Lead Software Engineer (AI Systems, Architecture & Developer Experience) - 439

DSM-H Consulting; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

DSM-H Consulting seeks an experienced Technical Architect to lead AI integration efforts and multi-agent workflow design. You will oversee secure API gateways, cost controls, and scalable AI-native data models across teams.

You will mentor engineers, drive architecture governance, and push for continuous improvement in engineering practices while coordinating with Product and Ops in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering with strong AI focus.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 8+ years in technical leadership roles guiding multi-team projects.

Responsibilities

• Design and lead multi-agent AI workflows with stateful systems.
• Architect data models for AI-native structures and RAG integrations.
• Establish governance, security guardrails, and CI/CD for AI systems.
• Mentor engineers, drive architecture reviews, and improve engineering standards.

Skills

AI architecture

Cloud-native development

Microservices design

Software architecture

Leadership & mentoring

Technical governance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

Master’s degree in a related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

LangChain

LangGraph

AutoGen

CrewAI

Pinecone

Milvus

Chroma

pgvector

Job description

Position’s Contributions to Work Group: Technical Architecture & AI Integration

• Design and orchestrate multi-agent workflows and stateful AI systems using modern frameworks like LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, or CrewAI.
• Integrate foundation models (e.g., Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini) via secure API gateways, managing token limits, costs, and rate-limiting.
• Architect data models optimized for AI-native structures, integrating relational databases with vector databases for semantic search and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Implement robust white-box testing and continuous evaluation metrics to monitor AI outputs for factual correctness, hallucinations, and safety compliance.
• Champion secure, reliable, and scalable software solutions through architectural leadership, risk management, and continuous improvement of engineering practices.

Typical task breakdown:

Technical Leadership & Workflow Optimization:

• Mentor and scale an engineering team, establishing engineering standards, best practices and architectural governance for secure coding, continuous integration, and cloud-native deployment.
• Drive AI-assisted engineering velocity by integrating next-gen development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf) into the team's daily Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
• Establish governance policies and coach developers on the responsible use of AI, focusing on input data sensitivity, license compliance, and security guardrails.
• Evaluate existing systems, services, APIs, and data models to identify opportunities for modernization, scalability, and performance improvements.

Influence Across Teams & Champion Developer Experience:

• Facilitate technical leadership forums with Product Owners, Technical Leads, Architects, and Engineering Managers.
• Drive conversations around architecture, engineering health, technical debt, AI adoption, and continuous improvement.
• Mentor engineers and technical leaders on system design, software architecture, and engineering excellence.
• Foster collaborative decision-making through architecture reviews, RFCs, and technical discussions.
• Promote self-service engineering capabilities and platform enablement.
• Drive automation initiatives that improve productivity and software quality.

Interaction with team

• Significant interaction required with Scrum team. Interaction during all scrum ceremonies such as Daily Standups, Sprint Planning, Grooming, Retro, Demo etc. Also need to interact with team for PR Reviews, also need to engage with other teams as needed.

Education & Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer science or Electrical engineering or related field, Plus 10+ years exp
• Master Degree plus 8+ years exp

Core Software Engineering

• Backend Systems: Deep proficiency in backend environments, microservices architectures, and API design using Java.
• Cloud & DevOps: Extensive experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and public cloud infrastructure like AWS

AI & LLM Infrastructure

• Orchestration & Tooling: Hands-on experience with production-level AI agents, prompt engineering, and advanced Agentic PDLC patterns.
• Vector Databases: Practical knowledge of vector technologies such as Pinecone, Milvus, Chroma, or pgvector.
• AI Tool Fluency: Demonstrated mastery of AI coding assistants and a firm understanding of Model Context Protocol (MCP) to mediate agent connections with external databases.

Technical Skills:

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience and 2+ years in a technical leadership role.
• Proven experience designing and delivering large-scale distributed systems.
• Strong expertise in software architecture, APIs, microservices, cloud-native applications, and modern engineering practices.
• Experience influencing multiple engineering teams and leading organization-wide technical initiatives.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and drive technical excellence.
• Experience with Generative AI, AI agents, LLM-powered applications, or intelligent automation platforms.
• Experience with AI development tools, coding assistants, and modern developer productivity platforms.
• Knowledge of security architecture, application security, and cloud security best practices.
• Experience establishing technical governance and engineering standards across multiple teams.

Soft Skills

(Required)

• Ability to work under pressure and within time constraints
• Passion for technology and an eagerness to contribute to a team-oriented environment
• Lead architectural designs and able to work across teams to come up with solutions.