The Lead Software Engineer takes the lead on difficult technical problem-solving and cross-team coordination, predicts and documents potential architectural risks and constraints, and leverages AI-assisted engineering tooling to compound their own and the broader engineering organization's productivity. As engineering teams increasingly rely on AI-generated code, the Lead Software Engineer serves as a thought leader in evolving solution discovery practices to meet this shift - defining how architectural intent, integration contracts, and implementation patterns are embedded into spec-driven development workflows and AI coding agent configurations, ensuring technical direction is established at the point of generation rather than discovered through downstream rework.
What You'll Do
- Owns milestone and epic-level solution discovery for the assigned value stream portfolio, producing implementation-ready technical specifications that AI Transformed and AI Enabled delivery teams can execute while reducing the need for iterative clarification.
- Defines technical standards and reference implementations for the value stream's product architectures, ensuring consistency across the portfolio and clear patterns for delivery teams to follow.
- Partners with Value Stream Architects, peer Release Train level engineers, and adjacent release trains to align technical direction, surface architectural risks, and drive cross-train decisions before they become delivery blockers.
- Identifies teams with architectural drift, technical debt, or capability gaps and embeds to lead remediation - coaching on patterns, driving solution design, and verifying technical readiness before delivery commitments are made.
- Drives adoption of spec-driven development across the value stream's delivery teams, embedding architectural intent and integration contracts into the artifacts AI coding agents and engineers consume - rather than relying on post-implementation correction.
- Serves as the right hand to the incident commander during production incidents, providing technical depth across the value stream's product surface, accelerating diagnosis, and driving decisive remediation.
- Remains the tip of the spear on emerging engineering technologies - including AI-assisted development, spec-driven workflows, and modern integration patterns - through hands-on adoption, then transfers that capability to delivery teams through structured mentorship and reference work.
- Identifies architectural risks within the value stream's technology footprint, defines mitigation strategies, and drives them to documented decisions that set forward-looking technical direction.
Who You Are
- Bachelor's degree (list any requirements of discipline here) and 6 years' experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 4 years' experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience; or 18 years' experience in a related field.
- Hands-on experience with full-stack development, including technologies such as StencilJS and C#, in addition to designing and delivering distributed software systems, including API design, integration patterns, and cloud-native architectures (AWS or equivalent).
- Hands-on experience leading technical solution discovery for complex initiatives, producing specifications and architectural artifacts that other engineers execute against.
- Experience with modern delivery methodologies including spec-driven development, Agile practices at scale, and AI-assisted engineering workflows.
- Reviews product requirements and system designs with an architectural lens, contributing technical direction during discovery and driving implementation patterns that support maintainability, scalability, and resilience.
- Skilled at building partnerships with Product, Architecture, and Engineering teams both inside and outside of the organization, and at driving decisions across organizational boundaries without formal authority.
- Remains current on software engineering tooling, architectural patterns, and emerging methodologies, recommending and driving adoption of approaches that measurably improve delivery throughput, technical quality, or engineering productivity.
- Demonstrated experience working with AI coding tools (such as Claude, Copilot, or equivalent) and the ability to define and implement architectural guardrails within agent configurations, constitutions, or briefings
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $0.00 - $0.00. 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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree and 6 years of experience in a related field, or an equivalent combination such as a master's degree with 4 years, a Ph.D. with 1 year, or 18 years of related experience.
- Hands-on full-stack development experience, including StencilJS and C#.
- Experience designing and delivering distributed software systems, including API design, integration patterns, and cloud-native architectures using AWS or equivalent.
- Experience leading technical solution discovery for complex initiatives and producing executable specifications and architectural artifacts.
- Experience with spec-driven development, Agile practices at scale, and AI-assisted engineering workflows.
- Experience reviewing product requirements and system designs from an architectural perspective and defining maintainable, scalable, and resilient implementation patterns.
- Ability to build partnerships across Product, Architecture, and Engineering and drive decisions without formal authority.
- Experience evaluating software engineering tools, architectural patterns, and emerging methodologies and driving adoption.
- Demonstrated experience with AI coding tools such as Claude, Copilot, or equivalent, including defining architectural guardrails in agent configurations, constitutions, or briefings.
Cox Enterprises Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Multiple medical plan options, preventive care, prescription coverage, telehealth, and dental/vision are highlighted alongside HSA/FSA support. Feedback suggests coverage quality and affordability are strengths for many.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with a company match is repeatedly emphasized, and the employer match is often viewed as a notable advantage. Feedback suggests this is a potentially valuable long-term financial benefit.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave, fertility coverage, adoption assistance, and subsidized backup childcare form a broad family-support offering. Feedback suggests these programs are a meaningful differentiator for caregivers.
Cox Enterprises Insights
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.
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