Lead Software Engineer $200,000 USD/year Pay is set based on global value, not the local market.
Most roles = hourly rate x 40 hrs x 50 weeks
Description
We're operating platforms that serve thousands of students and teams every day:
- TimeBack: An educational platform supporting Alpha School's 2-hour learning model (99th percentile test results).
- Incept: A content generation platform producing all personalized educational content for multiple learning applications deployed at Alpha School.
- Crossover: An AI-powered hiring platform handling tens of thousands of applicants each month, staffing schools and companies worldwide.
You'll take ownership of one of these platforms and dedicate the majority of your time to building the most complex parts of the codebase with a small team (3-5 strong engineers, no juniors). Your architectural choices will dictate whether other teams can build new apps quickly, integrate seamlessly, and deliver value to students. Make the right calls and you unlock massive leverage. Poor decisions generate integration chaos and destroy velocity across multiple teams.
You design it, you build it, you operate it. You set quality standards and define patterns for your platform. We follow a spec-driven approach: design precedes implementation, planning comes before building. High autonomy, no committees, no review boards. Small, focused team where you own what you ship.
What you will be doing
- Technical Leadership: Drive strategic architectural decisions and define technical patterns for the team.
- AI Leadership: Champion adoption of emerging AI workflows and develop high-impact playbooks.
- Implementation: Construct the complex, mission-critical components of the codebase with your team.
- Quality Reviews: Verify that your team adheres to established patterns and upholds quality standards.
What you will NOT be doing
- Architecting from the sidelines without writing code
- Spending your time in endless meetings
- Managing people (this is a technical leadership position, not a people management role)
- Maintaining legacy systems or supporting internal IT infrastructure
Candidate requirements
- At least 5 years of professional software development experience building software products
- At least 3 years as either a lead engineer (reviewing others' work) or architect (making key technical decisions)
- Experience working on platform-level products where other teams consumed your APIs
- Deep engagement with AI tools, actively experimenting and pushing boundaries
Meet the hiring manager
Applying for a role? Here’s what to expect.
Crossover's skill assessment process combines innovative AI power with decades of human research, to take the guesswork, human bias, and pointless filters out of recruiting high-performing teams.
Chat-style
screening interview.
Cognitive 
aptitude test.
Prove real-world 
job skills.
Interview with the hiring manager.
Accept job offer.
Pass
proctored test.
Frequently asked questions
About the role
Reviews
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Recruitment sucks. So we’re fixing it.
The Olympics of work
It’s super hard to qualify—extreme quality standards ensure every single team member is at the top of their game.
Premium pay for premium talent
Over 50% of new hires double or triple their previous pay. Why? Because that’s what the best person in the world is worth.
Shortlist by skills, not bias
We don’t care where you went to school, what color your hair is, or whether we can pronounce your name. Just prove you’ve got the skills.
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AI-first remote workers.