Lead Software Engineer

Vertexinc; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Vertex Inc. is seeking a senior engineering leader to own and operate a data platform that underpins regulatory and compliance workflows.

You will translate platform direction into engineering plans, guide day-to-day execution, and balance new capabilities with reliability, cost, and maintainability. You will lead data and backend teams, drive ETL/ELT pipelines with Python, SQL, Airflow and Spark, and ensure production workloads on AWS and Kubernetes meet security and compliance requirements.

Qualifications

• Seven years building and operating production data-intensive or backend systems.
• Hands-on skills in Python, SQL, Airflow, and Spark or PySpark, plus experience with Node.js and TypeScript services.
• Experience operating large-scale batch or event-driven pipelines and production workloads on AWS (S3, RDS/Aurora, EMR, IAM).
• Experience running production services on Kubernetes.
• Leadership through engineering delivery cycles, incident management, and operational ownership.
• Understanding of data modeling, schema evolution, idempotency, and multi-tenant systems; able to work with regulated or compliance-driven data.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery planning, sprint execution, and technical quality across data and backend engineering work.
• Guide development of ETL/ELT pipelines, Spark or PySpark jobs, Python services, and Node.js and TypeScript workflow services.
• Own operational readiness, including on-call practices, runbooks, incident response, root-cause analysis, and remediation.
• Manage technical debt alongside feature work, prioritizing reliability, platform sustainability, and cost improvements.
• Partner with architecture, product, subject matter, and operations teams to align implementation with platform strategy and compliance needs.
• Support engineers through technical direction and delivery leadership.

Skills

Python

SQL

Airflow

Spark/PySpark

Node.js

TypeScript

Tools

AWS (S3, RDS/Aurora, EMR)

Kubernetes

Job description

Role overview

Lead a team responsible for delivering and operating a data platform that supports regulatory and compliance workflows. You will turn platform direction and product priorities into engineering plans, guide day-to-day execution, and balance new capabilities with reliability, cost control, and long-term maintainability. The role combines hands-on oversight of data and backend systems with team leadership and operational ownership.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery planning, sprint execution, and technical quality across data and backend engineering work.
• Guide development of ETL/ELT pipelines, Spark or PySpark jobs, Python services, and Node.js and TypeScript workflow services.
• Own operational readiness, including on-call practices, runbooks, incident response, root-cause analysis, and remediation.
• Manage technical debt alongside feature work, prioritizing reliability, platform sustainability, and cost improvements.
• Partner with architecture, product, subject matter, and operations teams to align implementation with platform strategy and compliance needs.
• Support engineers through technical direction and delivery leadership.

Requirements

• At least seven years building and operating production data-intensive or backend systems.
• Strong hands-on skills in Python, SQL, Airflow, and Spark or PySpark, plus experience with Node.js and TypeScript services.
• Experience operating large-scale batch or event-driven pipelines and production workloads on AWS, including S3, RDS/Aurora, EMR, and IAM.
• Experience running production services on Kubernetes.
• Demonstrated leadership through engineering delivery cycles, incident management, and operational ownership.
• Understanding of data modeling, schema evolution, idempotency, and multi-tenant systems; able to work with regulated or compliance-driven data.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with Iceberg, Delta Lake, dbt, data quality or lineage tools, Kafka, Kinesis, or change data capture.
• Experience scaling data teams or platforms, or working in financial, tax, accounting, or compliance technology.
• Equivalent education, training, and relevant professional experience may be accepted in place of a formal degree.

Benefits and work setup

The source describes collaboration across data, backend, product, and operations functions. It does not specify a location or work arrangement for this role.