Lead AI Staff Engineer

Lead / Staff Software Engineer (AI-Augmented Development)

Location: Remote (United States)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Department: Product & Engineering

A confidential, mission-driven technology company and client of Peskind Executive Search is seeking a Lead / Staff Software Engineer to help design, build, and scale mission-critical software platforms supporting public safety and emergency response organizations nationwide.

This role is designed for a senior individual contributor and technical leader who actively uses modern AI tools—specifically Claude
—as a core part of their day-to-day development workflow
. The focus of this position is not building AI models, but leveraging AI to accelerate software delivery
, improve code quality, and move systems from concept to production more efficiently.

You will own system architecture, database-level design, and production readiness, while using AI-assisted development to handle a meaningful portion of implementation work under your technical direction.

Note: This position is open exclusively to U.S. Citizens due to the sensitive nature of the data and regulatory compliance requirements.

• Act as a Lead / Staff-level engineer owning system design, architectural decisions, and technical direction
• Mentor and support other engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and best practices
• Partner with engineering leadership on long-term technical strategy and platform evolution
• Participate in hiring and technical evaluation of engineering candidates

• Use Claude as an integral part of the development process for generating, refactoring, and extending application code
• Design structured prompts, constraints, and validation approaches to reliably produce production-quality output
• Direct AI-generated code rather than manually writing every component, focusing human effort on correctness, performance, security, and maintainability
• Review, test, and harden AI-assisted code prior to production deployment

• Architect and implement core application systems and data models supporting high-volume, high-integrity workloads
• Own database schema design, migrations, indexing strategies, and performance optimization
• Ensure data reliability, observability, and operational robustness across environments
• Collaborate on data ingestion, transformation, and reporting pipelines

• Own end-to-end architecture for SaaS and on-prem deployments
• Produce clear technical documentation, diagrams, and implementation plans
• Ensure systems meet internal standards for security, compliance, and scalability
• Drive features and platforms from initial design through production release

• Work closely with product, engineering, and customer-facing teams
• Support production systems and contribute to continuous improvement based on real-world usage

• U.S. Citizenship required
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• 7+ years of experience as a software engineer in SaaS or technology-driven environments
• Experience operating at a Lead or Staff Engineer level
  , owning architecture and delivery
• Demonstrated experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude) as part of a modern software development workflow
• Strong backend development experience in .NET and/or Java (Spring Boot preferred)
• Experience designing, building, and documenting APIs
• Strong experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.)
• Experience with AWS and Infrastructure as Code
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, scalability, and security
• Ability to work independently and lead in a fully remote environment
• Excellent communication skills and technical judgment

• Experience working in regulated or compliance-driven environments (CJIS a plus)
• Background in public safety, Gov Tech, or mission-critical systems
• Experience modernizing legacy platforms using AI-assisted development techniques

This is an opportunity to operate at the intersection of senior engineering leadership and modern AI-augmented development
—owning real systems, real data, and real outcomes. You’ll help define how AI is responsibly used to accelerate delivery without sacrificing quality, in a domain where reliability and trust truly matter.