Lead Software Engineer (P979) New

84.51° Overview:

84.51° is a retail data science, insights and media company. We help The Kroger Co., consumer packaged goods companies, agencies, publishers and affiliates create more personalized and valuable experiences for shoppers across the path to purchase.

Powered by cutting-edge science, we utilize first-party retail data from more than 62 million U.S. households sourced through the Kroger Plus loyalty card program to fuel a more customer-centric journey using 84.51° Insights, 84.51° Loyalty Marketing and our retail media advertising solution, Kroger Precision Marketing.

84.51° follows a 5‑day in‑office work schedule to support collaboration, alignment, and team connection.

Join us at 84.51°!

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Lead Software Engineer

Location: Cincinnati, Oh / Chicago, Il

Summary

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design, build, and support scalable software solutions for internal and external users. This role combines hands-on development with technical leadership across modern application development, APIs, cloud-native services, data integrations, and AI-enabled capabilities.

You will partner with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality, maintainable solutions, mentor engineers, and help guide implementation decisions that balance business needs, technical quality, and long-term sustainability.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support software applications across the full SDLC
• Build and enhance solutions using Java, Spring Boot, Angular, REST APIs, JSON, and SQL
• Translate business and product requirements into scalable, maintainable technical solutions
• Lead team-level technical implementation decisions and support sound engineering practices
• Contribute to application and service design with a focus on scalability, reliability, security, and performance
• Build and support API-first integrations and contribute to event-driven solutions where appropriate
• Maintain and modernize existing applications
• Perform code reviews and mentor junior and mid-level engineers
• Support testing, CI/CD, and release practices that improve software quality and delivery
• Partner with product, data, security, and platform teams to deliver business value
• Contribute to AI-enabled features such as intelligent search, recommendations, summarization, assistants, workflow automation, or predictive insights
• Integrate applications with AI/ML services, including model APIs and LLM-based capabilities where appropriate

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong experience with Java and Spring Boot
• Experience with Angular 20+, React, or VUE
• Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs
• Strong SQL and relational database experience
• Experience with automated testing tools such as JUnit or Cucumber
• Experience with Git, Maven and/or Gradle
• Understanding of CI/CD, object-oriented design, and SOLID principles
• Experience debugging, tuning, and supporting enterprise applications
• Strong communication, collaboration, and mentoring skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Azure
• Experience with Python
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture
• Experience with AI/ML-enabled applications
• Familiarity with generative AI, LLMs, or AI integration patterns
• Exposure to Databricks, Snowflake, or modern data platforms
• Experience with NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or Couchbase
• Familiarity with observability tools such as Datadog, Dynatrace, New Relic

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