Lead Developer

Role & Responsibilities

Contributes to the technical vision for an engineering team, aligning with company-wide strategies and goals.

Contributes to the design and development of robust, scalable, and user-friendly web applications.

Create innovative solutions using the latest technologies and tools for front end development and backend development.

Collaborate with product managers, designers, and engineers to define product direction and to deliver complex applications.

Conduct thorough code reviews and provide constructive feedback to ensure high-quality code.

Mentor and guide junior engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Troubleshoot and debug complex issues in production environments, working closely with customer support and operations teams to ensure timely resolution and minimal disruption to business operations

Principal Software Engineer

Opportunity in this role / Why should you join here?

You will enjoy working with us if you are looking to work in a stimulating, flexible, open environment. You will experience ownership and independence at the same time providing technical solutions that work.

You will be part of the madness and thrill of growing the business from scratch. You get to make decisions, fail fast and learn fast. You get to contribute, add value to the organization by thinking like an entrepreneur. You are supported by the best talent in the industry and work with creative teams. You are rewarded as you go on proving yourself.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering/Computer Science or related field
• At least 6+ years of experience with at least 4 years of software application design experience
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• A full stack generalist with experience in both front-end and back-end technologies
• Proven experience in high-level programming languages, like Java and Development of scalable Web Applications and Web Services
• Experience in JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, NodeJS
• Passion for delivering products end-to-end, from ideation to implementation
• Proven experience building complex web applications and micro services
• Strong experience with Spring Boot stack (spring cloud, spring-data)
• Extensive experience in developing and consuming REST APIs
• Experience in PHP is a plus advantage

Responsibilities:

• Participate in design reviews and recommend improvements
• Provide technical guidance in software design and development activities
• Recommend new technologies to ensure quality and improve productivity
• Support in all phases of SDLC and ensure delivery of high-quality products
• Analyse business requirements and design/develop most effective technical solution
• Analyse and troubleshoot application issues in a timely fashion
• Work with other engineers in planning, prioritising and executing assigned tasks within deadlines

x• Work with QA team in preparing test cases and assist in automation

• Mentor other Engineers as and when required
• Assist in maintenances and upgrades of existing software applications
• Assist in risk assessment and mitigation activities.
• Assist in technical audits and make sure to implement audit recommendations.

As an IT Technical Lead, you will play a crucial role in managing and leading a team of IT professionals. You will be responsible for providing technical guidance, overseeing project execution, and ensuring the successful delivery of IT solutions. Your expertise will be instrumental in driving innovation, implementing best practices, and maintaining a high level of technical excellence within the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

Team Leadership: Lead a team of IT professionals, including developers, engineers, and support staff. Provide guidance, mentorship, and technical expertise to ensure team members' growth and success. Foster a collaborative and positive work environment.

Technical Strategy and Planning: Develop and implement a strategic technical roadmap aligned with the organization's goals and objectives. Stay up to date with emerging technologies and trends, and assess their applicability to the organization's IT infrastructure. Make recommendations for technology adoption or enhancements.

Project Management: Oversee the execution of IT projects, including resource allocation, task assignments, and timelines. Collaborate with stakeholders to gather requirements, define project scope, and ensure successful project delivery. Monitor project progress, identify and mitigate risks, and resolve issues as they arise.

Technical Expertise: Serve as a subject matter expert in various IT domains, such as software development, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, and data management. Stay informed about industry best practices and provide guidance on technical standards, frameworks, and methodologies. Conduct research and evaluation of new technologies to support business objectives.

Collaboration and Communication: Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including business stakeholders, product managers, and other IT teams. Effectively communicate technical concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Foster strong relationships with external vendors and partners.

Troubleshooting and Issue Resolution: Assist in troubleshooting complex technical issues and provide guidance to team members in resolving them. Identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and develop preventive measures to avoid similar issues in the future. Ensure the timely resolution of critical incidents.

Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement initiatives within the IT department by identifying areas for optimization, streamlining processes, and implementing automation where applicable. Promote a culture of innovation, learning, and knowledge sharing within the team.

