Lead Consultant Software Developer

Who We Are

Stride is a woman-founded organization that was established in 2014 by Debbie Madden. We are a values-driven company on a mission to unlock human potential by engineering better systems.

Stride’s expertise is in solving complex problems with custom software solutions that maximize value for businesses, teams, and end users. We have a track record of delivering high-quality software built to last and scale. We are currently working on GenAI solutions for our clients and recently launched Stride Conductor, a revolutionary tool that leverages large language models to accelerate software development processes.

Stride has been trusted to build software for companies such as Codeacademy, Gartner, and Clear. Stride is honored to be recognized as Built In's 2024 Best Startups to Work For, Chicago & NYC; and as Crain's 2023 Best Places to Work.

As a Lead Developer, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from a wide range of client domains and products across a variety of values-aligned engagements. Write high‑quality code with some of the best engineers across the country using XP practices, especially TDD.

We are tech and industry‑agnostic, so if you’re interested in learning new languages and tools and working in various tech environments you’re in good company. We love agile values and extreme programming (XP) practices.

• Lead medium and small projects, including guiding the team to make strategic technical decisions to enable delivery outcomes, set expectations with and maintain relationships with key stakeholders.
• Collaborate with client and Stride engineers, and product/design to drive delivery of complex features while improving the code quality and architecture of the application.
• Consistently build software that lasts, with low defect rates, downtime, and maintenance.
• Proactively set and manage stakeholder expectations as the project and engagement evolve.
• Proactively contribute to shaping meaningful goals.
• Drive choices on technologies and frameworks in greenfield projects.
• Influence improvements to existing applications.
• Build technical processes that best solve for project constraints, such as time, scope, and budget; as well as unique project constraints with performance, compliance, and security.
• Advocate for XP and agile practices, including the benefits of each practice and how they reinforce each other, such as version control, continuous integration, and continuous deployment.
• Adaptable to different working arrangements, e.g. soloing, pairing, and willing to seek help and share expertise with others when needed.
• Own your path to production when possible. Strategically and incrementally use agile practices best for the project’s unique constraints and business needs.
• Teach and mentor team members in new skills (e.g. frameworks, languages) and engineering practices such as testing, version control, and design.
• Use your knowledge of the product lifecycle and guide the team to consistently deliver working software solutions as early as possible.
• Onboard and train clients in the new systems and processes created for further development and operation.

• Expertise with a variety of agile practices, e.g. pairing, TDD, and team events facilitation: e.g. planning, demos, retrospectives.
• Experience working with large legacy systems or experience building up greenfield projects.
• 6-8 years of experience in one or more of the following technologies: GO, .NET, Java, Python, Ruby, JavaScript (React, Node.js).
• Experience building CI pipelines and implementing CD best practices.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) and/or infrastructure as code (Cloud Formation, Terraform).
• An understanding and can speak to trade‑offs of different technical approaches, e.g. object‑oriented programming vs. functional programming, monolith vs. microservice architecture.
• Experience building partnerships with teammates and stakeholders. Takes an empathetic approach to setting and managing expectations and facilitates relationships.
• Proven ability to level up peers through mentorship.
• An excitement for GenAI.