Lead Product Software Engineer

Lead Product Software Engineer / Development Lead

Location: Chennai, India

Job Type: Full-Time

Experience Level: Lead (10+ years)

Job Summary

A Development Lead plays a crucial role in ensuring the successful delivery of software systems and features by combining technical expertise with leadership and management skills to guide and support their team throughout the development lifecycle. They must simultaneously be a developer by staying intimately involved in the technical work of their team, and a leader, helping to guide their team to realize their potential and further the organization's goals. A lead developer can be thought of as a bridge between an engineering team and management. They are a senior member of the team who can give technical guidance as well as mentor developers on the team. As a manager, a lead developer needs to demonstrate leadership. They encourage their developers to operate at their top potential and work together as a true team.

Lead developers may write code themselves, but much of their time will be used in conducting code reviews of components being created by other developers. They ensure and manage day-to-day progress as their team tackles their assigned tasks. They need to have a strong understanding of the overall business priorities for their team and need to be able to advocate for what their team needs to do their job while also making sure their team delivers on what company management expects..

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of complex software systems and features.
• Mentor junior developers and provide code reviews to ensure best practices.
• Design and develop complex software systems and features.
• Analyze and refactor legacy C++/C# code to improve maintainability, performance, and readability
• Design and implement automated tests to increase code coverage (unit, integration, and UI tests)
• Identify and resolve technical debt, including outdated patterns, redundant logic, and architectural inconsistencies
• Collaborate closely with QA engineers, architects, and product managers to align technical improvements with business needs
• Document code changes, refactoring decisions, and testing strategies
• Provide code reviews to ensure best practices.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define technical requirements and system architecture.
• Drive continuous improvement in code quality, performance, and maintainability.
• Assist in designing, developing, and maintaining software components and tools.
• Provide input on system design and architecture.
• Stay current on emerging technologies and best practices.

QualificationsEducation:

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in the software industry with 3+ years of experience as technical team lead.
• Proven track record of delivering scalable and maintainable software solutions.
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies and working in cross-functional teams.

Preferred Skills and Technologies

• Strong experience in C++ and C# development
• Solid understanding of Microsoft SQL Server and relational database design
• Familiarity with testing frameworks (e.g., MSTest)
• Experience with code coverage tools (e.g., Visual Studio Code Coverage, dotCover)
• Knowledge of software design principles (SOLID, Clean Code)
• Proficiency with Git and version control workflows.

Nice to Have

• Experience working with legacy codebases and refactoring strategies
• Knowledge of desktop UI frameworks such as WinForms, WPF, or MFC

Leadership Responsibilities

• Manage and coordinate a team of developers, ensuring timely delivery of projects.
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies (stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives).
• Act as the primary technical liaison between development and other departments.
• Set coding standards and ensure adherence across the team.

Leadership Skills:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong decision-making and conflict-resolution abilities.

Our Interview Practices 

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we're getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.

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