Lead Software Engineer
Vertical Institute
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Job summary
Vertical Institute is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for a lean team building the learning platform and internal operations.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role involving software development, system architecture, technical decision-making, engineering standards, team mentoring, integrations, automation, and AI-powered solutions.
Prior experience operating at Lead, Principal, Tech Lead, or equivalent level is essential.
Qualifications
- Proven experience at Lead Software Engineer, Principal Engineer, Tech Lead, or equivalent level.
- Strong full-stack or backend software engineering background.
- Experience building production-grade web applications and software systems.
- Strong understanding of system architecture, database design, API design, and performance optimisation.
- Experience making technical and architectural decisions for scalable systems.
- Strong hands-on programming and software development skills.
- Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership.
- Ability to deliver software iteratively without unnecessary over-engineering.
- Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field is preferred.
Responsibilities
- Set technical direction and engineering standards.
- Design scalable, secure, and maintainable software systems.
- Make architecture and technology decisions based on business requirements.
- Review technical designs and code.
- Identify and manage technical debt and system risks.
- Partner with the CEO and stakeholders to develop the engineering roadmap.
- Design, develop, test, and maintain production-grade web applications and backend systems.
- Continue writing and reviewing code while leading the engineering team.
- Contribute to system design, database architecture, API development, and performance optimisation.
- Troubleshoot complex technical issues.
- Maintain engineering practices covering testing, documentation, version control, and CI/CD.
- Build and maintain integrations between the learning platform and third-party systems.
- Integrate LMS, CRM, payment, analytics, and SaaS platforms.
- Develop internal tools and automation for sales, admissions, finance, and operations.
- Evaluate APIs and third-party technologies for integration opportunities.
- Identify opportunities to apply AI and automation to business workflows.
- Design and implement AI-powered features, agents, and workflows.
- Work with stakeholders to identify practical AI use cases.
- Evaluate emerging AI technologies for business applications.
- Mentor and coach engineers.
- Conduct code and architecture reviews.
- Establish engineering best practices.
- Help prioritise technical work and remove blockers.
- Balance delivery speed with quality, security, reliability, and maintainability.
- Work with the CEO and business stakeholders to understand technical requirements.
- Translate technical concepts and trade-offs into clear business terms.
- Communicate project progress, risks, and technical decisions.
- Collaborate with Sales, Admissions, Finance, Operations, and other teams.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Vertical Institute is looking for a Lead Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for a lean engineering team building systems that support our learning platform and internal operations.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role involving software development, system architecture, technical decision-making, engineering standards, team mentoring, integrations, automation, and AI-powered solutions.
Prior experience operating at Lead, Principal, Tech Lead, or equivalent level is essential.
Set technical direction and engineering standards.
Design scalable, secure, and maintainable software systems.
Make architecture and technology decisions based on business requirements.
Review technical designs and code.
Identify and manage technical debt and system risks.
Partner with the CEO and stakeholders to develop the engineering roadmap.
Design, develop, test, and maintain production-grade web applications and backend systems.
Continue writing and reviewing code while leading the engineering team.
Contribute to system design, database architecture, API development, and performance optimisation.
Troubleshoot complex technical issues.
Maintain engineering practices covering testing, documentation, version control, and CI/CD.
Build and maintain integrations between the learning platform and third-party systems.
Integrate LMS, CRM, payment, analytics, and SaaS platforms.
Develop internal tools and automation for sales, admissions, finance, and operations.
Evaluate APIs and third-party technologies for integration opportunities.
Identify opportunities to apply AI and automation to business workflows.
Design and implement AI-powered features, agents, and workflows.
Work with stakeholders to identify practical AI use cases.
Evaluate emerging AI technologies for business applications.
Mentor and coach engineers.
Conduct code and architecture reviews.
Establish engineering best practices.
Help prioritise technical work and remove blockers.
Balance delivery speed with quality, security, reliability, and maintainability.
Work with the CEO and business stakeholders to understand technical requirements.
Translate technical concepts and trade-offs into clear business terms.
Communicate project progress, risks, and technical decisions.
Collaborate with Sales, Admissions, Finance, Operations, and other teams.
Proven experience at Lead Software Engineer, Principal Engineer, Tech Lead, or equivalent level.
Strong full-stack or backend software engineering background.
Experience building production-grade web applications and software systems.
Strong understanding of system architecture, database design, API design, and performance optimisation.
Experience making technical and architectural decisions for scalable systems.
Strong hands-on programming and software development skills.
Experience with testing, code reviews, documentation, version control, and CI/CD.
Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership.
Ability to deliver software iteratively without unnecessary over-engineering.
Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field is preferred.
Ruby on Rails experience.
EdTech or Learning Management System experience.
Experience with AI APIs, LLMs, AI agents, or automation tools.
Experience integrating CRM, payment, analytics, or SaaS platforms.
Cloud infrastructure and DevOps experience.
Startup or scale-up experience.
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