Engineering Lead

Celerity Consulting Group, LLC•Walnut Creek, CA

3d•$170,000 - $190,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Celerity is seeking an Engineering Lead to build and run the engineering capability of its Business Integration Services (BIS) practice. This is a founding role for the Engineering pillar, requiring a hands-on technical leader who will also manage and develop Junior Developers. The Engineering Lead will define engineering practices, team structure, quality standards, and integration with other functions. The ideal candidate has prior experience leading small engineering teams in consulting or professional services and is excited by the opportunity to build a function from the ground up. This role demands strong operational leadership, industry knowledge, and technical fluency to drive results in complex client environments.

Requirements

Minimum of 10 years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a lead, principal, or staff engineer role carrying technical ownership of a product, platform, or delivery engagement.
Demonstrated experience managing or mentoring junior engineers — comfortable with performance feedback, technical coaching, and career development conversations.
Proven delivery experience in consulting, professional services, or client-facing environment — understands the difference between building internal products and delivering to external clients with commercial accountability.
Strong hands-on proficiency in at least two of: enterprise integration platforms (MuleSoft, Boomi, Azure Integration Services, AWS), cloud-native development (Azure, AWS, GCP), API design and management, microservices architecture, or digital transformation platforms.
Experience leading technical scoping, estimation, and solution design in a pre-sales or project delivery context.
Demonstrated ability to translate architectural designs into engineering execution — works fluently with architects without requiring over-specification.
Strong communication skills — can explain technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders, write clear documentation, and represent engineering credibly in client-facing settings.
Proven track record as a people manager — comfortable owning performance reviews, difficult conversations, retention risk, and career development for experienced individual contributors.
Experience working with Agile and Waterfall methodologies in SaaS companies or with system integrators.
Demonstrated ability to build trust with experienced peers and direct reports who have strong professional identities and do not require or respond well to directive management styles.
Comfort operating in a high-growth, structurally evolving environment where processes are being built while delivery is ongoing.
Strong understanding of utility operations, asset management, and regulatory compliance.
Ability to travel domestically and(or) internationally if required.

Nice To Haves

Experience building or scaling an engineering function from early-stage — has defined standards, selected tooling, or stood up a team with minimal existing infrastructure.
Familiarity with enterprise integration patterns: event-driven architecture, ETL pipelines, middleware orchestration, API gateway design, and data synchronization across heterogeneous systems.
Exposure to digital transformation delivery contexts: ERP implementations, CRM integrations, digital workplace tooling, or cloud migration programs.
Experience working alongside business analysts and solution architects in integrated delivery teams — understands how to receive and refine BA outputs and align to SA constraints.
Prior experience with technology partner ecosystems (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP, ServiceNow, MuleSoft) — holds or has held partner-level technical credentials.
Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, CI/CD pipeline design, and infrastructure-as-code in a consulting delivery context.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate or Professional, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, or similar certifications.
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer, ServiceNow Certified Application Developer, SAP Certified Development Associate or similar certifications.

Responsibilities

Lead the engineering delivery function across all active client engagements, ensuring technical quality, architectural alignment, and delivery commitments are met.
Serve as the senior technical authority on the engineering pillar — accountable for code quality, technical standards, tooling choices, and engineering methodology across the team.
Contribute hands-on to client engagements, particularly in the early months as the Junior Developer team is being onboard and ramped to delivery readiness.
Partner with the Solution Architecture pillar to translate architectural designs into engineering execution plans — bridging the gap between what should be built and how it gets built.
Review and approve technical deliverables produced by Junior Developers before they are presented to clients or integrated into production environments.
Lead technical scoping sessions with clients and partners, translating business requirements into engineering estimates, sprint plans, and delivery roadmaps.
Own the engineering section of client-facing documentation: technical specifications, integration designs, deployment guides, and post-implementation handover materials.
Directly manage Junior Developers — own their performance reviews, career development plans, day-to-day workload, and professional growth within the practice.
Build a structured onboarding program for all Junior Developer hires, ensuring they reach delivery readiness within 60-90 days and are integrated into the practice culture.
Provide daily technical mentorship and coaching to Junior Developers — code reviews, pair programming sessions, architecture walkthroughs, and real-time feedback on client deliverables.
Set clear, measurable performance expectations for Junior Developers tied to technical milestones, delivery quality, and professional conduct standards.
Identify development gaps early and build targeted learning plans — whether through internal mentorship, external training, certification programs, or stretch assignments on active engagements.
Create a psychologically safe team environment where Junior Developers are encouraged to ask questions, surface technical risks, and grow without fear of punitive judgment for early-career mistakes.
Plan for team growth — as the practice expands, the Engineering Lead will define when the team needs a mid-level engineer, what the role should look like, and how to build a sustainable engineering career ladder within the practice.
Define and maintain the engineering methodology for the BIS practice: coding standards, version control practices, code review processes, testing frameworks, deployment protocols, and documentation standards.
Establish the technology stack and tooling used across client engagements — making deliberate, defensible choices about languages, frameworks, integration platforms, and development environments.
Build reusable engineering assets — accelerators, templates, boilerplate components, and integration patterns — that reduce delivery time on future engagements and demonstrate the practice's technical maturity to clients.
Own engineering quality assurance: define what 'done' looks like for engineering deliverables, implement QA checkpoints in the delivery process, and ensure Junior Developer output meets the bar before it reaches clients.
Stay current on emerging technologies relevant to the practice's focus areas — enterprise integration, digital transformation platforms, cloud-native architectures, API ecosystems — and bring relevant innovations into the practice's capability set.
Represent the engineering pillar in conversations with technology partners and vendors, including technical solutioning, platform capability discussions, and proof-of-concept evaluations.
Build and maintain technical relationships with key vendor engineering teams — ensuring the practice has access to sandbox environments, technical support, early release programs, and partner-level technical resources.
Evaluate new technology platforms and vendor capabilities against the practice's client needs — providing leadership with clear technical recommendations on which partnerships to invest in and why.
Lead technical demos and proof-of-concept builds for clients and partners, showcasing the engineering team's capability and the practice's ability to deliver on complex integration challenges.
Participate in the weekly delivery coordination sync with the leads — providing engineering status updates, flagging technical risks, and aligning on resource deployment across active engagements.
Collaborate on requirements translation — ensuring business requirements are technically feasible before commitments are made to clients.
Contribute to the practice's go-to-market positioning — helping to articulate the engineering capability in proposals, capability statements, and client presentations.
Support preparing engineering-related content for leadership reporting, practice reviews, and project/partner related updates.