Lead Software Engineer

Summary: We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer (LSE) to drive the design and evolution of our cloud-native platform. This role is responsible for owning end-to-end platform capabilities, shaping architectural direction, and ensuring high standards of scalability, reliability, and developer experience. As a Lead Engineer, you will operate at the intersection of architecture, execution, and team leadership, working across squads to build cohesive and future-ready platform solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Develop platform features to the highest engineering standards with an AI-first mindset.
• Spike robust solutions to clear architectural runway ahead of platform feature development.
• Take personal responsibility for the overall technical performance of the team, including capabilities, quality, stability, and velocity.
• Perform code reviews focusing on code quality, design, and implementation.
• Regularly identify opportunities for code refactoring and performance optimizations, and champion these efforts within the team.
• Mentor junior software engineers by sharing best practices and providing guidance on proficiency.
• Identify technical constraints to engineering effectiveness and lead initiatives to address them.
• Advise product management on technical opportunities and constraints.
• Identify, understand, and implement technology trends and innovations relevant to the Appian Platform.
• Effectively communicate technical designs verbally, visually, and in writing for technical audiences of all sizes.
• Contribute to Appian's long-term documentation by publishing relevant, high-quality content to the Engineering's technical documentation site.

Required Skills:

• 12+ years of proven experience as a Lead Engineer with a strong focus on AWS.
• Deep hands-on experience with AWS services including EC2, Auto Scaling, EKS, ECS, Lambda, VPC, ALB/NLB, Route 53, PrivateLink, EBS, EFS, S3, IAM, KMS, and Secrets Manager.
• Experience with programming languages such as Java, Python, or GoLang.
• Strong proficiency in Infrastructure as Code using Terraform or any equivalent.
• Strong proficiency in Kubernetes.
• Experience with implementing and managing logging and monitoring solutions such as CloudWatch and CloudTrail.
• Demonstrated ability to track, analyze, and optimize AWS cloud costs.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced environment.