Lead Software Development Engineer

Pitchbookdata
Seattle, US
Visa sponsorshipCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Best suited to senior backend engineers with Java expertise who thrive in high-ownership teams building distributed data pipelines.

Best fit for

  • Technical leaders who prefer hands-on coding over delegation.
    — “write production code every day, prototype rapidly
  • Java specialists with experience scaling search and data pipelines.
    — “7+ years of backend software engineering, predominantly in Java
  • Engineers who enjoy mentoring through pairing and code reviews.
    — “Mentor engineers on the team through code, design discussions

Things to consider

  • US work authorization required with no future sponsorship.
    — “without the need for visa sponsorship
  • Ownership extends to production reliability and on-call responsibilities.
    — “responsible for the services' quality, stability, reliability

How to stand out

  • Demonstrate concrete examples of reducing technical debt at scale.
    — “Identify and drive down technical debt
  • Highlight AI-assisted development experience beyond basic tool usage.
    — “using AI for productivity and efficiency
  • Showcase cross-team collaboration on architectural standards.
    — “Evangelizes better technical practices across the company
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • design, build, and own systems
  • write production-grade backend code
  • lead system design for new platform capabilities
Typical background
software developmentsystem design

Skills & requirements

Required

Software DevelopmentSystem DesignBackend CodeTechnical LeadershipTeam Mentorship

Preferred

Ai-augmented IntelligenceProduct Innovation

Stack & domain

Backend CodeServicesPipelinesApisSystem DesignEntity ResolutionEnrichment WorkflowsSearch Indexing StrategiesCode ReviewArchitecture DecisionsPerformanceReliabilityObservabilityTechnical DebtTeam ManagementMentorshipTechnical LeadershipCollaborationProblem-solvingCustomer EmpathySoftware DevelopmentProduct InnovationCustomer Experience

About the role

Original posting from Pitchbookdata via Greenhouse

At PitchBook, a Morningstar company, we are always looking forward. We continue to innovate, evolve, and invest in ourselves to bring out the best in everyone. We’re deeply collaborative and thrive on the excitement, energy, and fun that reverberates throughout the company. 

Our extensive learning programs and mentorship opportunities help us create a culture of curiosity that pushes us to always find new solutions and better ways of doing things. The combination of a rapidly evolving industry and our high ambitions means there’s going to be some ambiguity along the way, but we excel when we challenge ourselves. We’re willing to take risks, fail fast, and do it all over again in the pursuit of excellence.

If you have a good attitude and are willing to roll up your sleeves to get things done, PitchBook is the place for you. 

About the Role:

As a member of the Product and Engineering team at PitchBook, you will be part of a team of big thinkers, innovators, and problem solvers who strive to deepen the positive impact we have on our customers and our company every day. We value curiosity and the drive to find better ways of doing things. We thrive on customer empathy, which remains our focus when creating excellent customer experiences through product innovation.

We know that greatness is achieved through collaboration and diverse points of view, so we work closely with partners around the globe. As a team, we assume positive intent in each other’s words and actions, value constructive discussions, and foster a respectful working environment built on integrity, growth, and business value. We invest heavily in our people, who are eager to learn and constantly improve. Join our team and grow with us! 

PitchBook's Lead Software Development Engineer on the Frontier Data Platform team is a senior technical leader and prolific individual contributor. You will design, build, and own the systems that ingest, correlate, enrich, and surface billions of records across PitchBook's customer-facing products — from raw scraped data through to search-ready, AI-augmented intelligence. 

This is a hands-on role. You will write production code every day, prototype rapidly when the problem demands it, and lead by example rather than by delegation. You will be the technical north star for a small, high-ownership engineering team — setting the bar for design quality, system thinking, and engineering craft. 

