Software Engineering Lead – Conversational Platforms

Unifonic; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Share scheme

30 days holiday after first year

Birthday off

Work from anywhere up to 10 weeks/yr

Paid parental leave

LinkedIn learning license

Job summary

Unifonic is seeking an Engineering Lead for Conversational Platforms to guide a team building scalable messaging solutions across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Email and Push. You will oversee technical direction, mentoring, and cross‑functional collaboration with product and design while delivering reliable production systems.

The role requires hands‑on leadership, strong communication, and a track record of delivering high‑volume, enterprise‑grade platforms in a global context.

Qualifications

• 15+ years engineering experience with 7+ years in leadership or strong mentoring roles.
• Proven hands‑on experience building/operating conversational/messaging platforms across multiple channels.
• Excellent English communication, collaboration across global teams, and ability to mentor top talent.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers driving conversational platform development.
• Partner with PMs, designers, and engineers to plan and prioritize work.
• Ensure delivery with quality, architecture best practices, and CI/CD standards.

Skills

Team leadership

English communication

Cloud architecture

Backend systems

Continuous learning

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

RabbitMQ

Kafka

AWS

SQS

Redis

Cucumber

Job description

Proudly voted a Great Place to Work®, we are a dynamic startup in the SaaS space that is revolutionizing the way businesses communicate. Our team is made up of 500 energetic and passionate Unifones who are dedicated to delivering the best possible experience to 5000+ customer-centric companies. We pride ourselves on our fun and collaborative work environment, where creativity and new ideas are constantly encouraged. As shareholders in the business, we’re so much more than a group of passionate communicators. We are Unifones. Join our team and be a part of something big! Meet the team! Our Engineering team is responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining the systems and technologies that drive Unifonic ’s solutions. We work closely with other departments to ensure our products and services meet the needs of our customers. If you are passionate about technology and are excited about working on cutting-edge communication and engagement solutions, we want you on our team. As Engineering Lead, Conversational Platforms, you will be playing an active part in the hands‑on process of building software and managing your own team. In this role, you will be contributing to production-facing code on a regular basis, with a specific focus on conversational and messaging channels such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Facebook, Push, and Email Help us shape the future of communication by:

Responsibilities

• Supporting with recruitment & hiring of engineering talent and facilitating the onboarding of new team members.
• Working with other engineering teams to identify and anticipate changing requirements and opportunities to improve the development environment.
• Working with product managers, designers, and engineers to prioritize, plan, and schedule work.
• Communicating status, risks, and requirements to other groups.
• Providing technical and non-technical guidance to the team, both individually and as a group.
• Facilitating continuous learning and improvement for the team and its members.
• Working in a dynamic environment, embracing the challenge of adapting to evolving requirements and frequently shifting priorities with agility.
• Leading, mentoring, and inspiring a team of developers to foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Providing technical guidance and expertise to the team, ensuring adherence to best practices, coding standards, and architectural principles while conducting regular performance evaluations, offering constructive feedback, and supporting the professional growth and development of team members

Requirements

• Hands‑on experience building or integrating conversational and messaging systems, ideally across channels such as WhatsApp Business APIs, Instagram Messaging, Facebook Messenger, Push Notifications, and Email delivery platforms.
• Experience with bidirectional messaging, templates, webhook flows, provider integrations, and high‑volume message delivery is particularly valuable.
• Hands‑on 7+ years of relevant engineering work experience with 5+ years of hands‑on technical experience in building scalable enterprise‑grade systems.
• Hands‑on 5+ years of experience as a Java or Python Developer and in database management (MySQL, Cassandra, etc.).
• Experience with high‑volume solutions.
• Must be able to spend substantial time interfacing with offshore teams on a daily basis.
• Fluent in English with excellent writing/editing and verbal communication skills.
• Practical experience in queuing systems/message brokers such as RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS, etc.
• Practical experience with cache technologies (Memcached, Redis).
• General knowledge of integrating with third‑party bidirectional messaging providers such as Meta (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger) and Apple (Messages for Business).
• Experience working with Push & Email will be an added advantage.
• Practical experience with AWS services (e.g., EC2, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, API Gateway, Lambda, SQS, SNS) and Oracle Cloud Services.
• Hands‑on experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and container orchestration.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines; experience with Drone CI is a plus.
• Familiarity with code quality and static analysis systems such as SonarQube is a plus.
• Familiarity with test frameworks and performance/load testing tools such as Cucumber, wrk, Locust, and JMeter is a plus.
• Strong attention to detail while maintaining sight of the big picture.
• Strong problem‑solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to apply business logic to development requirements in a creative manner.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across teams.

As a Unifone you will receive a range of benefits:

• Competitive salary and bonus
• Unifonic share scheme (we are all owners!)
• 30 holiday days after the first anniversary
• Your Birthday off!
• Spend up to 10 weeks per year working from anywhere in the world!
• Paid leave for new parents
• LinkedIn learning license