Job details

Lead Software Engineer – Backstage Platform

Lead Developers act as the primary point of contact for our clients, ensuring that teams are successful in their delivery. In this role, you will bring a strategic mindset to projects and spend time collaborating and negotiating with clients to bring a technical vision to life. Having a balance of high-level and tactical mindsets is a must, as you will spend time both with clients and your teammates.

At Thoughtworks, we believe in going above and beyond the standard and are committed to delivering best-in-class solutions that exceed our

clients' expectations. Our standard engineering and delivery practices reflect our commitment to quality, and our team is always looking to innovate and improve. Lead Developers guide and coach their teams in their implementation and application.

Job responsibilities

You will champion and adopt best practices like writing clean and reusable code using TDD, pair programming and design patterns
Experience with Backstage - Clear and good communication since you're talking with external customers.
Typescript knowledge is needed. Plugins are written in Typescript.
Knowledge of how containers are deployed to various cloud providers.
Support tickets sometimes cross boundaries and knowing the basics help. Example, I had a ticket come across that the fix was modifying the statement_timeout in the RDS parameter_group.
Able to debug and troubleshoot issues with limited information available.
Kubernetes pod lifecycle, pod configuration, and ingress/egress knowledge. The person won't be dealing with Kubernetes directly, but again this knowledge will help with troubleshooting tickets.
The person must be comfortable with having a role that is more focused on client/customers meetings and little coding.

Job qualifications

Technical Skills

Backstage: Solid understanding and hands-on experience
TypeScript: Required for working with Backstage plugins
Kubernetes: Understanding of pod lifecycle, configuration, ingress/egress
Cloud Deployment: Familiarity with container deployment across cloud providers
Troubleshooting: Ability to debug with limited information
Communication: Clear and effective communication with external customers

Professional Skills

You have experience influencing others and always advocate for technical excellence while being open to change when needed
You bridge product and technology by helping to translate business needs to software requirements
You have the ability to develop and execute a technical vision with a focus on business value
You will act as a mentor for less experienced peers through both your technical knowledge and ability to inspire a team to deliver extraordinary impact together
You’re resilient in ambiguous situations and can approach challenges from multiple perspectives

Other things to know

Learning & Development

There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.

Travel

While we’ve traditionally been a traveling consultancy, we have adopted a hybrid working model with the majority of work being completed remotely from either home or local Thoughtworks offices. However, business travel to client locations should be expected when required by Thoughtworks or our clients’ needs.

Company Policies

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Job Details

Country: USA

City: Chicago, Illinois

Date Posted: 07-21-2025

Industry: Information Technology

Employment Type: Regular

About Thoughtworks

Thoughtworks is a global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and engineering to drive digital innovation. For 30+ years, our clients have trusted our autonomous teams to build solutions that look past the obvious. Here, computer science grads come together with seasoned technologists, self-taught developers, midlife career changers and more to learn from and challenge each other. Career journeys flourish with the strength of our cultivation culture, which has won numerous awards around the world.

Join Thoughtworks and thrive. Together, our extra curiosity, innovation, passion and dedication overcomes ordinary.

Salary

Benefits: https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-us/careers/benefits

The annual salary range posted is subject to many factors and may vary depending on experience, geographic location, job responsibilities, performance, skills and/or training.

Salary