Be an Early Applicant
Building a better future for this generation and the next.
The Role
Leads development, modernization, and production support for enterprise IBM iSeries applications using RPG and Python. Serves as the Level 3 escalation point for critical inventory and transaction systems, resolving complex incidents, driving root-cause improvements, and ensuring operational continuity. Provides technical leadership across engineering teams, defines standards and architecture, supports integrations, mentors engineers, and partners with business and product stakeholders on modernization, reliability, observability, and AI adoption initiatives.
Summary Generated by Built In
The Lead Software Engineer serves as a senior technical leader responsible for designing, developing, enhancing, and supporting complex software systems that are critical to business operations. This role provides deep technical expertise across both the business and technical landscape, drives engineering best practices, and helps define near- and long-term technical direction.
This position requires extensive hands-on software development experience, exceptional problem-solving skills, and highly specialized knowledge of IBM iSeries systems. The person in this role, is expected to lead development efforts, guide resolution of the most complex production issues, provide Level 3 triage support for critical business applications, and serve as a trusted advisor to both technical and business stakeholders.
The role requires deep expertise in IBM iSeries application development and RPG programming as well as extensive knowledge of the operational processes that support inventory management and their transactions.
Additionally, this role provides technical leadership and support for critical inventory operations supporting strategic commercial and third-party clients as well as major and critical accounts. The individual is responsible for ensuring operational continuity, resolving high-impact issues, identifying modernization opportunities, and driving technical excellence across the organization.
Key Responsibilities
Software Development and Technical Leadership
IBM iSeries/ Specialized Systems Expertise
Level 3 Production Support and Triage
Strategic Influence and Cross-Functional Collaboration
Minimum Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
USD 122,600.00 - 204,400.00 per year
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $122,600.00 - $204,400.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
EOE, including disability/vets
This position requires extensive hands-on software development experience, exceptional problem-solving skills, and highly specialized knowledge of IBM iSeries systems. The person in this role, is expected to lead development efforts, guide resolution of the most complex production issues, provide Level 3 triage support for critical business applications, and serve as a trusted advisor to both technical and business stakeholders.
The role requires deep expertise in IBM iSeries application development and RPG programming as well as extensive knowledge of the operational processes that support inventory management and their transactions.
Additionally, this role provides technical leadership and support for critical inventory operations supporting strategic commercial and third-party clients as well as major and critical accounts. The individual is responsible for ensuring operational continuity, resolving high-impact issues, identifying modernization opportunities, and driving technical excellence across the organization.
Key Responsibilities
Software Development and Technical Leadership
- Lead team efforts to design, develop, test, document, and support complex software systems, applications, automation and integrations.
- Design, develop, enhance, test, and support enterprise software systems and integrations across multiple platforms.
- Drive RPG development, enhancements, and modernization efforts.
- Lead technical solutioning for large-scale, high-impact initiatives spanning multiple applications, teams, and business domains.
- Collaborate with analysts, engineers, architects, product teams, and business stakeholders to develop highly complex technical solutions.
- Support multiple engineering teams through sound technical leadership, procedural guidance, and solution development.
- Translate business needs, operational requirements, and customer expectations into scalable and maintainable technical solutions.
- Estimate software development efforts and technical initiatives with a high degree of predictability and accuracy.
- Establish and promote engineering standards for quality, maintainability, security, performance, reliability, and scalability.
- Review system designs, architecture proposals, and code changes to ensure solutions align with organizational standards and technical direction.
- Evaluate secure coding practices, engineering tools, and development processes while identifying opportunities for improvement.
- Research, evaluate, and adopt AI and emerging technologies, engineering practices, and modernization approaches that improve system performance, engineering productivity, and operational resilience.
- Present system designs, architectural recommendations, and technical solution proposals to peers, leadership teams, and stakeholders.
- Define, measure, and recommend metrics that improve software quality, cycle time, reliability, service availability, and operational effectiveness.
IBM iSeries/ Specialized Systems Expertise
- Serve as the primary subject matter expert in IBM iSeries application development, support, and modernization.
- Provide deep technical expertise in RPG development and support for AS400.
- Maintain extensive knowledge of legacy system behaviors, business processes, integrations, and operational dependencies.
- Serve as a domain expert for integrations between internal and external systems, ensuring seamless data exchange and business continuity.
- Diagnose and resolve highly complex issues involving IBM i applications, batch jobs, interfaces, APIs, integrations, and downstream systems.
- Support and improve mission-critical systems used to manage inventory, operations, and products lifecycle processes.
- Provide expert-level support for inventory operations associated with strategic commercial accounts and other enterprise partners.
- Partner with business and product teams to improve inventory management processes, operational workflows, and system capabilities.
- Identify opportunities to improve observability, maintainability, stability, and long-term sustainability of IBM i applications.
- Support modernization initiatives while ensuring operational continuity and preservation of critical business functionality.
- Champions AI adoption and utilization beyond their team's circle.
- Document technical designs, operational dependencies, support procedures, and system behaviors to improve organizational knowledge and reduce risk.
Level 3 Production Support and Triage
- Lead Level 3 triage and incident resolution efforts for business-critical production systems.
- Serve as the senior escalation point for incidents with significant customer, operational, or financial impact.
- Provide expert support during production impacting events and other operationally sensitive business activities.
- Lead troubleshooting efforts involving related integrated platforms.
- Conduct root cause analysis for severe and recurring incidents and drive corrective and preventive actions.
- Partner with Product, Operations, Client Care, Support, and Engineering organizations during incident response activities.
- Communicate complex technical issues clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Provide timely updates regarding service impact, mitigation strategies, recovery efforts, and ongoing risks.
