Lead Software Engineer, AI Scheduling

Deputy is a global SaaS workforce management company with hubs in Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco and London, plus team members working remotely across the United States. Our platform serves over 1.5 million workers and 375,000 workplaces across 100+ countries. We are backed by top global investors and recently achieved Unicorn status. At Deputy, we’re improving the world of work, one shift at a time, for 80% of the world’s workforce: hourly workers. These are the dedicated employees who keep our world running – from baristas to nurses, cleaners to delivery drivers, florists to factory workers. Despite their vital role in society, most workplace technology has focused on those workers who sit behind a desk, but at Deputy, we transform the frontline. When businesses use Deputy, their workplaces thrive – the business is more profitable, compliant, and productive, while the workers are more engaged and happier at work. We're becoming an AI-native company, a commitment that means you'll be empowered (and expected) to use AI tools and thinking in your day-to-day work. You'll have the training, support, and freedom to use AI responsibly and creatively to spark ideas, solve problems faster, and unlock new ways of working. If you’re passionate about creating solutions that put people first and helping businesses and their teams thrive, join us at Deputy and make an impact where it matters most! The Role As a Technical Lead (Backend) on our AI Scheduling team, you’ll help shape the future of workforce scheduling at Deputy. The team is bringing AI and automation into the daily decisions managers make, giving them useful insights and recommendations to create compliant, cost-effective schedules at scale. The goal is to give managers more time to support their teams and grow their businesses. The work will have an impact across Deputy’s products, platforms, and the experiences we create for customers. You’ll lead key technical initiatives from early discovery and solution design through to delivery, tackling complex backend problems, making sound architectural decisions, and building reliable, scalable services. Strong judgment, clear direction, and a focus on quality will set the technical bar for the team. There is plenty of room to shape both the product and the way the team works. You’ll help identify practical ways to use AI agents and emerging tools throughout the software development lifecycle, improving how we plan, build, test, and deliver software. The role brings ownership, space to try new approaches, and the opportunity to turn good ideas into meaningful improvements. Working closely with engineers, product managers, designers, and leaders, you’ll solve important customer problems and turn ambitious ideas into practical features. Every day, your work will be visible in the user-facing experiences and backend services that help power more than 100,000 workplaces and support the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. Responsibilities Make technical decisions and deliver technical solutions, with consideration for high-performance, high-quality systems and applications. Use hands-on technical expertise to drive solutions for a range of challenges. Encourage innovation and foster an environment of continuous improvement. Design, implement, and deliver software solutions for product features, with consideration for high-performance, high-quality systems and applications. Write simple, efficient, self-documented modular, high-quality code that follows best practices and improves the overall codebase. Align with our Design, Engineering and Product principles to build product & technical solutions that drive customer value with quality and performance. Uphold a high bar of engineering standards and co-ordinate with Infrastructure and Quality. Accountability for delivering technical solutions within estimated timeframes Influence and problem-solve with senior, mid, and junior engineers to deliver high-quality outcomes. This role may not have direct reports, but your leadership and mentorship will drive the squads to successful outcomes. Mentor and guide more junior engineers in an impactful and meaningful way to their growth trajectory. Collaborate with Product and Design to discover and estimate solution options to key strategic initiatives. Research, create POCs and introduce new technologies to the team. Advocate for and adopt the latest trends and enhance the developer experience. Form a key member of the technical leadership team, driving standards, ways of working and platform decision-making. Break down problems into impactful milestones and tasks, delivering value incrementally. Share your expertise through documentation, design reviews, code contributions, presentations and technology discussions. Skills & Experience Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience. 6+ years of experience in software development and 2+ years of experience as a senior engineer. You have expertise in API design (REST & RPC) and its frameworks. Including using protobuf, gRPC, OpenAPI Experience with building service-oriented architecture, microservices, and modern techniques and tools around it. Including using Docker, ECS, Lambda, SQS, Kinesis, etc Experience in a few persistence, storage and caching mechanisms. Including MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB, S3, etc Experience with Elasticsearch is desirable. Mastery of PHP, or Go would be highly advantageous You build systems that include appropriate monitoring and observability, employing modern best practices for fault tolerance, including but not limited to caching, eventual consistency, queues, load balancing, circuit breaking, etc. A visionary problem solver, constantly looking for ways to optimize processes, improve product performance, and elevate the user experience through innovative and elegant solutions. Ability to lead by example, rolling up your sleeves to “show the way” Proven track record of leading technical teams, including mentoring junior and mid-level developers, providing technical guidance, conducting code reviews, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Experience setting technical direction and defining architectural standards, ensuring that apps are scalable, maintainable, and meet business objectives while keeping technical debt to a minimum. Proven leadership in driving projects from concept to delivery, working cross-functionally with product managers, designers, and engineering teams to align on vision, requirements, and timelines. Expert at communicating complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, building alignment on vision, priorities, and timelines, and contributing to key decision-making at the strategic level. Experience with CI/CD pipelines, ensuring seamless integration and deployment workflows that accelerate development cycles and ensure high-quality releases. Thrives in dynamic environments, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, make high-stakes decisions, and lead teams through challenges while maintaining focus on project goals. Passionate about staying at the cutting edge of development technologies, continuously learning and experimenting with new tools, frameworks, and methodologies to improve development practices and outcomes. Employee Perks - Enjoy a flexible work policy (with a work-from-home stipend to set you up for success!) - Own A piece of Deputy via our Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) - Take paid parental leave to support you and your family - Stay protected with Group Salary Continuance Insurance - Access support through our Employee Assistance Program - Enjoy additional leave days — including study assistance, celebration days and volunteering - Join our global working groups focused on collaboration, belonging and connection - Get creative at our annual Hackathons - Take advantage of our novated leasing for electric vehicles, internet reimbursement and more! Learn more about our Design, Engineering & Product teams here Deputy believes in equal opportunity and that inclusiveness and diversity promotes innovation. Our global team members are from a variety of cultures. And we welcome different perspective and skills. #LI-Hybrid