Lead Software Engineer - Newsela Writing Team - Remote

Overview

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer for the Newsela Writing product engineering team. This is an IC-heavy technical leadership role (~50-70% coding) with no direct reports. The Lead Software Engineer owns technical direction, code quality standards, and day-to-day engineering coordination for the writing-app (Next.js, node.js, and Python backends).

In Short

• Own architecture decisions for the writing-app and evaluate technical trade-offs that balance speed, quality, and maintainability.
• Define and evolve the team's technical standards (coding patterns, testing expectations, dependency management) and drive technical debt reduction alongside feature work.
• Lead triage and technical coordination during incidents. Drive root cause analysis and propose preventive measures.
• Actively drive technical discussions in grooming, planning, standups, and retros.
• Review significant PRs and provide substantive feedback, catch architectural issues before they merge.
• Drive obstacle resolution during sprints - unblock engineers, make technical calls, escalate when needed.
• Translate between product requirements and technical implementation for the team.
• Leverage AI/LLM-powered workflows and code-generation tools to stay efficient and productive.

Requirements

• 5+ years building modern web applications in a SaaS environment, with significant full-stack experience.
• Strong proficiency in React/Next.js (frontend) and Python (backend).
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, deployment processes, and monitoring.
• Experience with rich text editors, document collaboration, or ProseMirror/similar frameworks is a strong plus.
• Comfort using AI-assisted coding tools responsibly with security and license awareness.
• Demonstrated ability to self-direct - picks up work, drives it to completion.
• Code review discipline - history of providing substantive, constructive feedback.
• Experience in making technical decisions under ambiguity and communicating the reasoning.
• Strong communication & collaboration skills.

Benefits

• Work with a passionate team dedicated to improving education.
• Opportunity to lead technical direction in a growing company.
• Flexible working conditions.
• Engage with innovative technologies and methodologies.
• Contribute to meaningful projects that impact students and educators.