Lead Software Engineer

Job Description

We are looking for a highly experienced Lead Software Engineer to join our dedicated Digital Services team based in Chennai. In this critical role, you will take ownership of the technical design, architecture, and technical communication and documentation for our new green-field application focused on Vehicle Data, Residual Values, and Marketing Programs for Ford Credit Europe. You will be embedded within the development squad, providing hands-on technical leadership and ensuring the solution is robust, scalable, and well-aligned with both business needs and broader technical standards.

Ford Credit Europe is building several new Digital Services products on our Google Cloud Platform. Your primary focus will be the new application suite providing critical enterprise data services for Vehicle & Residual Value Data, and Marketing Program setup, serving our Digital Experiences. This suite of applications is key to the future success of our EU modernisation program, and your technical leadership will be instrumental in its success.

Responsibilities

Role & Responsibilities:

• Lead the technical design and architecture within the dedicated squad for the Vehicle Configuration Service, Residual Data, and Marketing Program applications.
• Collaborate closely with the Product Lead, Business Analysts, Architects, and European Stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into robust, scalable, and efficient application-level technical solutions on GCP.
• Develop and maintain key application architecture documentation, including component designs, sequence diagrams, API specifications, and technical design documents, ensuring clarity and alignment with best practices.
• Ensure the application's design evolves effectively and aligns with relevant enterprise architecture standards and patterns, liaising with the central Architecture team as needed, but focusing primarily on project-level implementation.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership and guidance to the development team (senior and junior engineers), mentoring them on best practices, performing code reviews for critical components, and overseeing the implementation of architectural designs.
• Act as the primary technical communication bridge: Clearly and concisely explain complex technical concepts, architectural decisions, trade-offs, and potential risks/benefits to diverse audiences, including non-technical product managers, business stakeholders in Europe, and senior management.
• Perform technical feasibility studies, evaluate technology choices, frameworks, and patterns specifically for the application, ensuring they meet functional and non-functional requirements.
• Actively participate in hands-on development for proofs-of-concept, complex features, or critical troubleshooting to drive progress and resolve technical challenges.
• Champion technical excellence, code quality, and sound engineering practices within the team.
  
  
  

Qualifications

Required Skills and Selection Criteria:

• Minimum of 8+ years’ experience in technical engineering roles, with significant, demonstrable experience in designing, developing, and architecting complex, cloud-native applications.
• Deep understanding of cloud-first strategies and design principles, specifically with hands-on experience building applications on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or one of the other major cloud platforms.
• Good knowledge of strategic, new, and emerging technology trends, and the practical application and evaluation of them within the context of specific application requirements.
• Proven hands-on expertise working with applications using Java frameworks (especially Spring Boot/Spring MVC/Spring Batch).
• Strong application architecture knowledge designing solutions with API Gateways (like Apigee) and designing RESTful APIs and/or GraphQL.
• Strong application architecture knowledge designing with GCP serverless technologies (e.g., Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, App Engine).
• Experience migrating and/or building applications in modern cloud hosting environments, specifically leveraging Google Cloud Platform services.
• Strong knowledge of application-level architecture design patterns, secure interoperability standards, and modern software development practices (CI/CD, TDD, etc.).
• Exceptional technical leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. Proven ability to clearly articulate complex technical ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences (developers, product owners, business stakeholders, management). Strong problem-solving skills.
• Beneficial: Understanding of Big Data, Machine Learning (ML), and AI concepts/technologies, as the architecture you design needs to anticipate and support near-term plans for leveraging these technologies to enhance data maintenance efficiency.
• Experience working with PostgreSQL.
  
  
  

Nice to Have

• Google Professional Cloud Architect certification
• Master’s degree in computer science / engineering, Data science or related field
• Experience in Banking, Finance, or Automotive Finance domains.
• Commercial development experience using front-end frameworks like React or Angular (for understanding full-stack implications).
• Ability to work on multiple related components within the application suite in a fast-paced & dynamic environment.
• Experience with No-SQL and BigQuery databases is a plus.