Lead Software Engineer (Remote) New

8th Light, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 133,000 - 166,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited L&D program

Annual financial stipend for learning

Coworking support

Flexible PTO

12 weeks new parent leave

Job summary

8th Light, Inc. is seeking a Lead Engineer to guide complex client engagements and shape technical direction across projects. You’ll lead architecture discussions, mentor teams, and partner with clients to balance platform choices with product needs.

You’ll work with AI/ML features, data pipelines, and scalable systems, coordinating across distributed teams. This remote-first role emphasizes collaboration, mentorship, and delivering durable results for clients.

Qualifications

• 7+ years leading software engagements.
• Ability to lead architecture and design discussions.
• Experience with AI/ML-powered features.
• Strong collaboration with Git, MacOS/Linux, and CI/CD.
• Mentor and share knowledge with colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Make immediate contributions to projects and build trust with clients.
• Balance technology choices with deadlines while delivering high-quality work.
• Lead architecture and software design discussions.
• Collaborate on systems that involve the full ML lifecycle from data ingestion to deployment and monitoring.
• Generate new potential solutions in partnership with team members and clients.
• Lead or initiate formal feedback conversations with teams and clients.
• Document outcomes and drive forward action items.
• Contribute to team health and 8th Light’s culture by modeling our Values.

Skills

7+ years

Leadership

AI/ML

CI/CD

Git

Platform engineering

Security

Scalability

Tools

Databricks

LangChain

LlamaIndex

CrewAI

AutoGen

n8n

Job description

At 8th Light, we bring life to the best ideas.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions consultancy that partners with organizations from early-stage startups to the world's largest companies. We take on hard software challenges and turn them into durable results. We build agentic products, the platforms they run on, and the engineering and design at every layer.

Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands‑on work. We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients.

If this kind of work and our kind of people energizes you, you’ve found the right place.

Who You Are

You’ve shown long‑term repeated success on a variety of projects, typically over the course of 7+ years. You can be the go‑to leader for any software development engagement. You have a broad and deep range of expertise that allows you to make an immediate impact on projects. In your previous experience, you have:

• Successfully led high-stakes consulting engagements from discovery to production
• Built high‑quality, maintainable software collaboratively, incrementally, and through an approach tailored towards the unique needs of the clients you’ve served
• Leveraged AI‑assistive development tools for tasks like scaffolding, refactoring, debugging, test generation, and documentation
• Experience building or integrating AI/ML‑powered features into products or systems (e.g., recommendation engines, NLP models, computer vision, predictive analytics)
• Used context‑appropriate automated testing to inform software design choices and catch bugs
• Debugged and refactored pre‑existing code to incrementally improve it
• Collaborated with teams using Git, MacOS/Linux, and CI/CD
• Remedied architecture‑level concerns such as scalability, security, reliability, and performance
• Brought together people from different functions and perspectives in forums that encourage idea sharing, collaboration, and problem solving
• Made thoughtful recommendations and set direction in the face of ambiguity
• Mentored and shared knowledge with colleagues
• Actively sought out and effectively given feedback
• Communicated empathically with stakeholders and colleagues
• Collaboratively led stakeholders to balance technical considerations with product and user needs

What You’ll Do At 8th Light

As a lead technologist on projects, you’ll work with a variety of clients, typically one to two in a year, through a variety of technologies and frameworks over the course of your career with us. You’ll lead more complicated projects, leading teams to do so. You’ll work with colleagues who share your passion for technology solutions. You’ll invest time developing your skills and sharing what you know. You’ll be responsible for:

• Making immediate contributions to projects, rapidly building trust with clients
• Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high‑quality work within deadlines
• Leading architecture and software design discussions
• Collaborating on systems that involve the full ML lifecycle from data ingestion and preprocessing, to model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring
• Generating new potential solutions to challenges (technical and non‑technical) in partnership with team members and clients
• Leading or initiating formal feedback conversations with teams and clients via retrospectives
• Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving forward action items
• Contributing to the health of your team and 8th Light’s culture by modeling our Values
• Ensuring your team has a healthy, prioritized, estimated backlog
• Managing high‑level project roadmaps as the team lead for large engagements
• Maintaining relationships with client technical leaders
• Regular syncs with the client to provide status updates, and for identifying and evaluating risks and presenting potential solutions
• Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress
• Contributing to 8th Light by serving as a mentor, leading or designing workshops internally or for clients, representing 8th Light in the tech community, or supporting our hiring processes

Strongly Preferred Skills

We work across many areas, and encourage anyone with the experience listed above to apply. We would particularly like to encourage applicants with experience in the following areas:

• Platform engineering: building reusable software foundations, internal developer platforms, and infrastructure that other teams build on
• Data Engineering: including platforms like Databricks for data processing and analytics
• Delivering production agentic systems, including RAG pipelines, vector search, and agentic frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, and n8n
• DevSecOps & DevOps
• MLOps
• Infrastructure as Code

Building a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace is an ongoing journey, and we’re excited to keep learning and growing together. We have a proud tradition of hiring talented colleagues with real‑world career experiences.

How You’ll be Supported

At 8th Light, we believe our people are our greatest asset. Their growth, well‑being, and success shape our future.

Our wellness package is designed with the Whole YOU in mind and includes:

• A robust L&D program featuring unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert‑led training on the O’Reilly learning platform.
• Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning & development
• Coworking support for our global team
• Flexible PTO
• 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees

At 8th Light, we are committed to a compensation philosophy that is transparent, fair, and helps us attract and retain top talent in alignment with our company’s strategic growth goals and clients’ needs.

We benchmark our salaries using Geographic Structures to establish competitive pay ranges within the regions where 8th Lights live. Our pay ranges for our Lead Engineer position within our four US structures are as follows:

• Structure 2 (Chicago Metro, Miami Metro, Philadelphia Metro, Raleigh Metro )
  RANGE: $132,700-$165,875 USD

8th Light Hubs and Geographies

As a remote‑first company, 8th Light's culture is rooted in strong connections that extend across our teams, regions, and beyond client work. We are a distributed team across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with hubs in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.

If you are hired into a hub, you will be a part of a team with regular rituals around co‑working and community building. For team members outside of those cities, we offer access to coworking spaces to foster continued collaboration and connection across our global team.

A Note on Your Privacy

At 8th Light, one of our core values is Honesty that builds trust — and that shapes how we approach hiring. We want you to have a clear picture of who we are, what we're looking for, and how we handle your information throughout the process.

Eligibility Requirement: Are you legally authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship, now or in the future?

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Which U.S. state do you currently reside in?

Were you referred by a current or former 8th Light employee?

(Referrals Only): Please indicate your referral's name.

If the opportunity presented itself, would you be open to short/long term contract‑based work?

Do you have experience using AI within development workflows (e.g., coding, testing, automation) or building AI/ML‑powered features into products or platforms?

Do you consent to biometric identity verification as part of the application process? 8th Light requires identity verification in the hiring process.

Do you consent to audio transcription of your interview for evaluation purposes?

SMS Consent: By selecting YES, I consent to receive recruiting SMS messages from 8th Light at the phone number provided on my job application.

Message and data rates may apply, depending on your mobile phone service plan. At any time you can get more help by replying HELP to these texts, or you can opt out completely by replying STOP.

Note: Selecting “no” will not eliminate you from consideration for this role.

As set forth in 8th Light’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

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