Primary Job Responsibilities:

Manage, mentor, and lead a small team of software engineers 

Evangelizes better technical practices, and continually raises the bar for technical excellence across the company   

Write production-grade backend code daily — services, pipelines, APIs — from prototype to ship 

Lead system design for new platform capabilities: ingestion pipelines, entity resolution, enrichment workflows, search indexing strategies 

Own the technical quality of the team's output: code review, architecture decisions, performance, reliability, observability 

Assess tradeoffs quickly and pivot when needed — whether that's a proof-of-concept in a day or a multi-week pipeline refactor 

Collaborate directly with the EM, product, and partner teams on requirements and technical direction 

Mentor engineers on the team through code, design discussions, and direct pairing

Identify and drive down technical debt that meaningfully limits velocity or reliability 

Own services and applications and related infrastructure, and ultimately responsible for the services' quality, stability, reliability, and performance in production  

Own estimations of Features and Releases in the Team and can explain them to peer functions and stakeholders 

Responsible for optimal engineering resources allocation and work distribution within the Team to meet the sprint and release goals 

Ensure that Releases & Features meet PB Engineering (Architecture, Quality, Reliability, etc.) standards and guidelines 

Use cloud technology to create robust and scalable software systems 

Helping establish best practices around software development, microservices, and devops 

Support the vision and values of the company through role modeling and encouraging desired behaviors 

Participate in various company initiatives and projects as requested 

Skills and Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a similar field 

Track record of technical leadership in a small, high-ownership team — without needing a large org around you to get things done 

7+ years of backend software engineering, predominantly in Java on production systems at scale 

Deep experience with distributed data pipelines and streaming systems — Kafka or equivalent 

Strong hands-on experience with Elasticsearch or comparable search/indexing platforms 

Solid PostgreSQL or relational DB expertise at meaningful data volumes 

Experience with large-scale data ingestion, transformation, or enrichment systems — entity resolution, deduplication, or data quality pipelines are a strong plus 

Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) in production

Cloud infrastructure experience (GCP preferred, AWS acceptable) 

Strong system design instincts: distributed systems, data modeling, API design, fault tolerance

Experienced and enthusiastic about using AI for productivity and efficiency (github copilot, claude, or equivalent) 

Solid object-oriented design experience including: Domain Driven Design methodology, experience working with service-oriented architectures and Distributed Systems, and an undying belief in the power of testing, CI/CD, and Agile

Must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future

Benefits + Compensation at PitchBook:

Physical Health

Comprehensive health benefits

Additional medical wellness incentives

STD, LTD, AD&D, and life insurance

Emotional Health

Paid sabbatical program after four years

Paid family and paternity leave

Annual educational stipend

Ability to apply for tuition reimbursement

CFA exam stipend

Robust training programs on industry and soft skills

Employee assistance program

Generous allotment of vacation days, sick days, and volunteer days

Social Health 

Matching gifts program

Employee resource groups

Subsidized emergency childcare

Dependent Care FSA

Company-wide events

Employee referral bonus program

Quarterly team building events

Financial Health 

401k match

Shared ownership employee stock program

Monthly transportation stipend

*Please be aware the above PitchBook benefit and perk offerings are subject to corresponding plan and policy documents and may change during the course of your employment.

Compensation

Annual base salary: $190,000-$230,000

Target annual bonus percentage: 15%

Working Conditions:

At the heart of our company is a belief in the power of in-person collaboration. Being together in the office fuels our creativity, strengthens our connections, and drives the innovation that sets us apart. Our culture is built on spontaneous moments—those hallway conversations, whiteboard brainstorms, and shared celebrations in each of our global offices—that simply can’t be replicated remotely. This role is expected to be in the office 5 days a week.

The job conditions for this position are in a standard office setting. Employees in this position use PC and phone on an on-going basis throughout the day. Limited corporate travel may be required to remote offices or other business meetings and events.

We are excited to get to know you and your background. Concerned that you might not meet every requirement? We encourage you to still apply as you might be the right candidate for the role or other roles at PitchBook.

#LI-DT1 

#LI-Onsite

Source: Pitchbookdata careers (Greenhouse)

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