Lead Software Engineer (Solution Design)

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end solution design with a strong API focus, from initial concept through architecture decisions to implementation guidance, ensuring solutions are scalable, maintainable, secure, and aligned with enterprise standards. Collaborate closely with enterprise architects and drive solution proposals forward by presenting to architecture boards, securing stakeholder buy-in, and shepherding designs from approval through delivery. Drive stakeholder alignment across product, platform, security, and business functions; act as the bridge between the team and the wider organization on strategic technical developments. Champion the creation and usage of API templates, SDKs, reusable services, and the Internal Developer Platform (Backstage) to support the Pharma Commercial. Lead the adoption of Composable Architecture principles across Pharma Commercial and guide engineers to apply them effectively. Define and enforce team-based standards for design patterns, programming tools, and techniques; select appropriate methods and ensure their effective application. Review systems designs of our product squads to ensure appropriate technology selection, efficient use of resources, and effective integration across multiple systems and technologies. Validate solution approaches through appropriate prototyping methods, choosing the most suitable technique for each context. Own delivery outcomes in a high-performing team, balancing quality and time-to-market by crafting pragmatic compromise solutions when constraints demand trade-offs. Leverage AI coding assistants effectively and promote their productive adoption within the team. Design and govern reusable components (APIs, SDKs, templates) that are discoverable, self-describing, and ready for consumption by AI coding assistants and autonomous agents—with clear contracts, machine-readable metadata, and up-to-date documentation. Mentor and work closely with less experienced colleagues, fostering growth and capability building within the team.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field.

7+ years of experience as a software engineer. Established and maintained development standards (branching strategies, PR workflows, platform tooling) adopted across multiple teams. Presented solution designs and technical proposals to architecture boards, governance forums, or business stakeholders, and incorporated their feedback into final designs. Owned API or platform standards across multiple teams, with evidence of cross-team uptake (e.g. shared templates, SDKs, or design patterns in production use). Co-authored or reviewed architecture decision records (ADRs) in collaboration with enterprise architects, aligning solution designs with enterprise-wide standards and technology roadmaps. Navigated cross-team dependencies to deliver integrated solutions end-to-end, documented through design artifacts, decision logs, or delivery retrospectives. Excellent experience with component design as part of Composable Architecture principles like MACH, especially with an API-first and event driven integration strategy. Excellent experience working in agile teams using Scrum or Kanban. Excellent experience in programming with Python and TypeScript (Node.js) and at least one other, strongly typed, compiled language like C#, Java, or Kotlin; experience with other languages is a plus. Excellent experience with software version control using Git and collaborative development via GitHub. Excellent experience in developing RESTful APIs, API specification, contract design and documentation using OpenAPI and Swagger. Good knowledge of database and integration technologies for software development, with focus on PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift and noSQL. Good knowledge of test-driven development using testing frameworks and API test methodologies. Good experience developing streaming integration and messaging solutions with Kafka and Cloud Messaging Queues and integrating them into orchestration workflows using solutions like Apache Airflow. Good knowledge of monitoring and observability solutions like OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, and Amazon CloudWatch. Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, containerization and orchestration solutions like Docker and Kubernetes. Knowledge of static analysis tools like SonarQube and CodeQL.