Software Developer Lead

City of Charlotte•Charlotte, NC

About The Position

The Lead Software Developer (Full Stack) serves as the technical person for the design, development, integration, and optimization of enterprise and operational systems supporting transit operations. This role leads full lifecycle software development across customer-facing, operational, and back-office platforms while ensuring seamless integration with core transit technologies including scheduling, dispatch, real-time operations, and public data services. The position requires deep expertise in modern web and application development, relational databases (SQL Server and Oracle), and transit industry systems such as Giro Hastus, Vontas OnRoute, and GTFS-based data feeds. The Lead Developer will guide technical strategy, mentor development staff, and ensure all applications meet performance, security, and regulatory requirements and other work as needed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or related field
Minimum of 8 - 10 years of professional software development experience.
Demonstrated experience in enterprise application development.
Experience working with public sector and transportation systems preferred.
Full Stack Development: Front-End: JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Angular, or Vue Back-End: .NET, Python, C#, etc.
Web Services: REST, SOAP, JSON, XML
Advanced SQL development
Oracle Database Administration and Optimization
Data warehousing and ETL processes
DevOps & Infrastructure: CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.) Docker/Kubernetes (preferred) Cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP preferred)
Security: OAuth2, SSO, encryption standards Secure API design Compliance frameworks
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Excellent verbal and written communication abilities.
Ability to translate business needs into technical solutions.
Strong leadership and collaboration skills.
High level of professionalism and public service orientation.

Nice To Haves

Advanced Power Bi Skills
Advanced Tableau Skills

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture Serve as the technical lead and primary developer for the organization's full-stack application ecosystem.
Design scalable, secure, and resilient application architectures supporting operations, planning, maintenance, and customer information systems.
Establish and enforce coding standards, documentation practices, and software development governance.
Lead system modernization, legacy system refactoring, and cloud migration initiatives.
Evaluate and recommend new technologies, frameworks, and development tools.
Full Stack Application Development Lead the development of web-based, mobile, and enterprise applications using modern front-end and back-end frameworks.
Develop RESTful and event-driven APIs to support system integrations.
Implement responsive user interfaces optimized for operational and field staff.
Oversee application performance tuning, testing, and deployment pipelines.
Manage version control, CI/CD pipelines, and release management.
Database & Data Management Design, develop, and optimize relational databases using SQL Server and Oracle.
Create and maintain complex queries, stored procedures, views, and ETL processes.
Ensure data integrity, availability, security, and regulatory compliance.
Support enterprise reporting, analytics, and real-time operational dashboards.
Lead database performance monitoring and capacity planning.
Transit Systems Integration Design and maintain integrations with core transit systems, including but not limited to: Giro Hastus (Scheduling, Run Cutting, Rostering) Vontas OnRoute (CAD/AVL, Real-Time Operations) GTFS and GTFS-Realtime feeds
Develop and manage data pipelines for trip planning, vehicle tracking, and customer information systems.
Support interoperability between planning, dispatch, fare, maintenance, and customer platforms.
Ensure real-time data accuracy and service reliability.
Project & Portfolio Management Support Lead development efforts across a diverse portfolio of operational and administrative applications.
Participate in requirements gathering, system analysis, and technical design.
Collaborate with project managers, operations staff, and external vendors.
Provide technical estimates, schedules, and risk assessments.
Support vendor system integrations and third-party software implementations.
Team Leadership & Mentorship Lead, mentor, and coach software developers and analysts.
Conduct code reviews and technical assessments.
Support workforce development and technical training.
Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
As part of your responsibility to support the CATS Safety Culture, report safety concerns and issues through the various methods established by CATS as outlined in the ASP.