Lead Software Engineer

Emerald

6h•Remote

About The Position

Emerald is seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer with strong development expertise, architectural leadership, and a passion for AI-enabled engineering to lead a team building Enterprise B2B solutions. This role is critical to driving high technical standards, shaping scalable system architectures, and accelerating delivery through modern development practices and responsible AI adoption. You will balance people leadership with technical ownership, setting clear expectations for code quality, design, and operational excellence. In partnership with product and platform teams, you will guide architecture decisions, modernize legacy systems, and champion the effective use of AI tools and patterns to improve developer productivity, code quality, and time-to-value.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in development, with at least 3 years in a leadership role
Proven ability to lead engineering teams in an Enterprise SaaS environment
Strong expertise in React, Node.js, and modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks
Ability to work independently and organize tasks and priorities
Deep understanding of software engineering principles: SOLID, DRY, KISS, separation of concerns, Domain-driven design (DDD) concepts
Proven experience designing and implementing scalable system architectures in Enterprise SaaS environments
Demonstrated knowledge of development and architectural patterns, such as: Component-based architectures, Event-driven systems, API-first and contract-driven development
Experience leading legacy modernization efforts, including migrations to modern stacks and frameworks
Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines, deployment strategies, and release automation
Strong knowledge of testing strategies (unit, integration, end-to-end, contract testing)
Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures
Familiarity with AWS architecture patterns (networking, security, scaling)
Experience building or maintaining design systems and shared component libraries

Responsibilities

Set and uphold quality standards for the team, including coding standards, architectural guidelines, testing expectations, and operational best practices
Provide technical and architectural leadership, guiding system design, component boundaries, integration strategies, and long-term platform evolution
Drive adoption of software design and architectural patterns, such as component-based architectures, event-driven systems, API-first design, and contract-driven development
Establish and evolve development workflows and quality gates, including code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and release readiness criteria
Lead AI adoption within the engineering organization, including: Identifying opportunities to leverage AI for code generation, testing, refactoring, and documentation; Encouraging responsible and effective use of AI tools to improve developer productivity and quality; Partnering with leadership to align AI usage with security, compliance, and engineering standards
Mentor and develop engineers in system design, problem decomposition, and modern development practices
Remain hands-on when appropriate, contributing to design reviews, complex implementations, and legacy refactoring efforts
Lead legacy modernization initiatives, balancing technical debt reduction with feature delivery and business needs
Collaborate closely with Product, Design, DevOps, and other stakeholders to ensure architectural decisions support scalability, reliability, and business outcomes

Benefits

unlimited vacation for exempt employees
flexible working locations
401(k) plan with a company match
medical/dental/vision coverage with inclusive provisions including transgender services and fertility benefits
parental and caregiver leave
dependent, commuter and FSA benefits
professional development programs like Toastmasters
mental wellness tools

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