Lead Software Engineer (Merchandise)

A Lead Software Engineer (LSE) is recognized as an expert in their strategic functional area and uses a systematic application of advanced technical knowledge to deliver software solutions using modern day technology stacks. The LSE leads large complex projects consisting of on-shore and off-shore resources, uses strong organizational and leadership skills to set and maintain efficient development progress, and defines all software components for large-scale systems with minimal oversight.

Duties & Responsibilities: 

· Designs changes to new and existing applications (35%)

· Develops and debugs software in support of new and existing applications (30%)

· Project leadership, cost estimation and task planning (20%)

· Mentors/coaches junior team members (10%)

· Provides support for production applications (24x7) (5%)

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs):

· Collaborate with decision makers, external vendors, and stakeholders to define complex business requirements.

· Demonstrate ability to communicate complex technical information in a condensed manner both verbally and in writing.

· Take initiative to contact stakeholders and research solutions when problems are encountered.

· Understanding of complex Retail and Technology concepts.

· Recognized expert in one strategic domain with advanced knowledge in at least one additional domain.

· Generate commitment and enthusiasm from others to set and achieve challenging goals and objectives.

· Experience leading teams and demonstrates a mastery in all aspects of software development activities.

· Assist in career development, staff mentoring and succession planning for engineers.

· Understand and implement architectural vision for performance, extensibility, and availability.

· Lead scope of work estimation, cost estimates, task planning, forecasting, scheduling, and staff requirements definitions.

· Lead complex technology initiatives including those that are companywide with broad impact.

· Conduct research and make recommendations on products, services, protocols, and standards in support of procurement and development efforts.

· Educate teams on technology changes applicable to their domain and how to apply them to their business area.

· Act as a key participant in developing standards and companywide best practices for engineering.

· Assign tasks to both on-shore and off-shore team members to leverage strengths or enhance knowledge.

Work Experience &/or Education:

· Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field, trade school or equivalent work experience

· Ability to lead the design and integration of AI and LLM based solutions (agents, RAG, automation) within application architectures.

· Experience providing technical guidance on prompt design, model integration, and AI governance best practices.

· Experience modernizing legacy applications to cloud-native or microservices architectures

· Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

· Extensive experience with CI/CD pipelines, telemetry/monitoring, and Kubernetes-based deployments

· Proficiency with source control, build and quality tools such as GitLab

· 7+ years of software development experience in an enterprise IT environment

· 5+ years of experience with a higher-level language (C, Java, Python)

· 5+ years of experience as a full stack Java developer

· 3+ years of hands-on development using PL/SQL, shell scripting

· 2+ years of experience with real time streaming platform (Kafka)

· 2+ years delivering software supporting Merchandising or retail-related applications