Lead Software Engineer

IQ Staffing; Utrecht; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

IQ Staffing seeks a Lead Engineer to take technical ownership of a production RAG and chatbot platform in the Netherlands. You will drive delivery, improve retrieval accuracy, and enhance platform capabilities while keeping the document-processing environment stable.

This hands-on role requires building scalable infrastructure and leading through technical excellence, engaging demanding internal users in a fast-paced setting.

Qualifications

• Experience building production-grade systems.
• Strong infrastructure engineering background with platform ownership.
• Practical RAG expertise including retrieval pipelines, vector search, evaluation.
• Understanding of production degradation of retrieval and response quality.
• Experience integrating LLMs into real applications or platforms.
• Strong Python and modern back-end development skills.
• Experience with FastAPI or a comparable framework.
• Strong production operations, monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities.
• Ability to align teams and influence engineers without formal authority.

Responsibilities

• Build and improve the infrastructure behind a production RAG platform.
• Improve retrieval accuracy, chatbot response quality and evaluation methods.
• Keep the document-processing pipeline stable and maintainable.
• Monitor platform performance and resolve production issues.
• Align autonomous workstreams around shared priorities and engineering practices.
• Turn technical priorities into visible, consistent delivery.
• Support internal users and translate feedback into actions.
• Act as the technical anchor across the wider platform landscape.

Skills

Infrastructure engineering

Production systems

RAG expertise

Python

Back-end development

Azure

Document-processing pipelines

Monitoring and troubleshooting

Stakeholder management

Communication under pressure

Tools

FastAPI

Azure

Job description

An opportunity for a Lead Engineer to join a leading financial institution in the Netherlands. You will take technical ownership of a production RAG and chatbot platform built on a document-processing pipeline. The focus is on improving retrieval accuracy, response quality and platform capability while keeping the existing document-processing environment stable.

This position suits a hands-on platform or infrastructure engineer with production RAG experience and the credibility to lead through technical expertise. You can align autonomous workstreams, translate priorities into delivery and work directly with demanding internal users in a fast-moving environment.

Responsibilities:

• Build and improve the infrastructure behind a production RAG platform.
• Improve retrieval accuracy, chatbot response quality and evaluation methods.
• Keep the document-processing pipeline stable and maintainable.
• Monitor platform performance and resolve production issues.
• Align autonomous workstreams around shared priorities and engineering practices.
• Turn technical priorities into visible, consistent delivery.
• Support internal users and translate their feedback into clear actions.
• Act as the technical anchor across the wider platform landscape.

Requirements:

• Strong infrastructure and platform engineering experience.
• Hands-on experience building and operating production-grade systems.
• Practical RAG expertise, including retrieval pipelines, vector search and evaluation.
• Understanding of how retrieval and response quality can degrade in production.
• Experience integrating LLMs into real applications or platforms.
• Strong Python and modern back-end development expertise.
• Experience with FastAPI or a comparable framework.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Azure.
• Knowledge of document-processing pipelines.
• Strong production operations, monitoring and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability to align teams and influence engineers without formal authority.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Comfortable working under pressure in a visible, delivery-focused environment.