We are looking for a hands-on Product Group Team Lead / Architect to own technical direction, architecture, engineering quality, and technical execution for an assigned product group or internal software platform. This role is intended for a senior technical leader who can stay close to code, design, delivery risks, production issues, and engineering quality while also guiding other engineers.

This is not a formal people management role. Engineering Managers will own people management, hiring, performance feedback, capacity planning, and team structure. Product / Delivery Managers will own business intake, prioritization, backlog readiness, user communication, and UAT coordination. The Product Group Team Lead / Architect will own technical design, architecture decisions, engineering quality, implementation approach, technical mentoring, and L3 technical escalation for the assigned product group.

The right candidate should be comfortable working in a practical, execution-focused environment where systems are business-critical, some platforms are legacy, and engineering ownership is being formalized as part of the new GEO operating model.

Assigned Product Group:

This role may be assigned to one of the following product groups or internal software platform areas:

• SourceCore
• NLP
• Mobile App / Computer Vision
• Legacy PHP
• Other internal business platforms as needed

The core responsibilities of the role remain the same across product groups, but the technical stack, business context, users, delivery priorities, and production risks will vary by assignment.

Product Group Focus Areas:

Depending on assignment, the role may focus on one or more of the following areas:

• SourceCore: Core business platform, enterprise workflows, integrations, SQL Server-backed systems, production stability, scalability, maintainability, and business process support.
• NLP: Text processing, data pipelines, model evaluation workflows, taxonomy support, internal AI-assisted tools, training / evaluation datasets, and integration of NLP capabilities into business workflows.
• Mobile App / Computer Vision: Warehouse mobile workflows, mobile application architecture, image capture, computer vision model integration, user feedback loops, UAT support, and field / warehouse usability.
• Legacy PHP: Maintenance, stabilization, modernization planning, integration cleanup, technical debt reduction, security improvements, and safe transition of legacy functionality where needed.

Insight on Your Impact:

In this role, you will:

• Own the technical direction, architecture, and engineering quality for an assigned product group or internal software platform.
• Lead technical design discussions, architecture reviews, work breakdown, implementation planning, and technical sequencing for the assigned product group.
• Stay hands-on in code, design, troubleshooting, technical reviews, and production problem solving.
• Partner with Product / Delivery Managers to translate business priorities and backlog items into practical technical plans.
• Partner with Engineering Managers to identify capacity needs, delivery risks, technical skill gaps, and team-level blockers.
• Provide technical estimates, implementation options, dependency analysis, and risk assessment for planned work.
• Review critical code changes and enforce code quality, maintainability, testability, documentation, and engineering standards.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, technical coaching, and hands-on problem solving.
• Own L3 technical escalation for assigned systems, including investigation of complex defects, production issues, and urgent business-impacting problems.
• Lead technical root cause analysis after production incidents and define practical remediation actions.
• Identify technical debt, architectural weaknesses, single points of failure, and maintainability risks.
• Propose pragmatic modernization, refactoring, stabilization, or remediation plans without creating unnecessary disruption to business operations.
• Ensure technical decisions are documented clearly enough for future maintenance and knowledge transfer.
• Help define release readiness expectations together with QA, DevOps, DBA, Infrastructure, Security, Product / Delivery, and Engineering Management.
• Support onboarding of new engineers into the assigned product group by explaining architecture, codebase structure, standards, risks, and system behavior.
• Promote consistent engineering practices across GEO while still respecting the practical needs of the assigned product group.

Your Qualifications, Your Influence:

To be successful in this role, you should have:

• 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of experience as a technical lead, software architect, principal engineer, senior engineer, or similar senior technical role.
• Strong hands-on development background with ability to contribute to code, review implementation details, and troubleshoot production issues.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, API design, integration patterns, data modeling, system boundaries, scalability, maintainability, and secure design.
• Experience designing and supporting business-critical software systems in production.
• Ability to lead technical design and implementation planning without requiring formal people management authority.
• Experience breaking down complex technical work into practical delivery steps.
• Ability to evaluate technical tradeoffs and explain recommendations clearly to engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
• Experience improving legacy systems, reducing technical debt, and stabilizing systems while keeping business operations running.
• Practical experience with code review, technical documentation, testing practices, CI/CD concepts, and release readiness.
• Experience working with Product / Delivery Managers, Engineering Managers, QA, DevOps, DBAs, Infrastructure, Security, and business stakeholders.
• Ability to mentor engineers and raise technical quality through practical coaching, not only through architecture documents.
• Strong ownership mindset, good judgment, and ability to make practical technical decisions under pressure.
• Comfortable working in distributed teams across multiple locations and time zones.

Preferred Skills and Technical Familiarity:

The preferred technical background may vary depending on product group assignment, but the following experience will be helpful:

• Strong experience with .NET / C#, SQL Server, APIs, integrations, and enterprise business applications.
• Experience with PHP applications, JavaScript / TypeScript, web application frameworks, and legacy modernization.
• Experience with mobile application architecture, Android / iOS development, warehouse applications, or field operations systems.
• Familiarity with NLP, computer vision, AI / ML workflows, data labeling, model evaluation, or AI-assisted business tools.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP.
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture, message queues, enterprise integration patterns, API gateways, or data pipelines.
• Experience with ERP integrations, NetSuite, finance systems, sales / purchasing workflows, warehouse workflows, or B2B transaction platforms.
• Understanding of security-by-design principles and practical application security concerns.
• Experience in electronic components, technology distribution, supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, e-commerce, or similar B2B environments.
• Experience using Azure DevOps, Jira, Git, CI/CD tooling, and technical documentation systems.

Success in the First 90 Days:

Within the first 90 days, the Product Group Team Lead / Architect should be able to:

• Understand the assigned product group, users, business workflows, technical architecture, codebase, data flows, integrations, and production risks.
• Establish working relationships with Engineering Managers, Product / Delivery Managers, engineers, QA, DevOps, DBA, Infrastructure, Security, and business stakeholders.
• Identify the most important technical risks, technical debt items, single points of failure, and maintainability concerns in the assigned product group.
• Define or improve technical ownership boundaries for the assigned systems.
• Improve technical clarity of the active backlog by helping with design notes, technical breakdown, dependencies, estimates, and risks.
• Establish practical code review, design review, documentation, and release readiness expectations for the assigned product group.
• Lead at least one meaningful technical improvement, stabilization effort, or risk-reduction activity.
• Improve L3 technical escalation and production issue investigation for assigned systems.
• Create an initial technical roadmap or remediation plan aligned with product priorities and engineering capacity.
• Help onboard or mentor engineers working in the assigned product group.

What This Role Does Not Own:

This role does not own formal people management for engineers. Engineering Managers remain responsible for hiring, performance management, compensation input, team structure, and capacity planning.

This role does not own business prioritization or user acceptance. Product / Delivery Managers and business stakeholders remain responsible for intake, priority alignment, backlog readiness, UAT coordination, and business acceptance.

This role does not independently commit delivery dates without alignment with Engineering Managers and Product / Delivery Managers.

This role does not act as a central enterprise architect for all Sourceability systems unless specifically assigned by GEO leadership. The primary responsibility is technical ownership of the assigned product group or platform area.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary
• Ongoing training and professional development opportunities
• Collaborative global work environment
• PTO