Lead AI Enabled Engineer

About Stride Consulting Stride is an AI-Powered software engineering firm built to deliver real results. We combine elite engineering talent with cutting-edge GenAI tooling to help companies build high-quality software, modernize legacy systems, and future-proof their tech orgs. We are trusted technology partners with some of the biggest names revolutionizing the tech industry. From scaling startups to iconic Fortune 500 companies, we help our clients reach their goals by providing collaborative high-end technical consulting, agile transformation, and product delivery. What We Are Looking For We are seeking an AI-Enabled Lead Full-Stack Engineer to design, build, and deliver modern software solutions across backend systems, frontend applications, and cloud infrastructure. This is a hands-on, client-facing consulting role where you will collaborate closely with Product Managers, Designers, and Engineers to deliver scalable, maintainable systems that solve real business problems. While strong traditional software engineering skills are core to this role, we are particularly interested in engineers who are comfortable incorporating AI-enabled tooling, LLM integrations, and agentic frameworks into modern software delivery when appropriate. Why Stride As software development evolves, we increasingly help organizations incorporate AI-assisted development and agentic tooling into modern engineering workflows. Our teams combine strong software engineering fundamentals with emerging AI capabilities to deliver scalable, high-impact products. Full-Stack Development & Delivery Design, build, test, and maintain modern software applications across backend and frontend systems. Develop scalable backend services, APIs, and integrations that support high-performance applications. Build modern frontend experiences using frameworks such as React, NextJS, or similar technologies. Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code following modern engineering practices. Work across multiple programming languages and ecosystems depending on project needs. Participate actively in architecture discussions, code reviews, and technical design sessions. AI Enabled Development Leverage modern development tooling, including AI-assisted coding and engineering workflows, to improve productivity and quality. Integrate AI-enabled capabilities into development workflows when appropriate, such as adoption of agent tools or automated documentation. Experiment with emerging technologies to improve the software development lifecycle. Help teams evaluate where AI capabilities can enhance software systems or development workflows. Agile Collaboration & Delivery Excellence Partner closely with Product Managers and Product Owners to refine backlogs and clarify requirements. Break down complex work into well-scoped, estimable user stories and technical tasks. Provide reliable estimates and contribute to sprint and release planning. Inspect and adapt through retrospectives, continuously improving team delivery and engineering practices. Support a culture of transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. Technical Leadership & Collaboration Serve as a technical leader on delivery teams, helping guide architecture and implementation decisions. Collaborate closely with Product Managers and Designers to translate requirements into technical solutions. Help estimate work, identify risks, and contribute to delivery planning and execution. Support technical discovery and feasibility assessments during early phases of engagements. Client & Stakeholder Engagement Work directly with client stakeholders to understand technical requirements and constraints. Participate in technical discussions, demos, and solution walkthroughs. Communicate clearly about tradeoffs, risks, and implementation approaches. Represent engineering best practices in client-facing environments. Continuous Improvement & Engineering Excellence Promote engineering standards around quality, testing, security, and performance. Leverage modern tooling, automation, and AI-assisted development to improve productivity and quality. Contribute to internal engineering patterns, documentation, and shared components. Stay current with modern full-stack and cloud-native best practices. Qualifications – Must-Haves 6+ years of professional experience as a Full-Stack, Backend, or Software Engineer. Strong experience building backend services and APIs using languages such as Java, Python, Ruby, or similar technologies. Experience developing modern frontend applications using React and/or NextJS. Experience working with relational and NoSQL databases. Strong understanding of RESTful APIs, distributed systems, and scalable architectures. Strong understanding and use of Test Driven Development (TDD) and Pair Programming. Comfortable working in Agile delivery environments (Scrum, Kanban). Excellent communication skills and ability to work in client-facing roles. Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, or similar orchestration tools. Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and modern developer workflows. Exposure to integrating AI capabilities or LLM APIs into software applications. Qualifications – Nice to Haves Experience building applications that leverage LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, etc.). Experience working with Model Context Protocol (MCP) or tool-integrated AI systems. Experience designing systems using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) or vector databases. Experience building event-driven or microservices architectures. Consulting or professional services background. What Success Looks Like You deliver high-quality, scalable solutions across the full stack. You effectively leverage AI-assisted development tools and intelligent automation to improve engineering productivity and delivery quality. Teams trust your technical judgment and architectural guidance, particularly when evaluating where emerging technologies such as LLM integrations or agentic tooling can create real value. Clients view you as a trusted engineering partner—not just an implementer, helping them understand how modern software practices and AI-enabled capabilities can improve their products and engineering workflows. You help teams incorporate AI-enabled features, developer tooling, or automation into applications in ways that are practical, maintainable, and aligned with business goals. You balance speed, quality, and maintainability in real-world delivery environments.