(1119604) Lead Software Engineer - Emerging Technologies

Diversified Services Network•Chicago, IL

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Diversified Services Network, Inc. (DSN) is seeking a full-time Lead Software Engineer in its Emerging Technology group. The role is based at the candidate’s choice of the Chicago, Illinois; Peoria, Illinois; Irving, Texas; or Broomfield, Colorado office and follows a hybrid work model. The Lead Software Engineer is a hands-on technical leader who designs, builds, pilots, and scales next-generation software solutions that apply emerging technologies to high-value business problems. The position combines deep software engineering expertise with practical innovation, turning exploratory concepts into secure, reliable, maintainable, production-ready capabilities. The role leads the architecture, design, development, and testing of modern software solutions, prototypes, pilots, and reusable platform capabilities. It evaluates and applies emerging technologies, translates business and product goals into technical plans, mentors engineers, collaborates with cross-functional stakeholders, establishes evaluation and production-readiness methods, and identifies technical risks and mitigation strategies.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field and 8+ years of software engineering experience, or 10+ years of equivalent experience without a degree.
Hands-on experience developing complex applications, distributed systems, APIs, platforms, or cloud-native services.
Proven leadership of technical work across the full software development lifecycle using a structured methodology, including requirements analysis, architecture, design, coding, testing, and deployment.
Strong proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, or Go.
Ability to convert business and market requirements into secure, scalable, observable, and maintainable software designs using modern architecture patterns, CI/CD, and DevOps practices.
Experience designing, developing, and maintaining software integrations and interfaces across platforms and third-party packages.
Ability to design, plan, and execute testing strategies that ensure product quality and adherence to requirements.
Working knowledge of cloud platforms, containerization, infrastructure automation, and production support practices.
Strong analytical, critical-thinking, and decision-making skills in ambiguous or rapidly evolving technical environments.
Ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly to engineering, product, architecture, security, and business audiences.

Nice To Haves

Experience building or integrating AI/ML, large language model (LLM), agentic, RAG, vector database, or prompt-based solutions.
Experience taking emerging technology concepts from proof of concept through pilot, production hardening, governance review, adoption, and operational support.
Familiarity with responsible AI practices, model evaluation, guardrails, data privacy, compliance, and enterprise risk management.
Experience with serverless architectures, Kubernetes, microservices, event-driven architecture, API management, observability platforms, and infrastructure-as-code.
Track record of identifying high-impact use cases and delivering measurable business outcomes.
Ability to influence technical direction without direct authority and establish reusable engineering standards, patterns, frameworks, or accelerators.
Advanced degree; cloud, AI/ML, or software architecture certification; or contributions to technical communities, open-source projects, patents, publications, or innovation initiatives.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture, design, development, and testing of modern software solutions, prototypes, pilots, and reusable platform capabilities.
Evaluate, prototype, and apply emerging technologies such as generative AI, agentic workflows, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), cloud-native services, APIs, automation, and data-driven application patterns.
Translate business opportunities, product goals, and technical requirements into scalable software designs, solution patterns, technical roadmaps, and implementation plans.
Mentor engineers, provide technical direction, facilitate design reviews, and promote experimentation, engineering excellence, and responsible technology adoption.
Partner with product managers, architects, data scientists, cybersecurity, infrastructure, UX, and business stakeholders to deliver solutions aligned with organizational goals and risk expectations.
Define and implement technical evaluation methods, including proof-of-concept success criteria, model and system performance measures, quality gates, automated testing, monitoring, and production-readiness reviews.
Identify technical risks, dependencies, integration needs, security considerations, and operational constraints early in the solution lifecycle and recommend practical mitigation strategies.