Seeking an experienced Lead Engineer to join our AdTech Platform that powers advertising and monetization experiences across digital channels. Accountable for proactively leading or supporting software engineering activities that create deliverables that guide the direction, development, and delivery of software solutions that meet business needs. Provide leadership, facilitation, analysis, and design tasks required to deliver critical business solutions. Develop target-state guidance (i.e., reusable standards, design patterns, guidelines, individual parts, and configurations) to evolve the organization's development process. Demonstrate the company's core values of respect, honesty, integrity, diversity, inclusion and, safety.
Responsibilities- Develop a high-quality codebase, lead design discussions, execute development against design, and navigate complex codebase- Lead the development implementation of technology strategy within a defined set of teams. Executes against defined technology roadmap to support project portfolio and business strategy
- Oversee the implementation of enterprise standards across domains: operations, infrastructure, data, applications, development, security & risk, and business continuance
- Provide technical leadership to ensure clarity between ongoing projects and the strategic objectives of the company
- Drive digital innovation by leveraging innovative new technologies and approaches to renovate, extend, and, transform the existing core technology base and IT estate
- Implement high-level migration plans to address the gaps between the current and future state, typically in sync with the budgeting or other capital planning processes
- Present opportunities with cost/benefit analysis to leadership to shape sound architectural decisions
- Lead the analysis of the technology environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement
- Mentor team members in software development principles, patterns, processes and, practices
- Promote the capture and reuse of intellectual capital, including code objects and components
- Draft and review architectural diagrams, interface specifications, class structures and, other design documents
- Must be able to perform the essential job functions of this position with or without reasonable accommodation
Qualifications
Minimum
- Bachelor's Degree Computer Science or in a STEM major
- 5+ years of successful and applicable experience taking a lead role in building complex software and automation systems that has been successfully delivered to customers
- 5+ years of a proven track record of designing and delivering large scale, high-quality systems
- 5+ years of successful and applicable hands-on experience in software or infrastructure development domain and principles, including design patterns and code structure
- Strong knowledge of industry trends and industry competition
- Deep knowledge in a minimum of two of the following technical disciplines: infrastructure and network design, application development, application programming interfaces (APIs), cloud, middleware, servers and storage, database management, and operations
- Understanding of network and security architecture
- Demonstrated written, oral and, presentation/public speaking communication skills
- Proven ability to think and contribute at the strategic level
- Strong proficiency in Java (preferably Java 21) and/or Kotlin
- Hands on experience with Spring Boot for building microservices and experience with event-driven architecture
- Experience working with containerized environments (Dockers, Kubernetes)
- Strong experience in NoSQL databases
- Solid understanding of distributed systems, scalability and fault tolerance
Desired
- Demonstrated capability to build, mentor and maintain an inclusive team-based environment
- Experience building solutions using elastic architectures (preferably Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform)
- Experience building ad-tech or monetization platforms (auction systems, ranking, ad-serving)
- Knowledge of real-time bidding, personalization or recommendation systems
- Exposure to A/B testing frameworks and experimentation platforms
Skills Required
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or STEM major
- 5+ years leading development of complex software and automation systems delivered to customers
- 5+ years designing and delivering large-scale, high-quality systems
- 5+ years hands-on experience in software or infrastructure development, including design patterns and code structure
- Deep knowledge in at least two disciplines: infrastructure and network design, application development, APIs, cloud, middleware, servers and storage, database management, or operations
- Understanding of network and security architecture
- Strong proficiency in Java (preferably Java 21) and/or Kotlin
- Hands-on experience with Spring Boot for building microservices
- Experience with containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Strong experience in NoSQL databases
- Solid understanding of distributed systems, scalability and fault tolerance
- Demonstrated written, oral, and presentation/public speaking communication skills
- Proven ability to think and contribute at the strategic level
- Demonstrated capability to build, mentor and maintain an inclusive team-based environment
- Experience building solutions using elastic architectures (preferably Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform)
- Experience building ad-tech or monetization platforms (auction systems, ranking, ad-serving)
- Knowledge of real-time bidding, personalization or recommendation systems
- Exposure to A/B testing frameworks and experimentation platforms
Kroger Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Kroger and has not been reviewed or approved by Kroger.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage in many union divisions has been protected or improved in recent contracts, with some regions avoiding proposed cuts and others expanding spousal coverage and strengthening short‑term disability. Mental‑health resources and 24/7 access are also emphasized, supported by third‑party recognition in recent years.
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Retirement Support — Retirement options include a company 401(k) with a match and, in many union roles, access to pension or variable annuity plans that have been stabilized through recent agreements. Match levels and pension participation vary by division and role, so specifics require local confirmation.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Education assistance through “Feed Your Future” offers substantial tuition support for both part‑ and full‑time associates, alongside free financial coaching. Perks such as associate discounts and periodic Boost membership offers add incremental value to total rewards.
Kroger Insights
What We Do
At Kroger, we believe no matter who you are or how you like to shop, everyone deserves affordable, easy-to-enjoy, fresh food. This idea is embodied in our simple tagline—Fresh for Everyone™. Kroger ranks as one of the world’s largest retailers. We are nearly half a million associates across 2,800 stores in 35 states operating two dozen grocery retail brands and 34 manufacturing and 44 distribution locations, all dedicated to living our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit™. Together, we serve more than 11 million customers daily in our stores and online through convenient e-commerce options like pickup, ship and delivery, serving America through food inspiration and uplift. Customers love Our Brands, including the popular Kroger®, Private Selection® and Simple Truth® brands. Our own manufacturing plants produce many of Our Brands products, including breads, dairy products, meat and thousands of grocery items. We also believe in and are committed to doing our part to create #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025.
