Lead Software Engineer (Hybrid)

Lead Engineer

Who We Are

At the company, we bring life to the best ideas.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions consultancy that partners with organisations from early‑stage startups to the world's largest companies.

We take on hard software challenges and turn them into durable results.

We build agentic products, the platforms they run on, and the engineering and design at every layer.

Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands‑on work.

We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients.

Who You Are

• Successfully led high‑stakes consulting engagements from discovery to production
• Built high‑quality, maintainable software collaboratively, incrementally, and through an approach tailored towards the unique needs of the clients you’ve served
• Written production‑quality code using a variety of languages and frameworks, including but not limited to: Java, C#/.
• NET, Python, Type Script, Java Script, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL
• Leveraged AI‑assistive development tools for tasks like scaffolding, refactoring, debugging, test generation, and documentation
• Experience building or integrating AI/ML‑powered features into products or systems (e. g., recommendation engines, NLP models, computer vision, predictive analytics)
• Used context‑appropriate automated testing to inform software design choices and catch bugs
• Debugged and refactored pre‑existing code to incrementally improve it
• Collaborated with teams using Git, Mac OS/Linux, and CI/CD
• Remedied architecture‑level concerns such as scalability, security, reliability, and performance
• Brought together people from different functions and perspectives in forums that encourage idea sharing, collaboration, and problem solving
• Made thoughtful recommendations and set direction in the face of ambiguity
• Mentored and shared knowledge with colleagues
• Actively sought out and effectively given feedback
• Communicated empathically with stakeholders and colleagues
• Collaboratively led stakeholders to balance technical considerations with product and user needs
• What You’ll Do At the company
• Making immediate contributions to projects, rapidly building trust with clients
• Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high‑quality work within deadlines
• Leading architecture and software design discussions
• Collaborating on systems that involve the full ML lifecycle from data ingestion and preprocessing, to model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring
• Generating new potential solutions to challenges (technical and non‑technical) in partnership with team members and clients
• Leading or initiating formal feedback conversations with teams and clients via retrospectives
• Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving forward action items
• Contributing to the health of your team and the company’s culture by modelling our Values
• Ensuring your team has a healthy, prioritised, estimated backlog
• Managing high‑level project roadmaps as the team lead for large engagements
• Maintaining relationships with client technical leaders
• Regular syncs with the client to provide status updates, and for identifying and evaluating risks and presenting potential solutions
• Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress
• Contributing to the company by serving as a mentor, leading or designing workshops internally or for clients, representing the company in the tech community, or supporting our hiring processes
• Strongly Preferred Skills
• MLOps: including tools like Lang Chain for application development and managing the ML lifecycle
• Data Engineering: including platforms like Databricks for data processing and analytics
• Dev Sec Ops & Dev Ops
• Infrastructure as Code

Building a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace is an ongoing journey, and we’re excited to keep learning and growing together.

We have a proud tradition of hiring talented colleagues with real‑world career experiences.

• How You’ll be Supported
• Our wellness package is designed with the Whole YOU in mind and includes:
• A robust L&D programme featuring unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert‑led training on the O’Reilly learning platform.
• Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning & development
• Coworking support for our global team
• 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees
• A Note on Compensation

At the company, we are committed to a compensation philosophy that is transparent, fair, and helps us attract and retain top talent in alignment with our company’s strategic growth goals and clients’ needs.

We benchmark our salaries using Geographic Structures to establish competitive pay ranges within the regions where 8th Lights live.

Our pay ranges for our Lead Engineer position within London is: £76,023‑95,029 GBP.

Reach out to hr@unitedstatesdigital. space for more relevant information pertaining to your local market.

The company Hubs and Geographies the company's culture is rooted in strong connections that extend across our teams, regions, and beyond client work.

We are a distributed team across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with hubs in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.

• London Co‑working: Employees working from our London hub follow a hybrid model, which includes a minimum of one day per week in our Waterloo Office.

This co‑working day is designed to encourage collaboration and further strengthen our community.

In most cases, our consulting engagements do not require travel.

• A Note on Your Privacy
• At the company, one of our core values is
• Honesty that builds trust

— and that shapes how we approach hiring. We want you to have a clear picture of who we are, what we’re looking for, and how we handle your information throughout the process.

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