Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer – Full‑Stack

Company:
Cox Automotive – USA.

Flexible work option: hybrid; ability to work remotely part of the week; travel %; no work shift day.

Employment type:

Full‑Time;
Experience level:
Senior (7+ years).

Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $ – $. 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, equity compensation, and performance‑based bonus.

We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer to own the technical direction of a full‑stack product team. You will operate across the entire stack—from the component library and client‑side state management layer through APIs, services, and data stores—making sure the pieces fit together into a cohesive, performant, and maintainable product. You’ll pair deep hands‑on coding with the judgment to decide what to build, how to build it, and when to push back.

This is a senior technical leadership role.

• Technical Leadership
  • Define and drive the full‑stack technical roadmap in partnership with Product and Design, balancing feature velocity with platform health and technical debt reduction.
  • Establish and evolve architectural standards, coding conventions, and design patterns across frontend and backend systems.
  • Lead design reviews and RFC processes for significant features and system changes; serve as the final technical decision‑maker for the team.
  • Own cross‑cutting concerns—API contract design, authentication/authorization flows, performance budgets, accessibility standards, and data modeling strategy.
  • Represent the team in cross‑functional architecture forums; communicate technical trade‑offs, risks, and timelines to engineering leadership and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Frontend Engineering
  • Architect and build modern, responsive user interfaces using React (or equivalent framework) with a focus on performance, accessibility, and developer ergonomics.
  • Define and maintain the component library and design system implementation, ensuring consistency between design specs and shipped UI.
  • Drive frontend performance—bundle optimization, code splitting, lazy loading, caching strategies, and Core Web Vitals improvement.
  • Establish frontend testing strategy including unit, integration, visual regression, and end‑to‑end tests.
  • Champion accessibility (WCAG
    2.1AA) and internationalization as first‑class engineering concerns.
• Backend Engineering
  • Design, build, and scale RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs that serve the product’s frontend, mobile clients, and third‑party integrations.
  • Architect backend services for reliability, horizontal scalability, and operational clarity—clean domain boundaries, idempotent operations, graceful degradation, and structured logging.
  • Own data modeling and database design (relational and/or No
    
    SQL); optimize query performance, indexing strategies, and migration workflows.
  • Implement and enforce authentication, authorization, and data‑privacy patterns across the service layer.
  • Design event‑driven architectures and async processing pipelines where appropriate (message queues, pub/sub, background workers).
• Team Development & Culture
  • Mentor and coach SE1–SE3 engineers through code reviews, pairing sessions, design guidance, and career development conversations.
  • Foster a culture of quality—meaningful code review, automated testing, continuous integration, and iterative delivery.
  • Contribute to hiring—define technical interview standards, conduct interviews, and calibrate the hiring bar for the team.
  • Identify skill gaps and create learning paths, documentation, and internal tech talks to elevate the team’s capabilities across the stack.
  • Partner with Product and Design from discovery through delivery, providing early technical input that shapes what’s feasible and what’s wise.

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 3 years working across the full stack and at least 2 years in a technical leadership capacity.
• Expert‑level…