Software Technical Lead

Job title: Software Technical Lead
Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Work model: Primarily Office Based
Reporting to: Engineering Manager
Team size: Initially 4–7 software engineers, with close collaboration across QA, DevOps/platform engineering, and firmware/hardware-adjacent teams
Compensation: TBD

ePropelled develops intelligent propulsion and power management systems for uncrewed vehicles. We are looking for a hands-on Software Technical Lead to develop cloud-based software that connects our hardware products with user applications.

Your strongest experience will be in software development, backend services and full-stack delivery. You will bring strong production development skills in Python or Java, experience delivering containerised services, and practical exposure to IoT, telemetry or other connected-device systems.

You will lead technical decisions, contribute code and help other engineers deliver reliable software. Working with firmware and hardware colleagues, you will develop a deeper understanding of our devices, their interfaces and the environments in which they operate.

Prior experience developing embedded firmware, motor-control software or autonomous-vehicle software is not required.

·         Lead the design and delivery of backend services, APIs, telemetry processing and supporting web applications.

·         Remain directly involved in implementation, code review, troubleshooting and technical problem-solving for approximately 70–80% of your time.

·         Design service boundaries, data models and interfaces, choosing an appropriate architecture for the product’s scale and complexity.

·         Develop and deploy containerised applications using Docker and Kubernetes, working with colleagues responsible for infrastructure and operations.

·         Build and improve automated tests, CI/CD pipelines and release processes.

·         Use logs, metrics and traces to diagnose problems and improve service reliability.

·         Work with firmware and hardware engineers to define device-to-platform interfaces, data formats, version compatibility and failure behaviour.

·         Address connected-system concerns such as intermittent connectivity, retries, duplicate messages, device identity and access control.

·         Contribute to web dashboards and operational interfaces, and guide integration between frontend and backend components.

·         Mentor engineers, explain technical trade-offs and help translate product requirements into achievable development work.

·         You will work with an experienced Software Engineering Manager who will handle day-to-day line management and scheduling. This is a technical leadership role, not a line-management role.

We are looking for evidence of the following capabilities:

Hands-on technical leadership. You have taken responsibility for substantial software delivery, made and explained architectural decisions, reviewed code and supported other engineers. You continue to write and debug production code.

Strong Python or Java development. You have built and maintained production backend services in at least one of these languages and can explain your approach to testing, performance, concurrency and maintainability. You are willing to learn other languages where the work requires them.

Cloud and distributed systems. You have delivered services on a cloud platform and have practical experience with microservices, APIs and asynchronous messaging. You understand trade-offs involving consistency, failure handling, scalability and operational complexity.

Containers and Kubernetes. You have practical experience packaging, deploying and troubleshooting applications using Docker and Kubernetes.

CI/CD and production quality. You have worked with version control, automated builds, tests and controlled releases, and have contributed to improving these practices.

Observability. You have used logs, metrics and tracing to investigate production behaviour. Experience with tools such as Prometheus, Grafana or OpenTelemetry is relevant; familiarity with every named tool is not required.

Genuine connected-system exposure. You have contributed to a deployed IoT, telemetry, device-management, industrial monitoring, telematics or comparable hardware-connected system. You can explain your own contribution, how device data reached the application, and how you investigated integration or reliability problems.

Full-stack delivery. You understand how modern web applications interact with backend services and have contributed to delivering user-facing functionality. Your deepest expertise may be in backend development; direct ownership of cloud infrastructure is not the primary focus of this role.

Data and security fundamentals. You have practical SQL and relational database experience, together with an understanding of authentication, authorisation, secrets handling and secure service communication.

Collaboration and learning. You communicate clearly, investigate unfamiliar problems systematically and work effectively with colleagues from other engineering disciplines.

At least seven years of relevant software engineering experience, including technical leadership responsibilities, is required.

Any of the following would be valuable. You do not need experience in all of them:

·         MQTT, device provisioning, device identity or remote software updates.

·         Edge gateways, Linux-based devices or systems that operate with unreliable connectivity.

·         PostgreSQL, time-series data or telemetry storage and processing.

·         Practical development experience in both Python and Java. Proficiency in at least one is essential; experience with both is an advantage.

·         Frontend frameworks such as React, Angular or Vue.

·         Robotics, manufacturing, industrial automation or uncrewed vehicles.

·         Integrating AI or machine-learning services into a production application.

Your initial technical ownership will focus on software development. You will lead the development of software deployed on cloud platforms and integrated with connected devices and user applications. Firmware and hardware colleagues will contribute their specialist knowledge and collaborate on interfaces, diagnostics and system behaviour. Platform Engineering colleagues will provide infrastructure and specialist expertise in CI/CD, deployment and platform operations.

You will be expected to develop a broader understanding over time, ask informed questions and recognise when specialist input is needed.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. It involves guiding software engineers in their approach to software development and taking responsibility for technical delivery.

A relevant degree or equivalent practical experience is welcome.

We consider candidates from different industries. What matters is evidence of production software development and delivery, technical leadership and relevant connected-system experience.

If you meet the essential capabilities but have not used every technology mentioned, we encourage you to apply. Please describe a system you helped deliver, your personal contribution and a difficult technical problem you resolved.

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• Family Medical Insurance
  
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• Work with Global team