our Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) and our offshore development team. In this role, you will translate high-level architectural direction and product requirements into actionable, well-scoped work for offshore delivery while maintaining strict code quality, architectural compliance, and alignment with engineering standards.

This is a hands-on technical leadership position aligned with the software engineering team lead model. Approximately half of your time will be spent directly writing and contributing code, while the remainder will focus on technical ownership, delivery coordination, code reviews, and enabling the offshore development team.

Key Responsibilities & Core Focus Areas

1. Offshore Liaison & Technical Coordination

• Translate FDE-defined architectural decisions, designs, and product requirements into detailed technical specifications and user stories consumable by the offshore development team.

• Serve as the primary technical escalation point and blocker-removal agent for offshore developers.

• Bridge timezone gaps through asynchronous documentation, recorded walkthroughs, and participation in key sprint ceremonies (planning, daily standups, reviews).

• Coordinate closely with the FDE and Product Owners on priorities, scope changes, and technical direction.

2. Technical Ownership & Code Quality

• Own day-to-day technical decisions for your team's domain, including implementation approaches, refactoring, and production support strategies.

• Conduct comprehensive code reviews for all offshore-produced work, ensuring adherence to coding standards, constraints, and CI/CD pipeline requirements.

• Maintain contract-first API design standards (OpenAPI 3.0+ specs authored prior to implementation).

• Lead incident response, debugging, root cause analysis (RCA), and operational health oversight (monitoring, alerting, runbooks).

3. Delivery and Execution

• Ensure work items are meticulously captured in Jira with clear context, dependencies, acceptance criteria, and testing expectations.

• Help break down larger architectural components into realistic, executable engineering tasks.

• Enforce merge request workflows, branching strategies, and automated quality gates (linting, static analysis, unit/integration test coverage).

Required Technical Expertise

• Backend Development:

  • Deep expertise in Python (FastAPI, Flask, async patterns, dependency injection, and Pydantic validation).

  • Experience with package distribution via internal PyPI (JFrog Artifactory).

  • Node.js service development and microservice architecture (Domain-Driven Design, bounded contexts).

• API Design & Integration:

  • REST API design (contract-first OpenAPI 3.0+, URL path versioning, JSON/camelCase).

  • Three-tier error classification, async job handling (202 Accepted + polling), idempotency key implementations, and OAuth 2.0 client credentials flows.

• Databases:

  • PostgreSQL (schema design, query optimization, Alembic migrations, CDC replication setup).

  • Working knowledge of Oracle and SQL Server query compatibility.

• Infrastructure & CI/CD:

  • GitLab CI/CD pipeline design, Docker containerization, Kubernetes (OpenShift/RKE2), Helm charts, and RHEL administration.

• Observability & Testing:

  • Datadog APM, distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry, correlation IDs), structured JSON logging.

  • Robust unit and integration testing frameworks ( pytest , Jest ) enforcing strict code coverage thresholds.

Required Soft Skills & Leadership Experience

• Technical Leadership Without Authority: Proven ability to drive engineering standards and mentor developers through technical influence and clear reasoning.

• Async & Cross-Cultural Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills tailored for guiding distributed, multi-timezone offshore teams.

• Problem-Solving & Conflict Mediation: Adept at managing competing technical priorities and mediating discussions between high-level architectural direction and ground-level execution realities.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional backend software development experience.

• 3+ years leading or coordinating distributed and offshore development teams.

• Experience with Domain-Driven Design (DDD) methodology and C4 architecture documentation.

• Prior exposure to network automation, telecom/ISP provisioning systems, or enterprise IPAM platforms.