Engineering Lead: Client Delivery & Tech Strategy

Cognizant; Durham (NC); Remote; USD 170,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

401(k) plan and contributions

Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking an Engineering Lead to provide technical and people leadership for onshore teams supporting a client initiative in Durham, NC. You will partner with client and Cognizant leadership to set delivery strategies, maintain high quality, and ensure timely delivery.

You will guide engineering teams, remove obstacles, advance best practices, and serve as trusted advisor on architecture, AI usage, and delivery improvements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, information technology, or a related technical field required.
• 15+ years of engineering or software delivery experience.
• 10+ years of leadership, technical leadership, people leadership, or delivery leadership roles.
• Proficiency in programming languages like Java, C#.
• Experience leading distributed, cross-functional, or client-facing engineering teams preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the engineering leader, technical expert, and primary liaison between the client's engineering leadership and Cognizant engineering associates.
• Partner with the client's leadership and Cognizant internal leadership to align engineering execution with the client's strategy, priorities, standards, and delivery expectations.
• Support recruiting, onboarding, training, and retention of strong engineering talent for the client's project teams.
• Monitor individual and team performance, provide coaching and mentoring, and help develop robust team capability and people performance.
• Identify staffing, training, and skill-development needs and partner with leadership to address gaps proactively.
• Provide day-to-day leadership, guidance, and support to engineering team members, including answering questions, resolving issues, and helping teams overcome technical or delivery challenges.
• Plan, design, oversee, and support engineering initiatives to ensure work is delivered on time, with high quality, and in alignment with agreed scope and expectations.
• Design, implement, and continuously refine engineering best practices, development standards, testing practices, deployment processes, and delivery procedures.
• Review and validate the accuracy, quality, and effectiveness of work performed by Cognizant engineering staff, including the methods, tools, and practices used to complete that work.
• Act as a technical advisor and sounding board on engineering topics, including appropriate use of AI tools, architecture decisions, development approaches, and process improvements.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Scrum Masters, System Architects, engineering managers, client stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to support effective planning and delivery.
• Communicate clearly and professionally with managers, stakeholders, clients, and team members regarding status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and next steps.
• Maintain strong expertise in relevant engineering practices, technologies, platforms, and industry trends applicable to the client's work.
• Ensure engineering practices comply with applicable quality, security, safety, and governance expectations.

Skills

Technical leadership

People leadership

Microservices

Architecture

Stakeholder management

Agile/Scrum

Cloud experience

Hiring/mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, information technology, or related field

15+ years engineering or software delivery experience

10+ years in leadership roles

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Java

C#

Job description

Cognizant is seeking an Engineering Lead to provide technical and people leadership for onshore teams supporting a client initiative in Durham, NC. You will partner with client and Cognizant leadership to set delivery strategies, maintain high quality, and ensure timely delivery.

You will guide engineering teams, remove obstacles, advance best practices, and serve as trusted advisor on architecture, AI usage, and delivery improvements.