Lead Fullstack Engineer

We seeking an experienced and influential Lead Fullstack Engineer to join our expanding Web Applications team. Our Lead engineers sit between our Senior Engineers and Staff Engineers in our Engineering Ladder. Reporting to the Engineering Manager, this role involves leading strategic technical initiatives that drive impactful results across teams and products. 

As a key player in our mission, you will shape technical solutions, influence departmental strategy, and guide a team of engineers to create world-class SaaS products that improve scientific research quality and efficiency.

You Will:

• Implement features and improvements from the database to the front end in SQL, Python and Typescript
• Set the standard patterns and practices for our full-stack solution
• Work closely with other Lead Engineers and Architects to continuously refine and elevate our architecture, ensuring scalable, maintainable, and future-ready solutions that align with our overall technical vision
• Utilize a deep understanding of business context and team goals to make independent technical decisions when requirements are open-ended, ensuring alignment with team and company objectives
• Serve as the primary decision-maker for technical aspects of multiple projects, upholding high standards in code quality and architecture
• Proactively identify and resolve misalignments between project outcomes, team goals, and customer needs, ensuring that solutions add maximum value
• Recognize new opportunities across projects and teams, advocating for and implementing improvements that can have broad business impact across multiple teams or products
• Take responsibility for project decisions and learn from any mistakes, openly sharing insights to prevent future issues and contribute to team-wide learning
• Actively remove obstacles that impede project progress, taking a solutions-oriented approach to enable team success
• Take ownership of and resolve operational issues promptly, driving a culture of urgency within the team to ensure smooth project progress
• Identify and address recurring sources of toil within the team, helping to minimize the impact of shifting priorities and support streamlined workflows
• Advocate for new technologies and innovative methods that enhance team productivity and technical capabilities
• Create and update playbooks and retrospectives to document best practices and enhance the team’s operational knowledge
• Develop and refine the technical roadmap for your domain, focusing on multi-phase, impactful projects and guiding Senior Engineers to execute these initiatives
• Drive technical goals that influence the department and organization, developing processes that benefit your immediate team and potentially the broader company

You Have:

• 8+ years of experience in full-stack development, with a proven track record of leading impactful projects
• A degree in Computer Science/Engineering or a related field within science
• Strong experience with a Python back-end and React/TypeScript front-end
• Expertise in relational databases and SQL (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and experience with vector and graph databases (e.g., Pinecone, Neo4j)
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Deeply understand backend and frontend testing frameworks (e.g., Jest, Cypress, PyTest) and performance/load test tools (Locust)
• Strong communication, collaboration, and strategic problem-solving skills
• A proactive approach to driving team success and improving workflows

Nice to haves:

• Background in Conversational AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions
• Knowledge of authentication solutions and SSO
• Familiarity with FastAPI, data pipelines, and DevOps
• Experience working with various backend technologies spanning multiple languages (E.g. Java EE, Spring, .NET core, Node.js, etc.
• A demonstrated ability to mentor and support the professional development of engineering talent