Lead Software Engineer

Cox Automotive Inc.; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 123,000 - 204,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vacation with pay

Seven paid holidays

Up to 160 hours of paid wellness leave

Bereavement leave

Time off to vote

Jury duty leave

Volunteer time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Cox Automotive Inc. seeks a Lead Software Engineer to guide architecture across distributed platforms at the Release Train level, shaping technical direction, standards, and reference implementations with AI-assisted tooling for delivery.

You will influence solution discovery, coordinate with Engineering, Product, Architecture and SRE, mentor teams, and ensure architectural coherence as the platform evolves, delivering scalable software.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 6 years of related software engineering experience.
• Hands-on experience with full-stack development and distributed systems.
• Experience with AI-assisted development and spec-driven workflows.
• Ability to influence decisions across teams without formal authority.

Responsibilities

• Owns milestone/epic-level solution discovery and produces implementation-ready technical specifications.
• Defines standards and reference implementations for product architectures across the value stream.
• Collaborates with Architects, peer Release Train engineers, and adjacent trains to align direction.
• Mentors teams, remediates architectural drift and debt, and fosters patterns for delivery.
• Drives adoption of spec-driven development and integration contracts across delivery teams.

Skills

Full-stack development

Architectural decision‑making

Cloud‑native architectures

AI-assisted engineering workflows

Cross‑team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Tools

StencilJS

C#

API design

Distributed systems

AWS

Job description

The Lead Software Engineer applies advanced knowledge of software engineering principles, modern architectural patterns, and emerging delivery methodologies to drive the technical direction of complex, distributed software platforms at the Release Train level. Serving as an influential participant in solution discovery and architectural decision-making, this role leads milestone and epic-level technical solutioning across the value stream's product portfolio; defines reference implementations and engineering standards for the teams it supports; and partners across release trains to ensure architectural coherence as the platform evolves. This role applies effective influence and collaboration-without formal management authority-across Engineering, Product, Architecture, and SRE to drive decisions and unblock delivery throughout the software development lifecycle.

The Lead Software Engineer takes the lead on difficult technical problem-solving and cross-team coordination, predicts and documents potential architectural risks and constraints, and leverages AI-assisted engineering tooling to compound their own and the broader engineering organization's productivity. As engineering teams increasingly rely on AI-generated code, the Lead Software Engineer serves as a thought leader in evolving solution discovery practices to meet this shift - defining how architectural intent, integration contracts, and implementation patterns are embedded into spec-driven development workflows and AI coding agent configurations, ensuring technical direction is established at the point of generation rather than discovered through downstream rework.

What You’ll Do

• Owns milestone and epic-level solution discovery for the assigned value stream portfolio, producing implementation-ready technical specifications that AI Transformed and AI Enabled delivery teams can execute while reducing the need for iterative clarification.
• Defines technical standards and reference implementations for the value stream's product architectures, ensuring consistency across the portfolio and clear patterns for delivery teams to follow.
• Partners with Value Stream Architects, peer Release Train level engineers, and adjacent release trains to align technical direction, surface architectural risks, and drive cross-train decisions before they become delivery blockers.
• Identifies teams with architectural drift, technical debt, or capability gaps and embeds to lead remediation - coaching on patterns, driving solution design, and verifying technical readiness before delivery commitments are made.
• Drives adoption of spec-driven development across the value stream's delivery teams, embedding architectural intent and integration contracts into the artifacts AI coding agents and engineers consume - rather than relying on post-implementation correction.
• Serves as the right hand to the incident commander during production incidents, providing technical depth across the value stream's product surface, accelerating diagnosis, and driving decisive remediation.
• Remains the tip of the spear on emerging engineering technologies - including AI-assisted development, spec-driven workflows, and modern integration patterns - through hands‑on adoption, then transfers that capability to delivery teams through structured mentorship and reference work.
• Identifies architectural risks within the value stream's technology footprint, defines mitigation strategies, and drives them to documented decisions that set forward-looking technical direction.

Who You Are

• Bachelor's degree (list any requirements of discipline here) and 6 years' experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 4 years' experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience; or 18 years' experience in a related field.
• Hands‑on experience with full-stack development, including technologies such as StencilJS and C#, in addition to designing and delivering distributed software systems, including API design, integration patterns, and cloud‑native architectures (AWS or equivalent).
• Hands‑on experience leading technical solution discovery for complex initiatives, producing specifications and architectural artifacts that other engineers execute against.
• Experience with modern delivery methodologies including spec‑driven development, Agile practices at scale, and AI‑assisted engineering workflows.
• Reviews product requirements and system designs with an architectural lens, contributing technical direction during discovery and driving implementation patterns that support maintainability, scalability, and resilience.
• Skilled at building partnerships with Product, Architecture, and Engineering teams both inside and outside of the organization, and at driving decisions across organizational boundaries without formal authority.
• Remains current on software engineering tooling, architectural patterns, and emerging methodologies, recommending and driving adoption of approaches that measurably improve delivery throughput, technical quality, or engineering productivity.
• Demonstrated experience working with AI coding tools (such as Claude, Copilot, or equivalent) and the ability to define and implement architectural guardrails within agent configurations, constitutions, or briefings

USD 122,600.00 - 204,400.00 per year

Compensation

Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $122,600.00 - $204,400.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.

Benefits

The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.