Software Development Leader

We are seeking a hands-on software development leader to provide technical leadership, delivery alignment, and engineering consistency across all proprietary software development. This role is responsible for ensuring high-quality, scalable, and secure software solutions that support critical business operations while remaining actively engaged in system design and development. The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader who works alongside development teams, contributing to architecture, solving complex technical problems, and improving delivery outcomes without introducing unnecessary process or management layers. This role operates within a lean organizational model and emphasizes execution, ownership, and practical engineering discipline. This role also provides cross-team leadership, partnering closely with IT, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to ensure alignment across systems and priorities. Exposure to or experience with AI-assisted development tools is strongly preferred, particularly in improving developer productivity, automation, and software quality. **Key Responsibilities** - Provide technical leadership across multiple development teams without introducing unnecessary management layers - Actively participate in architecture, solution design, and complex development efforts - Serve as an escalation point for difficult technical and delivery challenges across teams - Ensure consistent, practical engineering standards across applications, integrations, and services - Drive improved delivery outcomes by identifying and removing cross-team friction - Establish and reinforce strong QA and testing practices, including automated testing, test coverage, and quality ownership within development teams - Partner closely with QA resources to improve defect prevention, testing efficiency, and release quality - Collaborate with DevOps to ensure effective CI/CD pipelines, deployment practices, and environment consistency - Participate in code reviews and guide technical decision-making for critical systems - Promote the use of AI-assisted development tooling to improve productivity, code quality, and delivery speed - Identify opportunities to automate development, testing, and operational workflows using AI or scripting approaches - Evaluate AI-generated outputs and ensure appropriate validation, security, and human oversight are maintained - Establish and maintain alignment with enterprise architecture, integration patterns, and platform standards - Partner with cybersecurity to ensure secure coding practices and timely remediation of vulnerabilities - Maintain accountability for application performance, reliability, and production support readiness - Work directly within development tools, platforms, and codebases when needed to support delivery - Partner with business and IT stakeholders to align development efforts with priorities and business outcomes - Track delivery effectiveness and apply lightweight metrics to improve execution without adding unnecessary process - Evaluate tools, platforms, and vendors that improve development efficiency or reduce operational complexity - Influence development practices across teams through hands-on engagement, not formal governance - Lead and mentor team leads and senior engineers, strengthening technical and leadership capabilities - Continuously experiment with emerging technologies, including AI, to improve engineering effectiveness **Required Qualifications** - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience) - 8+ years of experience in software development or engineering roles - 5+ years of experience in a senior technical or hands-on leadership role - Strong experience in application architecture, system design, and integrations - Proven ability to operate as a hands-on leader, not solely as a manager - Experience working across multiple development teams or complex delivery environments - Experience w…