Qualifications and Requirements:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent work experience).

Proven experience in a technical leadership role, managing and leading a team of IT professionals.

Strong technical background in one or more IT domains, such as software development, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, or data management.

In-depth knowledge of industry best practices, emerging technologies, and trends.

Proficiency in project management methodologies and tools.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities.

Demonstrated ability to drive innovation, implement process improvements, and foster a culture of continuous learning.

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Work on a remote cross-functional team where you’ll play a critical role in designing, planning, development, deployment and observing your code in production.   
• Develop high performance, highly scalable and accessible web applications. Our web app is used by over 20 million educators, students and parents worldwide.  
• Meet tight deadlines in a rapid application development environment.  
• Collaborate with Product Management, Design, and Operations teams to create and deliver tested features to production.  
• Collaborate with specialists across web, mobile, and operations to achieve a better user experience for our product.  
• Be able to assess and bring in industry information into your decisions and learn new technologies: AWS is releasing new tools every day, there are new open source libraries to vet and you will be a party to helping us vet and pick the best tool for the job.  
• Be willing to work in any area of the codebase if needed, this can include JavaScript/TypeScript/Node, PHP, Java or other technologies.  
• Help staff, build, and form the culture around a team of 5 engineers, a product manager, designer, QAs and associated supporting roles.

Qualifications include:

• Strong CS fundamentals including familiarity with data structures and especially the asynchronous challenges that face JavaScript developers today.   
• Experience developing in at least 2 server side languages (PHP, node.js, …)  
• Experience developing in at least 1 client side JS framework (ReactJS, Angular, …)  
• Experience testing software in alignment with the Test Pyramid.  
• Experience with datastores, either SQL (MySQL preferred) or NoSQL, and the ability to talk deeply about them.  
• Able to identify the source of complex problems occurring as a result of multiple systems interacting (experience with observability tools such as datadog/newrelic is a plus).   
• Experience working on a team of 5 engineers plus supporting roles (e.g. QA, design, etc), preferably as a Senior Software Engineer.  
• Experience with code review, being able to sign-off on another team member’s code ensuring high quality standards.  
• Be self-sustained even when tackling the highest profile, most difficult work across the organization.  
• Willingness to accept responsibility and be accountable not only for your own work but the work of the team as a whole.  
• Experience working with other people’s code, how to dig into it and make tactical changes with minimal side effects.  
• A solid understanding of how to break down user stories and give estimates that include accessibility and security requirements.  
• Be able to see roadblocks far ahead, across many vectors of risk  
• Be a true team player! Ensuring their knowledge and expertise is shared amongst other team members and even cross-team and be willing to seek out opportunities to mentor teammates.  
• A commitment to learning about anything you don’t know on your own and without much supervision.  
• Superior communications, organization and relationship building skills — you’re going to be working on cross-team efforts, so this is essential.  
• Self-motivation as well as ability and desire to learn new technologies, applications, processes, and environments.  
• A belief that delivering code to production is just one step in the process. Observing and owning the code you wrote goes hand in hand with construction.  
• A desire to take on whatever challenge is most important. This could be tackling something you are familiar with, or it could require a deep dive into a whole new world. The key is having the right attitude.   

• Implementation of a robust set of services and APIs to power the web application
• Building reusable code and libraries for future use
• Optimization of the application for maximum speed and scalability
• Implementation of security and data protection
• Integration of the front-end and back-end aspects of the web application
• Design/Architect Application Architecture
• Design/Architect Database Design/Architecture
• Provide solutions for Optimizing Application & Database Performance.
• Interacting with clients and understanding their tech requirements, to implement them accurately as per needs.
• Coordinate with team for task management.
• Understanding of MVC Architecture
• Proficient knowledge of PHP and Laravel Framework
• Knowledge of advanced JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as AngularJS, ReactJS
• Understanding of fundamental design principles behind a scalable application
• Knowledge to implement automated testing platforms and unit tests
• Proficient understanding of code versioning tools (Git)