Software Development Engineer III

Cutshort Lightning; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 3,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Cutshort Lightning in Bengaluru is seeking a Software Development Engineer III (SDE-3) to join our engineering team. You’ll own critical features for applications serving 100K+ users and thrive in a small, high-impact team that values ownership and fast delivery.

We are technology agnostic and welcome Backend, Frontend, or Full Stack engineers. You’ll work across design, product, and engineering to build scalable, reliable software with AI-assisted development tools to accelerate delivery.

Qualifications

• 4–6 years of professional software development experience.
• Strong proficiency in at least one language such as Python, Go, JavaScript/TypeScript, or Ruby.
• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, OOP, and system design.
• Hands-on experience with production software serving large user bases.
• Experience building high-traffic, scalable apps with performance and reliability focus.
• Experience using APIs, databases, and scalable architectures.
• Ability to leverage AI coding assistants while maintaining code quality.
• Excellent problem-solving and ownership mindset.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, high-performance applications.
• Build production-ready software delivering strong user experiences.
• Take end-to-end ownership from design to deployment and support.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and Engineering to deliver features.
• Write clean, well-tested code following best practices.
• Leverage AI-assisted tools to boost speed, quality, and debugging.
• Contribute to architecture discussions balancing scale and simplicity.
• Troubleshoot production issues and improve system reliability.
• Participate in code reviews and knowledge sharing.

Skills

4–6 years experience

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Go

Data Structures & Algorithms

APIs

System Design

Ownership mindset

Job description

Location: Bengaluru (Work from Office - 6 Days a Week)

About the Role

We're looking for a Software Development Engineer III (SDE-3) to join our growing engineering team. We're seeking engineers who have previously built, scaled, or significantly contributed to applications serving 100K+ users. You'll be joining a small, high-impact team, so we're looking for engineers who thrive on ownership, move quickly, and enjoy solving challenging technical problems.

We are technology agnostic and value strong engineering fundamentals over expertise in any particular language or framework. Whether your background is Backend, Frontend, or Full Stack, we'd love to hear from you.

What You'll Do

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, reliable, and high-performance applications.
• Build robust, production-ready software that delivers exceptional user experiences.
• Take end-to-end ownership-from design and development to deployment and production support.
• Work closely with Product, Design, and Engineering to deliver impactful features.
• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code following engineering best practices.
• Leverage AI-assisted development tools (such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, ChatGPT, or similar) to improve development speed, code quality, debugging, testing, and overall engineering productivity.
• Participate in architecture and design discussions, balancing scalability with simplicity.
• Troubleshoot production issues and continuously improve system performance and reliability.
• Contribute to a collaborative engineering culture through code reviews and knowledge sharing.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 4-6 years of professional software development experience.
• Strong proficiency in at least one high-level programming language, such as Python, Go (Golang), C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Kotlin, Scala, or Ruby.
• Strong understanding of Data Structures, Algorithms, Object-Oriented Programming, and System Design.
• Hands-on experience building, scaling, or maintaining production applications with a user base of 100K+ users.
• Proven experience working on high-traffic, large-scale consumer or B2B products where performance, reliability, and scalability were critical.
• Experience developing modern Backend, Frontend, or Full Stack applications.
• Strong understanding of APIs, databases, and scalable application architecture.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively use AI coding assistants to accelerate software development while maintaining high standards of code quality and engineering best practices.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and a strong sense of ownership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working on platform or infrastructure products is highly preferred.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Familiarity with microservices, distributed systems, CI/CD, and containerization.
• Experience working in product companies or fast-paced startup environments.

Who You Are

• You enjoy working in small, fast-moving teams where every engineer has significant ownership.
• You're comfortable wearing multiple hats and contributing across different parts of the stack when needed.
• You've previously worked on products operating at scale and understand the engineering challenges of supporting 100K+ active users, including performance optimization, reliability, and scalability.
• You have a product mindset and care deeply about performance, scalability, and user experience.
• You're a proactive problem solver who enjoys taking initiative and driving projects independently.
• You embrace modern engineering practices, including the effective use of AI tools to enhance productivity without compromising software quality.
• You value collaboration, continuous learning, and building high-quality software.

Why Join Us?

• Join a high-impact engineering team with significant ownership and autonomy.
• Solve challenging engineering problems with a focus on performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Collaborate with talented engineers in a fast-paced, product-driven environment.
• Build software that directly impacts thousands of users while accelerating your technical growth.