Lead Software Engineer

Here at Appian, our values of Intensity and Excellence define who we are. We set high standards and live up to them, ensuring that everything we do is done with care and quality. We approach every challenge with ambition and commitment, holding ourselves and each other accountable to achieve the best results. When you join Appian, you’ll be part of a passionate team dedicated to accomplishing hard things, together.

Summary: We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer (LSE) to drive the design and evolution of our cloud-native platform. This role is responsible for owning end-to-end platform capabilities, shaping architectural direction, and ensuring high standards of scalability, reliability, and developer experience. As a Lead Engineer, you will operate at the intersection of architecture, execution, and team leadership, working across squads to build cohesive and future-ready platform solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Develop platform features to the highest engineering standards with an AI-first mindset.

• Spike robust solutions to clear architectural runway ahead of platform feature development.

• Take a high degree of personal responsibility for the overall technical performance of the team, including capabilities, quality, stability, and velocity.

• Perform code reviews that provide feedback not only on code quality but also on design and implementation.

• Identify opportunities for code refactoring and performance optimizations regularly and champion these efforts within the team.

• Mentor junior software engineers by sharing best practices and providing guidance on becoming more proficient.

• Identify technical constraints to engineering effectiveness and lead initiatives to address them.

• Advise product management on technical opportunities and constraints.

• Identify, understand, and bring to fruition technology trends and innovations relevant to Appian Platform.

• Effectively communicate technical designs verbally, visually, and/or in writing for small to large-sized technical audiences.

• Contribute to Appian's long-term documentation by publishing relevant, high-quality content to Engineering's technical documentation site.

Required Skills:

• 12+ years of proven experience as a Lead Engineer with a strong focus on AWS.

• Deep hands-on experience with AWS services including Compute (EC2, Auto Scaling, EKS, ECS, Lambda), Networking (VPC, ALB/NLB, Route 53, PrivateLink), Storage (EBS, EFS, S3), and Security (IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager).

• Experience with Java, Python, or GoLang programming languages.

• Strong proficiency in Infrastructure as Code - Terraform or any equivalent.

• Strong proficiency in Kubernetes.

• Experience with implementing and managing logging and monitoring solutions (e.g., CloudWatch, CloudTrail).

• Demonstrated ability to track, analyze, and optimize AWS cloud costs.

• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.

• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced environment.

Tools and Resources

• Training and Development: During onboarding, we focus on equipping new hires with the skills and knowledge for success through department-specific training. Continuous learning is a central focus at Appian, with dedicated mentorship and the First-Friend program being widely utilized resources for new hires.

• Growth Opportunities: Appian provides a diverse array of growth and development opportunities, including our leadership program tailored for new and aspiring managers, a comprehensive library of specialized department training through Appian University, skills based training, and tuition reimbursement for those aiming to advance their education. This commitment ensures that employees have access to a holistic range of development opportunities.

• Community: We’ll immerse you into our community rooted in respect starting on day one. Appian fosters inclusivity through our 8 employee-led affinity groups. These groups help employees build stronger internal and external networks by planning social, educational, and outreach activities to connect with Appianites and larger initiatives throughout the company.

Benefits

Appian offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and financial future. Benefits may include health coverage, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with free mental health support, life and disability insurance, an Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), a retirement/pension plan, wellness dollars, tuition reimbursement, family-forming benefits and more. Benefits vary by country—please ask your Talent Acquisition contact for details specific to the location you are applying to.

About Appian

Appian provides process automation technology. We automate complex processes in large enterprises and governments. Our platform is known for its unique reliability and scale. We’ve been automating processes for 25 years and understand enterprise operations like no one else. For more information, visit appian.com. [Nasdaq: APPN]

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Appian is an equal opportunity employer that strives to attract and retain the best talent. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Appian provides reasonable accommodations to applicants in accordance with all applicable laws. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at [email protected]. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.

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