Team Lead, Software Engineer - Data

Colonial Group; Buffalo (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Colonial Group in Buffalo, NY is seeking a hands-on Team Lead, Software Engineer to guide a small engineering team and drive architectural excellence across multi-cloud and in-memory data systems. You will balance delivery, quality, and mentorship while aligning with product goals.

You will manage performance, conduct 1:1s, lead Agile ceremonies, and contribute to technical direction, code reviews, and feature development, maintaining ET work hours and fostering a culture of ownership and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/IT or related field (or equivalent).
• 5+ years hands-on Python development experience.
• 2-4+ years Terraform/Infrastructure as Code concepts.
• 3-5 years building, maintaining automated pipelines.
• 2-4 years applying domain-driven design to complex systems.
• Experience architecting scalable, reliable systems.
• In-memory data processing and monitoring tools experience.

Responsibilities

• Directly manage a small team of software engineers for VIN Decoder domain.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, provide feedback, and map career paths.
• Cultivate an inclusive, safe team culture and ownership.
• Provide technical leadership through mentoring and code reviews.
• Facilitate cross-functional communication to ensure delivery.
• Participate in feature development, code reviews, and problem solving.
• Own scrum/agile ceremonies and drive sprint planning and retrospectives.
• Drive multi-cloud infrastructure and overall system architecture.
• Balance delivery, quality, and operational excellence.
• Define priorities, roadmaps, and execution plans.
• Monitor reliability, delivery performance, and customer outcomes.
• Ensure secure, scalable, maintainable software.
• Architect, develop, and maintain Python backend services.
• Collaborate with Product Managers on roadmaps and epics.
• Foster ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Identify risks and drive mitigation plans.
• Collaborate with ACV engineering leaders to improve practices.
• Maintain ET working hours and participate in on-call rotation.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

People management

Agile methodologies

System architecture

API integration

Testing

Communication & collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/IT or related field

Tools

Python

Terraform

CI/CD pipelines

DataDog

Job description

Who are we looking for:

We are looking for an exceptional Team Lead, Software Engineer to lead, architect, and elevate our engineering team. We need a leader who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment and is passionate about solving complex technical challenges.

The ideal candidate has a strong foundation in software development, database design, multi-cloud environments, and in-memory data technologies. You bring deep technical expertise in software development, demonstrate strong communication and collaboration skills, and embrace a hands-on, problem-solving mindset to tackle ACV’s most challenging data engineering problems.

In this dual-impact role, you will serve as a senior technical authority while directly managing and mentoring a team of talented software engineers. You will bridge the gap between high-level business strategy and technical execution, ensuring your team ships high-quality, scalable software while fostering an environment of continuous growth and collaboration.

If you are passionate about solving complex architectural challenges and are equally invested in developing the careers of those around you, this is the perfect opportunity.

This is a hands on keyboard and team lead/manager role.

What you will do:

• Directly manage a small team of software engineers responsible for VIN Decoder domain, owning their performance, growth, and day-to-day engagement.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, provide actionable and constructive feedback, and map out clear career progression paths for your direct reports.
• Cultivate a collaborative, inclusive, and psychologically safe team culture where engineers are empowered to innovate and take ownership.
• Provide technical leadership through mentoring, coaching, and strong design/code review feedback, helping raise overall engineering quality.
• Facilitate effective communication across engineering, product, and business teams to ensure alignment and successful delivery.
• Actively participate in feature development, code reviews, and technical problem-solving across the team's core services.
• Own scrum agile methodologies within the team. Facilitate and lead core Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog grooming/refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
• Drive the technical vision for your team’s domain, making critical decisions on multi-cloud infrastructure, in-memory technologies, and overall system architecture.
• Drive predictable execution against team commitments, balancing delivery, quality, and operational excellence.
• Establish clear priorities, roadmaps, and execution plans aligned with organizational objectives.
• Monitor and improve key engineering and business metrics related to system reliability, delivery performance, and customer outcomes.
• Ensure software solutions are secure, scalable, maintainable, and aligned with ACV engineering standards.
• Architect, develop, and maintain robust Python backend services operating seamlessly across a complex multi-cloud infrastructure.
• Partner closely with Product Managers to define technical roadmaps, scope projects, translate epics into actionable user stories, and deliver features on time.
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Identify technical, operational, and delivery risks and proactively drive mitigation plans.
• Collaborate with engineering leaders across ACV to improve development practices, operational processes, and platform capabilities.
• You will need to maintain standard Eastern Time (ET) working hours to ensure seamless collaboration with your team and direct reports
• Participate in on-call rotation
• Other duties as assigned.

What you will need:

• Ability to read, write, speak and understand English.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent work experience)
• 0–2 years of people management experience preferred, including mentoring, developing engineers, and running effective Agile/sprint ceremonies
• 5+ years hands-on production experience programming in Python preferred
• 2-4+ years of experience working with Terraform/Infrastructure as Code concepts
• 3-5 years of active experience building, maintaining, and optimizing automated pipelines
• 2-4 years of hands-on experience applying domain driven design principles to architect and build complex systems
• Experience architecting and designing systems from the ground up, including making pragmatic decisions for scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Experience with in-memory data processing, database monitoring and diagnostic tools, preferably DataDog.
• Strong experience integrating 3rd-party APIs, implementing authentication & authorization and developing asynchronous data flows.
• Strong experience developing unit and integration-tests, and setting expectations for test strategy and coverage
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a fast paced global team environment.
• Deep practical experience operating within and leading Agile development environments, with a strong understanding of how to run effective sprints and agile ceremonies

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