Lead Software Engineer

As a Lead Software Engineer, you'll own client engagements from architecture through delivery. You'll lead small, high-leverage teams of engineers and AI agents, translating client needs into working systems, making the hard technical calls, and being directly accountable for what we ship. This is a hands-on leadership role - you'll be writing code, reviewing agent-generated work, shaping architecture, and setting the bar for how we build.

If you've been frustrated watching AI tools produce plausible-looking code that falls apart in production, we want you. The job is figuring out how to get excellent, shippable outcomes from agentic workflows, not tolerating mediocre ones.

What you'll do

• Lead client projects end to end: scoping, architecture, implementation, deployment, handoff.
• Design and run agentic development workflows - deciding when to let agents drive, when to intervene, and how to verify output.
• Write, review, and refactor production code across the stack. You're still a builder.
• Set technical direction and standards for engagements - code review, testing, observability, security.
• Act as the senior technical voice with clients: understand their business, push back when needed, earn trust.
• Mentor other engineers on how to work effectively with agents and ship high-quality software.
• Contribute to how Valerian evolves its practice: tooling, playbooks, hiring, and what we offer clients next.

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a meaningful stretch of that shipping production systems that real users depended on.
• Strong hands-on experience in at least two of: Python, TypeScript/Node, and a major cloud (AWS, GCP, or Azure). Comfortable moving across the stack.
• Demonstrated technical leadership - you've led projects, owned architecture decisions, and raised the quality bar for a team.
• Real fluency with agentic development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, or similar). You've used them on non-trivial work and can talk specifically about what they're good and bad at.
• Strong product and client instincts. You can hold a conversation about a customer's business, not just their ticket.
• Clear written and verbal communication - remote work depends on it.

Nice to have

• Consulting, agency, or client-services background.
• Experience building or deploying LLM-powered features in production.
• Infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD, and observability chops (Terraform, GitHub Actions, etc.).
• A track record of writing or speaking publicly about your craft.
• A zeal for identifying new ways of using AI and injecting it into your workflows for maximal returns

• Fully remote within the US. We overlap enough hours to collaborate well and leave people alone the rest of the time.
• Small teams, short feedback loops, real ownership.
• Competitive compensation and health benefits for you and your family
• 401K matching

About Valerian Valerian partners with clients to design and build production systems - faster and leaner than was possible a few years ago. We've re-tooled our practice around agentic software development: engineers working alongside AI agents to ship real, durable systems, not demos. We take on problems that matter to our clients' business, own them end to end, and treat code quality and operational reliability as non-negotiable.