- Identify systemic issues and drive improvements that reduce operational risk, improve service stability, and prevent future incidents.
Strategic Influence and Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Build strong partnerships across Engineering, Product, Operations, Client Care, Architecture, and business organizations.
- Act as a trusted advisor by leveraging deep business knowledge and technical expertise to influence decision-making.
- Participate in defining strategic technology direction and long-term engineering roadmaps.
- Collaborate with architects and technology leaders to drive modernization efforts and system evolution.
- Influence technical standards, engineering practices, support models, and operational excellence initiatives across teams.
- Drive peer-to-peer technical learning, mentoring, and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
- Facilitate technical reviews and collaborative design sessions to improve engineering effectiveness and solution quality.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives focused on improving customer experience, operational efficiency, and system reliability.
- Promotes and champions AI adoption.
- Promote a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, accountability, and technical excellence.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
- 6+ years of experience developing, supporting, and maintaining enterprise-scale software solutions. SDLC expert.
- 6+ years of experience with IBM i systems and RPG development.
- 6+ years of experience with Python.
- 4+ years of experience supporting complex integrations and operationally critical business systems.
- 4+ years of experience troubleshooting highly complex production issues and leading Level 3 support activities.
- Experience with AI technologies for SDLC and day-to-day activities.
- Experience supporting mission-critical applications in high-pressure operational environments, including day-of-sale or transaction-sensitive workflows.
- Strong understanding of software architecture and secure coding practices.
- Experience influencing technical decisions, drive change, and deliver long-term solutions to complex business challenges.
- Experience tailoring communication to technical and non-technical audiences alike, and stakeholder management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience modernizing legacy IBM i environments and integrating with cloud-native or distributed architectures.
- 10+ years of experience engineering in RPG and Python.
- Experience with observability platforms, automation, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering practices.
- Deep familiarity with vehicle operations, inventory management systems, vehicle lifecycle workflows, and commercial account operations.
- Expert in SDLC and using AI to design, implement and accelerate safe and secure software.
- Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical knowledge-sharing initiatives.
- Experience evaluating and implementing emerging technologies that improve reliability, productivity, and operational resilience.
USD 122,600.00 - 204,400.00 per year
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $122,600.00 - $204,400.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
EOE, including disability/vets
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
- 6+ years of experience developing, supporting, and maintaining enterprise-scale software solutions.
- 6+ years of experience with IBM i systems and RPG development.
- 6+ years of experience with Python.
- 4+ years of experience supporting complex integrations and operationally critical business systems.
- 4+ years of experience troubleshooting highly complex production issues and leading Level 3 support activities.
- Experience with AI technologies for software development lifecycle and day-to-day activities.
- Experience supporting mission-critical applications in high-pressure operational environments, including transaction-sensitive workflows.
- Strong understanding of software architecture and secure coding practices.
- Experience influencing technical decisions, driving change, and delivering long-term solutions to complex business challenges.
- Experience tailoring communication to technical and non-technical audiences and managing stakeholders.
- Experience modernizing legacy IBM i environments and integrating with cloud-native or distributed architectures.
- 10+ years of engineering experience with RPG and Python.
- Experience with observability platforms, automation, CI/CD, DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering practices.
- Familiarity with vehicle operations, inventory management systems, vehicle lifecycle workflows, and commercial account operations.
- Expertise in software development lifecycle practices and using AI to design, implement, and accelerate safe and secure software.
- Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical knowledge-sharing initiatives.
- Experience evaluating and implementing emerging technologies that improve reliability, productivity, and operational resilience.
What the Team is Saying
Belinda
Manager of Network Automation
Tonya
Director of Agile Delivery
Chris
Manager of Engineering Support & Delivery
John Chapman
National Client Sales Director, Cox Automotive
Kib Yahyehyrab
Audit Analysis, Cox Enterprises
Jenny Arias
Marketing & Events Assistant, Cox Farms
Cox Enterprises Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is positioned as robust with multiple medical plan options (PPOs and an HSA‑eligible HDHP), in‑network preventive care at 100%, and expanded mental health and virtual care access. Specialized offerings such as fertility benefits, gender‑affirming care, and wellness programs (e.g., Calm, FitnessOnDemand, Hinge Health) further bolster breadth.
-
Retirement Support — The 401(k) program features an enhanced employer contribution for most newer hires—dollar‑for‑dollar matching up to 6% and an automatic 2% contribution after 90 days, with legacy formulas for earlier hire dates. Financial tools and student‑debt support via Candidly deepen long‑term savings support.
-
Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave of eight weeks, adoption assistance (up to $5,000 per adoption), and resources like backup care and childcare discounts are highlighted. Family‑building and caregiving supports (e.g., fertility coverage, Milk Stork, Care.com access) are emphasized across materials.
Cox Enterprises Insights
Am I A Good Fit?
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.
Success! Refresh the page to see how your skills align with this role.
The Company
What We Do
Cox Enterprises is a family-owned enterprise spanning 125+ years of innovation. Through our diverse network of businesses, our people are shaping the future with bold thinking, cutting-edge technology and an unwavering commitment to doing what’s right. Across a range of industries — including automotive, agriculture, cleantech, journalism and more — we’re building a better future for this generation and the next. Make your mark at Cox!
Why Work With Us
Founded in 1898, Cox Enterprises is a community of kind, grounded individuals who work together to drive positive change across vital industries. At Cox, employees experience meaningful work, great benefits, work-life balance and a supportive team environment, plus ample opportunities for career growth across our family of businesses.
Gallery
.png)
Cox Enterprises Teams
Product & Tech
About our Teams
Cox Enterprises Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Typical time on-site:
Flexible
