Lead Software Engineer

Varsity Brands is building a modern, unified digital platform that powers the full experience of sport and spirit, connecting product configuration, ordering, fulfillment, manufacturing readiness, customer engagement, and business operations through scalable, API-driven services and shared platform capabilities. The Lead Software Engineer serves as a senior technical leader responsible for designing and delivering complex platform capabilities that span multiple engineering teams, applications, and services. This role provides technical leadership beyond an individual team, influencing architecture decisions, engineering standards, platform strategy, and software delivery practices across the organization.

The Lead Software Engineer combines deep technical expertise with systems thinking, helping engineering teams solve complex technical challenges while ensuring solutions align with Varsity Brands’ long-term platform vision. This role serves as a trusted advisor to engineering leadership and plays a critical role in developing engineering talent, driving modernization efforts, and accelerating platform transformation.

The Lead Software Engineer helps scale Varsity Brands’ technology capabilities by creating reusable solutions, improving platform consistency, and strengthening engineering execution across teams.

This role contributes to:

• Improved scalability, reliability, and performance of platform services
• Greater reuse of shared services and architectural patterns
• Accelerated modernization of legacy applications and technology platforms
• Improved engineering productivity and delivery effectiveness
• Increased technical capability through mentorship and coaching
• Reduced technical debt and operational complexity
• Stronger alignment between engineering decisions and business objectives

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Lead architecture and design efforts for complex applications, services, and platform capabilities
• Drive technical decision-making across multiple teams and technology domains
• Establish scalable, maintainable, and secure architecture patterns
• Promote consistency in engineering approaches, frameworks, and development standards
• Review and influence major technical designs and implementation strategies
• Ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture principles and platform strategy

Platform Engineering & Modernization

• Lead development of reusable platform services and shared engineering capabilities
• Drive modernization initiatives supporting cloud-native, API-first, and event-driven architectures
• Identify opportunities to simplify systems, eliminate duplication, and improve maintainability
• Guide technical debt reduction efforts and platform optimization initiatives
• Promote engineering practices that improve reliability, scalability, and operational performance

Engineering Excellence

• Establish and promote engineering best practices across development teams
• Drive adoption of automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and DevOps practices
• Improve software quality through design reviews, code reviews, and technical coaching
• Champion performance, security, resiliency, and operational excellence standards
• Support continuous improvement of engineering processes and delivery methods

Technical Mentorship & Talent Development

• Mentor Software Engineers I, II, and III while helping prepare future Lead Engineers
• Provide technical coaching and career guidance to engineers across the organization
• Share knowledge through architecture reviews, design discussions, and technical forums
• Help establish a culture of learning, collaboration, and engineering excellence
• Serve as a role model for technical leadership without formal authority

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Product Management, Design, Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, and Engineering teams
• Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Evaluate tradeoffs involving performance, reliability, security, cost, and maintainability
• Influence technology roadmaps and engineering priorities
• Drive alignment among stakeholders with varying technical and business objectives

Key Performance Indicators

Success in this role will be measured through:

• Scalability, reliability, and performance of platform services
• Adoption of architectural standards and reusable engineering patterns
• Reduction in technical debt and operational complexity
• Engineering productivity improvements
• Effectiveness of technical mentorship and talent development
• Contribution to modernization and platform transformation initiatives
• Influence on engineering quality and technical decision-making

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following capabilities:

Platform Leadership

• Thinks beyond individual applications to platforms, systems, and reusable capabilities
• Designs solutions that scale across products, teams, and business functions
• Balances immediate delivery needs with long-term architectural objectives

Technical Expertise

• Deep understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, cloud-native development, APIs, and modern engineering practices
• Strong knowledge of performance optimization, resiliency, security, and system design
• Ability to evaluate and implement scalable engineering solutions

Strategic Problem Solving

• Solves highly complex technical challenges involving multiple systems and stakeholders
• Applies systems thinking to identify root causes and long-term solutions
• Anticipates technical risks and proactively mitigates issues

Influence & Collaboration

• Influences technical decisions without formal authority
• Builds alignment among engineering teams and business stakeholders
• Communicates complex technical concepts in clear and accessible language, * Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical discipline; or equivalent combination of education and experience
• 8-12+ years of progressive software engineering experience
• Demonstrated experience leading architecture and technical design across multiple systems or teams
• Experience building scalable applications, APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native solutions
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing engineering standards

Preferred:

• Experience supporting platform modernization initiatives
• Experience with AWS and modern cloud technologies
• Experience leading large-scale engineering initiatives across multiple teams
• Experience contributing to technical communities through presentations, blogs, open-source contributions, or knowledge sharing

Physical Demands and/or Work Environment

Pulled from the full job description

• AD&D insurance
• Health insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Health savings account
• Flexible spending account
• Disability insurance
• Paid holidays, We are committed to putting you and your families first. For benefits eligible roles, we offer a variety of choices and costs as well as program enhancements that align with our responsibility to elevate the employee experience. Some of our offerings include:
• Comprehensive Health Care Benefits
• HSA Employer Contribution/ FSA Opportunities
• Wellbeing Program
• 401(k) plan with company matching
• Company paid Life, AD&D, and Short-Term Disability
• Generous My Time Off & Paid Holidays
• Varsity Brands Ownership Program
• Employee Resource Groups
• Access to Financial Coaching and member-owned Credit Union
• St. Jude Partnership & Volunteer Opportunities
• Employee Perks including discounts on personal apparel and equipment!

At Varsity Brands, we believe every student deserves the opportunity to succeed and every educator wants to make a difference. It takes a team to make a real impact, and through our two divisions - BSN SPORTS and Varsity Spirit - and our network of 6,000+ employees and independent representatives, we are proud to partner with a wide range of educational institutions and club and professional sports to transform the student journey in SPORT and SPIRIT., Varsity Brands companies are equal opportunity employers. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, age or disability.