Lead Application Engineer- Internal Tools & AI-Accelerated Development

Cerebras; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 2,400,000 - 4,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Cerebras Bengaluru is seeking an architect-level Lead Engineer to own our internal tools initiative. You will design, build, and operate AI-augmented software that replaces major enterprise SaaS platforms, blending backend architecture with hands-on delivery.

You will mentor graduates, scale applications from scratch, lead CI/CD, and guide the team in secure SDLC practices while collaborating with Sales and PM to translate use cases into shipped software.

Qualifications

• 7+ years building production-grade, full-stack applications.
• Strong backend architecture and system design skills.
• Experience hosting and scaling internal apps from scratch.
• Proficient in CI/CD pipelines and automated testing.
• Familiar with AI development tools and code review practices.

Responsibilities

• Design scalable backend services, data models, and integration architectures.
• Understand business use cases and translate requirements into technical designs.
• Own full lifecycle of internal applications from provisioning to production.
• Build and maintain end-to-end CI/CD pipelines with automated testing and security checks.
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate delivery and review AI-generated code.
• Collaborate with Sales, Pre-Sales, PM, and other teams to prioritize work.

Skills

Backend architecture

System design

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

AI development tools

CI/CD ownership

Security practices

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

AWS

GCP

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Jenkins

Job description

About The Role:

We are looking for an architect-level Lead Engineer to own our custom internal tools initiative. You will lead a lean, AI‑augmented team to design, build, and operate internal software that replaces major enterprise SaaS platforms. This role combines strong backend architecture and system design with hands‑on delivery: you will define the technical blueprints, host and scale applications from scratch, and mentor new college graduates into productive engineers.

What You’ll Do:

• Backend Architecture & System Design: Design scalable backend services, data models, and integration architectures for internal tools replacing complex SaaS platforms. Set and enforce architectural standards across the team.
• Understanding Use Cases: Work directly with stakeholders to understand business use cases deeply, translate ambiguous requirements into clear technical designs, and make pragmatic build‑vs‑buy and scope trade‑offs.
• Hosting & Scaling from Scratch: Own the full lifecycle of internal applications — provisioning infrastructure, deploying, scaling, monitoring, and operating them in production.
• CI/CD Ownership: Build and maintain end‑to‑end CI/CD pipelines with automated testing, code scanning, and branch‑protection guardrails — the definitive quality gate for all code, including AI‑generated code.
• AI‑Assisted Development: Use AI development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) to accelerate delivery, and establish team practices for reviewing, refactoring, and hardening AI‑generated code.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Partner with Sales, Pre‑Sales, Project Management, and other internal teams to prioritize work, gather feedback, and iterate quickly.
• Technical Mentorship: Guide new college graduates and junior engineers on architectural first principles, code quality, security, and effective AI‑assisted development.

What You Bring:

• 7+ years building production‑grade, full‑stack applications (e.g., Python, Node.js, Go, React, relational and vector databases).
• Strong backend architecture and system design skills — proven ability to design distributed systems and critically evaluate, refactor, and modularize sub‑optimal code, including LLM‑generated code.
• Core knowledge of Kubernetes, Docker, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP), and distributed systems; experience running multi‑service containerised environments in production.
• Demonstrated experience hosting and scaling internal applications from scratch, including building CI/CD pipelines end to end (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins).
• Adept with AI development tools and agentic coding workflows; hands‑on experience using them to ship real products.
• Working knowledge of secure SDLC practices: automated static/dynamic code scanning, secret detection, and OWASP Top 10 awareness built into the pipeline.
• Strong cross‑functional collaboration and communication skills; able to work directly with non‑engineering stakeholders and turn use cases into shipped software.
• Track record of mentoring junior engineers.