Lead Product Engineer | Software Engineer III

DefenseStorm

$120K — $145K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science or related field.
  • 7+ years of experience in building and maintaining production software systems.
  • 2+ years in a technical leadership role such as Tech Lead, Lead Engineer, or Staff Engineer.
  • Proven track record of managing complex initiatives from inception to delivery.
  • Experience setting technical direction and mentoring engineers in a non-hierarchical environment.
  • Strong product judgment with the ability to translate problems into specifications and criteria.
  • Practical experience with AI agents in implementation and testing.

Responsibilities

  • Collaborate with Product, Design, engineering, and customer teams to shape solutions and influence product direction.
  • Identify delivery risks, unblock teams, and communicate changes to commitments promptly.
  • Break initiatives into deliverable increments for testing and quick feedback.
  • Own complex projects from discovery to production and customer validation.
  • Set and communicate technical direction; review designs for quality.
  • Manage AI agents through implementation and refinement phases.
  • Coach and mentor engineers to improve team quality and performance.

Benefits

  • Flexible work environment with options for remote work.
  • Opportunity for professional growth and leadership development.
  • Collaborative company culture that encourages constructive debate and accountability.
Full Job Description
Lead Product Engineer, SDE3

As a Lead Product Engineer (SDE3), you'll lead a product engineering team in shaping and delivering complex solutions for the GRID platform through specification-driven, agentic development. You'll partner with Product and Design to understand customer problems, define solutions, and guide AI agents through implementation. You'll remain accountable for what the team ships: setting technical direction, validating results, managing delivery risks, and ensuring the work creates customer value.
You'll combine hands-on product development with technical leadership, coaching engineers and improving how the team works. This is a technical leadership role.

Location
Atlanta, GA
Remote

Job Duties and Responsibilities
  • Partner with Product, Design, engineering, and customer-facing teams to shape solutions and influence product direction.
  • Identify dependencies and delivery risks, unblock the team, and communicate changes to commitments early.
  • Break initiatives into small, independently deliverable increments for agent execution and rapid feedback.
  • Own complex solutions from discovery through production delivery and customer validation.
  • Set technical direction, review designs, and make sound decisions about architecture, security, reliability, and maintainability.
  • Direct AI agents through implementation, testing, debugging, and refinement.
  • Coach engineers and raise the team's quality and consistency through feedback, mentorship, and shared practices.
  • Encourage constructive debate, help the team reach decisions, and create accountability for executing them.
  • Other duties as assigned by management
Required Education and Experience
  • Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science or a related field.
  • 7+ years of experience building and maintaining production software systems.
  • 2+ years of experience operating as a Tech Lead, Lead Engineer, Staff Engineer, or equivalent technical leadership role.
  • A demonstrated record of owning complex initiatives from an ambiguous problem through production delivery.
  • Experience setting technical direction, making architectural decisions, managing delivery risks, and mentoring engineers without relying on formal authority.
  • Strong product judgment and the ability to turn customer and business problems into precise specifications and measurable acceptance criteria.
  • Practical experience using AI agents across implementation, testing, and debugging.
  • Strong engineering fundamentals to evaluate architecture, data flow, tests, edge cases, and security.
  • Clear communication, sound judgment, collaborative instincts, and a record of delivering on commitments.

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