Lead Software Developer

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About Us

GoValidate partners with state government agencies to design, build, and deploy digital identity solutions. Our technology simplifies identification, reduces fraud and theft, and protects privacy.

The Opportunity

We''re hiring a Lead Software Developer to anchor one of our project teams. This is a player-coach role: you''ll write code, but you''ll also own technical direction, mentor 2–3 developers and serve as the primary technical point of contact for the state agency client your team supports.

What You''ll Do

• Lead the technical direction of a project team building software used by millions of people each year.
• Mentor and grow 2–3 developers through code review, pairing, and technical coaching.
• Partner with the Product Owner on roadmap, scoping, and tradeoffs.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for the client, translating between technical reality and customer needs.
• Drive process and tooling improvements that compound across the team: evaluate new approaches, establish patterns and guardrails, and help the team get measurably more productive without sacrificing code quality.
• Stay hands-on. Write code, review PRs, and contribute to technical design.
• Use AI tooling deliberately and well, and help your team do the same: lean on AI tools to move faster, but ship code you understand and can defend in review.

Tech Stack

• Backend: C#, ASP.NET Core, EF Core, MSSQL
• Web frontend: ReactJS, TypeScript
• Mobile: Kotlin Multiplatform
• Cloud & DevOps: Azure, GitHub, Octopus Deploy
• AI tooling: Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, and others.

What We''re Looking For

Must-Haves:

• 7+ years of professional software development experience, including time in a senior role.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring a small team of developers (formal or informal).
• Ability to run a project team autonomously, with sound judgment about when to decide, when to escalate, and when to ask for help. You don''''''''t need consistent direction from senior leadership to keep the team moving.
• Strong working experience across our stack (C#/.NET + React); mobile experience is a plus.
• Track record of designing and shipping scalable production systems.
• Excellent client communication, including comfort representing the team to non-technical stakeholders.
• Hands-on, opinionated experience with AI coding tools and workflows. You''''''''ve tried things, measured impact, and iterated.
• A high personal bar for craft (UI/UX, code quality, code review thoroughness) and a track record of raising that bar in the people around you.
• Self-direction and discipline for fully remote work, including consistent availability during normal working hours in CST or EST.
• Comfort working in small, visible increments. You ship focused PRs, surface progress and blockers early, and prefer continuous feedback over big batches.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Domain knowledge in payment processing, identity verification, or government systems.
• Experience working with public-sector clients or in regulated environments.

Key Deliverables

1 Month:

• Onboarded to the team, codebase, product, and client relationship.
• Established working relationships with your developers, PO, QA, and client stakeholders.
• Contributing to the codebase via sprint items.

3 Months:

• Owning technical direction for the project team end-to-end.
• Acting as the primary technical point of contact for the client.
• Leading at least one concrete process or tooling improvement.
• Coaching team members through regular code review and technical guidance.

6 Months:

• Project team is shipping predictably with measurable improvements in velocity or quality.

Interview Process

Our hiring process is designed to assess technical skills, cultural fit, and problem-solving abilities in a structured and transparent manner:

• Resume Review: Our team evaluates each resume based on relevant experience, leadership signal, and domain knowledge.
• Phone Screen: A conversation with the candidate to confirm competencies from their resume and assess cultural fit.
• Take-Home Exercise: A practical, domain-relevant problem-solving challenge.
• Code Review & Technical Interview: A discussion to review your take-home exercise, work through follow-up technical questions including technical leadership scenarios, and talk about how you use AI tooling in your day-to-day work.
• Leadership Conversation: A chance to meet our senior leadership, discuss your past experience, and talk through expectations and working style on both sides.
• Decision Time: Our team collaborates on a holistic assessment of the candidate and provides constructive feedback regardless of outcome.

Benefits

• Remote work (CST or EST preferred)
• 401(k) with company match
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• Generous vacation and leave policies

Salary: $150k - $175k