Lead Software Engineer, Tech Standardization

athenahealth; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 143,000 - 243,000; Full time

Job summary

athenahealth seeks a Lead Software Engineer, Tech Standardization in Boston, MA to guide modernization, observability, and internal platform capabilities at scale. You’ll standardize engineering practices, improve developer experience, and enable reliable services across teams.

The role requires hands-on experience with Java/Python, AWS, Kubernetes, and observability tooling, plus strong coaching and cross-functional collaboration to deliver secure, compliant software at speed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 6 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience leading engineers or projects or workstreams.
• Experience with platform engineering and internal developer platforms.
• Strong hands-on programming in Java and/or Python.
• Experience with AWS, Kubernetes, cloud-native architecture, and large-scale platform migration.
• Experience building observability SDKs and telemetry using Datadog/OpenTelemetry.
• Knowledge of infrastructure as code, CI/CD, automation, and security controls.
• Experience in regulated environments with availability, privacy, security, and compliance.
• Strong coaching, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience with responsible AI-assisted engineering workflows.

Responsibilities

• Guide and mentor a team of engineers, fostering collaboration and strong engineering practices.
• Define and execute the strategy for internal developer platform capabilities.
• Lead modernization, standardization, and migration across platform services.
• Lead observability integration with SDKs, instrumentation, and telemetry pipelines.
• Improve developer experience with CI/CD pipelines, automation, and code-quality standards.
• Oversee modernization programs, ensuring alignment with requirements and compliance.
• Collaborate with product managers and partners to align goals and deliverables.
• Serve as a visible U.S. time zone technology standards leader.
• Apply AI-first mindset to day-to-day engineering workflows.
• Drive best practices in testing, resiliency, security, and incident learning.

Skills

Java

Python

AWS

Kubernetes

OpenTelemetry

Datadog

CI/CD

Platform engineering

AI-assisted engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Datadog

OpenTelemetry

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Join us as we work to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

Role Summary

The Lead Software Engineer, Tech Standardization leads modernization, observability integration, and internal platform capabilities that improve software delivery at scale. This hybrid role is based in Boston, MA and focuses on helping teams standardize engineering practices, strengthen developer experience, and support reliable platform services. The role works closely with engineering and cross-functional stakeholders to align priorities, support technical decisions, and drive execution. This position reports to the Director.

Team Summary

The Internal Developer Platform team supports engineering teams by providing platform capabilities that improve developer productivity, standardization, and adoption of supported engineering practices. The team leads modernization and migration efforts, supports observability integration, and helps create paved paths for building, deploying, and operating software more consistently. It works across engineering, product, and partner teams to deliver shared tooling, supported patterns, and reliable platform services that improve execution and consistency. The team plays an important role in helping engineering groups move faster while maintaining quality, security, and operational readiness.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Guide and mentor a team of engineers, creating an environment that supports collaboration, growth, and strong engineering practices.
• Define and execute the strategy for internal developer platform capabilities that improve developer productivity, standardization, and adoption of supported engineering practices.
• Lead modernization, standardization, and migration efforts across platform services and engineering workflows.
• Lead observability integration work by delivering supported software development kits (SDKs), instrumentation patterns, and telemetry pipelines for logs, metrics, and distributed tracing.
• Improve the developer experience through paved paths, supported libraries, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, automation, and code-quality standards.
• Oversee multiple modernization programs to ensure alignment with business requirements, compliance standards, delivery commitments, and engineering best practices.
• Work with product managers, stakeholders, and partner teams to align goals and deliverables, communicate tradeoffs, and manage expectations.
• Serve as a visible U.S. time zone leader for technology standards, providing timely decisions, architectural guidance, and cross-team connections.
• Apply an artificial intelligence (AI)-first mindset by helping the team use AI-assisted tools to improve engineering quality, speed, and learning in day-to-day workflows.
• Drive engineering best practices including testing, continuous integration and delivery, application resiliency, security, service ownership, and incident learning.

Additional Job Responsibilities

• Support hiring, onboarding, and team development efforts as needed.
• Contribute to design discussions, planning activities, and technical reviews.
• Help communicate progress, risks, and dependencies across workstreams.
• Participate in cross-team coordination to improve alignment and delivery.
• Support documentation, knowledge sharing, and standardization efforts.
• Help strengthen operational readiness and follow-up actions from incidents.
• Encourage responsible adoption of cloud, automation, and AI-enabled engineering practices.
• Represent the team in recurring forums focused on standards, migration, and modernization.
• Assist with roadmap refinement and prioritization discussions.

Expected Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 6 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience leading engineers, technical projects, or engineering workstreams.
• Experience with platform engineering, internal developer platforms, cloud enablement, or related modernization efforts.
• Strong hands-on programming experience in Java and/or Python.
• Strong working knowledge of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, cloud-native architecture, and large-scale platform migration patterns.
• Experience engineering observability Software Development Kits (SDKs), instrumentation patterns, and telemetry integrations using Datadog, OpenTelemetry, logs, metrics, and traces.
• Working knowledge of infrastructure as code, CI/CD, automation, security controls, and reliable software delivery practices.
• Experience working in regulated environments with expectations for availability, privacy, security, and compliance.
• Strong coaching, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience using responsible AI-assisted engineering workflows to improve productivity and quality.

Expected Compensation

$143,000 - $243,000

At athenahealth, base pay depends on multiple factors, including job-related experience, relevant knowledge and skills, how your qualifications compare to others in similar roles, and geographical market rates. Base pay is only one part of our competitive Total Rewards package - depending on role eligibility, we offer both short and long-term incentives by way of an annual discretionary bonus plan, variable compensation plan, and equity plans.

About Athenahealth

Our vision

In an industry that becomes more complex by the day, we stand for simplicity. We offer IT solutions and expert services that eliminate the daily hurdles preventing healthcare providers from focusing entirely on their patients - powered by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

Our company culture

Our talented employees - or athenistas, as we call ourselves - spark the innovation and passion needed to accomplish our vision. We are a diverse group of dreamers and do-ers with unique knowledge, expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives. We unite as mission-driven problem-solvers with a deep desire to achieve our vision and make our time here count. Our award-winning culture is built around shared values of inclusiveness, accountability, and support.

Our DEI commitment

Our vision of accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all requires addressing the inequities that stand in the way. That's one reason we prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in every aspect of our business, from attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce to maintaining an inclusive environment for athenistas, our partners, customers and the communities where we work and serve.

What We Can Do For You

Along with health and financial benefits, athenistas enjoy perks specific to each location, including commuter support, employee assistance programs, tuition assistance, employee resource groups, and collaborative workspaces - some offices even welcome dogs.

We also encourage a better work-life balance for athenistas with our flexibility. While we know in-office collaboration is critical to our vision, we recognize that not all work needs to be done within an office environment, full-time. With consistent communication and digital collaboration tools, athenahealth enables employees to find a balance that feels fulfilling and productive for each individual situation.

In addition to our traditional benefits and perks, we sponsor events throughout the year, including book clubs, external speakers, and hackathons. We provide athenistas with a company culture based on learning, the support of an engaged team, and an inclusive environment where all employees are valued.

Learn more about our culture and benefits here: athenahealth.com/careers

https://www.athenahealth.com/careers/equal-opportunity