Senior Technology Lead

Real Chemistry•Chicago, MA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Real Chemistry is seeking an AI-Forward Technical Lead for ROOM42, 21GRAMS' in-house production company, content studio, and Digital & Technology services arm. This role requires a blend of coding, design protection, and AI tooling orchestration to efficiently deliver marketing websites, microsites, interactive apps, and digital tools for healthcare and pharma clients. The ideal candidate has mastered the traditional web development lifecycle and is actively transforming it using AI at every stage. This is a hybrid role, open to candidates in our US offices or remote within the US.

Requirements

7+ years of hands-on development experience, with at least 3 years in a technical lead, staff engineer, or architect role.
Demonstrable full-stack proficiency; ability to build, review, and unblock at every layer.
A genuine design eye with UX/UI depth: able to evaluate user flows and interaction patterns for experience quality, read a Figma file for intent, catch UX and visual implementation drift, and make confident decisions at the design-code boundary without designer supervision.
Technical delivery experience: owned milestone tracking, risk communication, and deployment readiness across concurrent projects.
Demonstrated accountability for quality outcomes: owned defect triage, post-launch quality reviews, and upstream process improvements.
Active, daily practitioner of AI code generation tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor AI, Claude Code) and able to define team-wide workflows around them.
Hands-on experience with Figma MCP server or comparable design-to-code AI tooling; familiar with design token standards and component handoff patterns.
QA automation experience: visual regression, accessibility automation, or AI-assisted test generation in a production environment.

Nice To Haves

Adaptable, resilient, and OK with adjusting scope, responsibilities, and focus as the company grows.
Proactive, driven, and resourceful with strong prioritization skills and a desire to dive into the data.
Highly organized self-starter, able to work independently and under tight deadlines.

Responsibilities

Build and Architect: Own end-to-end technical execution for ROOM42 deliverables, including websites, microsites, interactive apps, conference kiosk and panel experiences, and real-world evidence platforms.
Write and review production-quality code across the full stack, aiming for at least 50% direct hands-on contribution.
Architect solutions balancing speed-to-market with long-term maintainability, security, and accessibility compliance.
Lead technical solutioning on new engagements, translating UX wireframes and creative briefs into clearly scoped, achievable builds.
DevOps and Delivery Infrastructure: Own Git workflows, branching strategy, and code review standards.
Maintain CI/CD pipelines for primary hosting environments (WP Engine, Pantheon, Acquia, Netlify/Vercel for JAMstack).
Manage staging, UAT, and production environment configurations and access.
Identify and implement automation opportunities across the DevOps lifecycle.
AI-Augmented Design-to-Code Pipeline: Operate Figma MCP server integration to accelerate design handoff.
Leverage AI code generation tools (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor AI) as daily build accelerators.
Define and document ROOM42's AI-augmented build workflows.
Stay ahead of emerging agentic tooling and evaluate adoption for delivery leverage.
QA and Test Automation: Implement AI-assisted QA automation, including visual regression testing, accessibility scanning, and functional testing.
Establish a QA automation baseline for repeatable deliverable types.
Triage technical defects, classify root cause, assign or resolve remediation, and verify fix integrity.
Standards, Mentorship, and Team Health: Define and maintain ROOM42's technical standards.
Conduct code reviews for all ROOM42 developers and use them as teaching moments.
Partner with RC's VP of Technology on standards alignment, tooling strategy, and team architecture.
Lead technical onboarding for new ROOM42 hires.
Serve as primary technical escalation point for blockers threatening delivery.
Technical Delivery: Partner with Producers and TDMs on SOW scoping and technical estimates.
Own the technical delivery lifecycle from kickoff through post-launch.
Maintain a live view of technical progress and proactively flag risks.
Drive milestone gates, ensuring readiness for development to QA, UAT, and production.
Manage technical dependencies across concurrent projects.
Own technical documentation throughout each engagement.
Participate in client-facing conversations where technical credibility matters.
Quality Outcomes: Define 'done' for every deliverable type, ensuring performance, accessibility, security, and visual fidelity.
Own quality accountability end-to-end, including root cause analysis and remediation of defects.
Work with QA lead to establish and maintain a ROOM42 quality checklist.
Review developer output for code correctness and UX implementation fidelity.
Lead post-launch quality reviews and translate findings into upstream process improvements.
Champion performance as a quality dimension.
Maintain zero tolerance for preventable defects reaching client UAT.
Design Eye, UX/UI Partnership, and Creative Collaboration: Speak UX fluently and contribute to UX decisions.
Evaluate wireframes and prototypes for user experience quality and technical feasibility.
Read a Figma file for design intent and protect that intent through build decisions.
Catch UX and visual implementation drift before QA.
Participate actively in UX and design reviews as a technical partner.
Understand foundational UX/UI principles to make confident decisions.
Bridge the gap between design and engineering vocabulary.
Constructively push back when a spec is technically infeasible and offer alternatives.
Appreciate the importance of experience quality in healthcare and pharma.