Lead Software Engineer (LMTS), Foundations

Qualified•San Francisco, CA

2d•$148,500 - $246,000

About The Position

Join our Foundations team at Qualified as a Senior Software Engineer and play a pivotal role in developing the infrastructure and critical systems that form the backbone of our operations. Our team is responsible for accelerating the delivery of value to our customers by building highly scalable cloud infrastructure, robust CI/CD pipelines, advanced monitoring and observability, and top-tier engineering tools. Your goal will be to increase deployment velocity and confidence, raise our quality bar, and ensure our systems are capable of supporting complex, real-time interactions with our customers. This is a technical role with high impact where you will work on high-value technologies at the intersection of distributed systems, orchestration, and public cloud platforms. You will drive the evolution of our engineering practices, refine our architecture, and establish best practices across the organization. Beyond code, you will collaborate with cross-functional partners to design, build, test, and own the infrastructure that empowers our product engineering teams. Earning customer trust is paramount; therefore, you will focus heavily on reliability, scalability, observability, and maintainability to deliver business-critical solutions that directly contribute to our customers' success.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in professional software development with a strong emphasis on backend systems, cloud platforms, and infrastructure.
Proficiency in programming languages such as Go, Python, Typescript, or Ruby.
Deep experience architecting secure solutions on cloud-based infrastructure (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure).
Proven experience in automated provisioning using tools like Terraform, CDK, CloudFormation, or Pulumi.
Experience with automated deployments using container orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes, AWS ECS, or Docker.
Strong hands-on experience with monitoring and logging tools such as DataDog, Prometheus, Grafana, or ELK.
Familiarity with SQL, RDBMS (PostgreSQL preferred), and data warehousing solutions (e.g., ClickHouse)
Proficiency in AI-assisted software development (e.g., Claude, Cursor, etc.); you are capable of leveraging these tools to significantly accelerate your output from day one.
B.S. or Master’s degree in Computer Science, or equivalent work experience.

Responsibilities

Architect & Build: Lead the design and implementation of secure, fault-tolerant, and highly available cloud infrastructure on public cloud services.
System Optimization: Continuously improve system performance, identify bottlenecks, and deploy optimizations for smooth operation at scale for highly-trafficked services.
CI/CD Evolution: Lead the evolution of our Continuous Integration and Deployment pipelines in a multi-service environment, reducing complexity and increasing resilience.
Infrastructure Management: Plan and execute timely infrastructure upgrades and changes using infrastructure-as-code to enable faster execution, improved scale, and increased cost efficiency.
Observability: Leverage tools like DataDog, Sentry, and others to monitor system infrastructure, configure alerts for anomalies, and proactively ensure system health.
Documentation & Standards: Define, promote, and maintain runbooks, operating procedures, and system architecture diagrams. Uphold high standards of quality through rigorous testing and code reviews.
Mentorship: Act as a force multiplier by providing technical guidance, mentoring other engineers, and fostering a culture of engineering excellence.
Agility: Embrace a culture of flexibility and efficiency, moving fast to capture opportunities while wearing multiple hats in a startup environment