Lead Software Engineer (AI)

Location: Chicago, Illinois; hybrid. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship, now or in the future.

Target salary: $122,900–$180,000 annually for roles located in Illinois, plus bonus eligibility and comprehensive benefits.

Company

hirify.global is a professional services firm developing software applications that help lawyers and staff work more effectively.

What you will do

• Lead the architecture, development, delivery, and production support of full-stack applications using .NET, C#, React, Next.js, and Azure.
• Set engineering standards for code quality, testing, performance, security, observability, and scalability through hands-on coding and code reviews.
• Integrate AI and GenAI capabilities, including LLM-powered features, RAG pipelines, semantic search, and agentic workflows.
• Own production reliability, incident response, root-cause analysis, authentication, authorization, and protection of sensitive legal data.
• Partner with product managers, designers, architects, DevOps, Infrastructure, and business stakeholders on technical plans and delivery milestones.
• Mentor engineers and participate in technical interviews and onboarding.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• At least 8 years of professional software engineering experience, with progression into a lead, staff, or principal-level role.
• Strong full-stack development skills with .NET, C#, React, Next.js, and REST or GraphQL API design.
• Experience architecting production-grade applications, relational or NoSQL databases, distributed systems, testing strategies, and software design patterns.
• Hands-on experience with Azure application services, CI/CD pipelines, Git, and Agile development practices.
• Experience leading engineers, setting technical direction, conducting design and code reviews, communicating with technical and non-technical stakeholders, and managing competing priorities.

Nice to have

• Production experience with LLM APIs, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, RAG, vector search, semantic ranking, or agentic workflows.
• Familiarity with LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, Claude SDK, Temporal, n8n, Power Automate, or .NET Aspire.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Azure Container Apps, serverless architectures, automated testing, and test-driven development.
• Background in legal, financial services, accounting, consulting, or other professional services industries.
• Relevant Azure certifications such as AZ-204 or AZ-305.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work environment.
• Bonus eligibility and a comprehensive benefits program.
• Work focused on confidential and sensitive legal data.
• Reasonable accommodations are available for individuals with disabilities.