Lead Software Engineer

Rite-Hite Company; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and dental coverage

401(k) company match

Paid holidays and vacation time

Job summary

The Rite-Hite Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is seeking a Technical Leader to drive the direction of its software engineering team. You will address legacy systems, promote AI-assisted tools, and mentor engineers while ensuring high-quality delivery.

We offer comprehensive health coverage, a 401(k) plan, paid holidays, and a commitment to equal opportunity for all candidates. Join us in building a career where your efforts truly impact our clients and community.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering production systems.
• Demonstrated working with legacy systems.
• Strong system design skills and debugging/problem solving.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical direction for a critical application area.
• Design scalable, maintainable systems and APIs.
• Drive troubleshooting of complex production issues.

Skills

Software Engineering

Legacy Systems Modernization

Cloud-Native Architectures

AI-Assisted Engineering Tools

Collaboration

Debugging

System Design

Education

7+ years of software engineering experience

Tools

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

At Rite-Hite, your work makes an impact. As the global leader in loading dock and door equipment, we design and deliver solutions that keep our customers safe, secure, and productive. Here, you'll find innovation, stability, and the chance to grow your career as part of a team that's always looking ahead.

Technical Leadership and Modernization

• Lead technical direction for a critical application area through hands‑on design and implementation.
• Assess legacy systems, identify technical debt and risk, and define pragmatic modernization plans (stabilize, refactor, re‑platform, or rebuild based on value).
• Drive incremental improvements to legacy systems while introducing scalable, cloud‑native approaches and consistent patterns.
• Establish and reinforce architectural patterns, coding standards, and design principles that improve maintainability and consistency.

System Design and Engineering Practices

• Design scalable, maintainable systems and APIs; define clear boundaries and integration patterns.
• Raise engineering discipline: code review quality, testing strategy, dependency management, and upgrade practices.
• Ensure systems are built for operability (resiliency, error handling, observability, configuration, secrets management).

Delivery, Reliability, and Operations

• Partner with DevOps/platform teams to improve CI/CD reliability, release processes, and environment consistency.
• Lead troubleshooting of complex production issues; drive root cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Define and monitor service health signals (logs/metrics/alerts) and improve runtime reliability.

AI-Enabled Engineering

• Promote effective use of AI‑assisted tools across design, coding, testing, troubleshooting, and documentation.
• Define guardrails for responsible AI use (security, confidentiality, human review, code quality).
• Validate AI‑assisted outputs for correctness, security, performance, and maintainability before adoption.

Collaboration, Influence & Mentorship

• Partner with product management to align technical decisions with business priorities and delivery constraints.
• Communicate tradeoffs and risks clearly to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Mentor engineers on system design, production‑ready engineering, and strong team communication.
• Influence across teams without formal authority; facilitate alignment when priorities or opinions differ.

Supervisory Responsibilities

No direct reports. Serves as the technical leader for a software engineering team and drives technical direction, engineering practices, and high‑quality delivery.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• 7+ years of software engineering experience delivering production systems.
• Demonstrated experience working with legacy systems (stabilization, refactoring, modernization, migration).
• Strong system design skills (APIs, modular design/service boundaries, resiliency patterns).
• Familiarity with CI/CD, automated testing, and observability practices.
• Strong debugging/problem‑solving skills in complex systems.
• Experience using AI‑assisted engineering tools responsibly (validation and security awareness).
• Strong collaboration, facilitation, and stakeholder communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with cloud‑native architectures (GCP preferred) and distributed systems.
• Experience with event‑driven systems/messaging.
• Familiarity with Docker/Kubernetes.
• Experience defining engineering standards and mentoring engineers.

What We Offer

• Health & Well‑being: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, plus life and disability insurance. A robust well‑being program with an opportunity to receive an extra day off and more.
• Financial Security: A strong retirement savings program with 401(k), company match, and profit sharing.
• Time for You: Paid holidays, vacation time, and personal/sick days each year.

Join us and build a career where you're supported – at work and beyond.

Rite-Hite is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. In accordance with VEVRAA, we are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for protected veterans. We are also committed to maintaining a drug‑free workplace for the safety of our employees and customers.