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Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue ShieldDes Moines, IA, US
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Company Description

Why Wellmark : We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policy holders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we’ve built our reputation on over 80 years’ worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors–our members. If you’re passionate about joining an organization working hard to put its members first, to provide best-in-class service, and one that is committed to sustainability and innovation, consider applying today!

Job Description

At Wellmark, we’re building the next generation of secure, scalable, and reusable data and application services that serve as the foundation for enterprise-wide innovation. As a Lead Software Engineer on the Enterprise Data Services team, you’ll balance hands-on coding with technical leadership, driving design decisions, mentoring engineers, and ensuring delivery of high-impact solutions.

This role is both hands-on and collaborative. You will be actively involved in developing complex features, optimizing performance, and contributing directly to the codebase. At the same time, you will play a key role in shaping technical designs, writing technical stories, and working closely with Product Owners and Principal / Platform Engineers to ensure solutions align with both business priorities and long-term architectural goals. You will also guide and support the team through code reviews, mentorship, and release planning, helping maintain high standards of quality, security, and scalability across all deliverables.

As a technical leader, you’ll raise the bar for engineering excellence while fostering a collaborative, high-performing team culture.

What You’ll Do

  • Develop high-priority features and complex components in microservices, including new service endpoints, integrations, and infrastructure-as-code with AWS CDK.
  • Optimize systems for scalability, reliability, and performance in AWS cloud environments.
  • Partner with Principal / Platform Engineers and Product Owners to refine system designs, break down epics into actionable technical stories, and align delivery with business goals.
  • Write clear technical specifications and ensure the backlog is well-defined with achievable, sprint-sized stories.
  • Lead and participate in code reviews to maintain high standards for quality, security, testing, and maintainability.
  • Mentor engineers across skill levels, providing guidance on AWS services, microservice design, CI / CD, automated testing, and observability practices.
  • Coordinate release planning, deployment workflows, and rollback strategies in AWS while collaborating closely with QA to ensure proper testing coverage.
  • Ensure production stability by monitoring and supporting services in AWS, leading incident resolution, and driving root-cause analysis to implement long-term improvements that enhance reliability, performance, and compliance.
  • Actively contribute during sprint planning, backlog grooming, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, helping the team continuously improve.
  • Foster an open, collaborative environment where engineers feel supported, engaged, and accountable.

You Will Be Successful Here By

  • Balancing hands-on coding with technical leadership to deliver high-quality, business-aligned solutions.
  • Breaking down complex requirements into clear, actionable technical stories that the team can execute confidently.
  • Mentoring and developing engineers, raising the bar on design, code quality, testing, and delivery practices.
  • Collaborating effectively with Product Owners, Principal / Platform Engineers, and cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Lead by example by jumping into complex challenges, providing guidance, and ensuring the team delivers secure, scalable, production-ready code.
  • Driving a culture of ownership, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.

    • What You’ll Bring to the Team

  • Proven experience delivering backend services in production using and / or Python.
  • A knack for quickly picking up new languages and frameworks and using the right tool for the right job to deliver scalable, effective solutions
  • 9+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 2–3 years in a technical leadership role such as mentoring, design ownership, or leading code reviews.
  • Strong understanding of event-driven architecture, distributed systems, and microservice design patterns.
  • Hands-on experience with AWS services such as Lambda, API Gateway, Aurora RDS, DynamoDB, SQS / SNS, S3, EventBridge, and AWS Batch.
  • Experience designing and delivering data-centric services that integrate across relational and NoSQL databases, with a focus on data quality, scalability, and efficient access patterns for enterprise solutions.
  • Familiarity with CI / CD workflows, automated testing frameworks (, Jest), and observability practices (logging, monitoring, tracing).
  • Proven ability to mentor, influence, and guide engineers while fostering a culture of accountability and technical excellence.

    • Qualifications

    Preferred

  • Experience working within an Agile team environment and a product-focused organization delivering incrementally and iteratively.
  • Demonstrated technical leadership through code reviews, and mentorship across teams and domains.
  • Hands-on experience with AWS CDK or similar infrastructure-as-code tools to provision and manage cloud-native services.
  • Familiarity with designing event-driven architectures using services like EventBridge, SNS / SQS, or Kafka / Kinesis.
  • Experience building and supporting real-time data pipelines or streaming integrations in production environments.
  • Experience leading production releases, managing deployment workflows, and ensuring operational readiness in AWS environments.
  • Strong understanding of secure-by-design principles and practical experience embedding security into cloud-native service design.
  • Demonstrated experience implementing and supporting CI / CD pipelines, automated testing, and observability practices (, logging, monitoring, tracing).
  • Experience delivering microservices and serverless applications on AWS using Lambda, API Gateway, Aurora, DynamoDB, and related services.
  • Proficiency with both SQL and NoSQL databases, including schema design and performance optimization for PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and DynamoDB.
  • Experience working closely with DevOps and QA to ensure reliability, testability, and performance in production systems.
  • Prior exposure to regulated environments such as healthcare or insurance and understanding of compliance standards like HIPAA or SOC2.
  • AWS certification (, Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer) is a plus

    • Required

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, MIS, or related field of study and at least 5 years of development experience (ex. Angular, NodeJS, Python, C++, .NET, Java, SQL) OR 9 years of related and applicable experience.
  • Strong analytical problem-solving skills. Accuracy and high attention to detail. Previous experience troubleshooting and developing creative technical solutions. Ability to provide innovative solutions to complex issues.
  • Demonstrated experience in software development lifecycle methodologies.
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate with and coach / mentor team members, while setting an example in maintaining a positive attitude, staying calm under pressure, being approachable, and respectful and taking responsibility for failures.
  • Big picture thinker with the ability to translate the value of the Wellmark as a Service (WaaS) strategy to company strategy when making design and development decisions. Ability to align technical decisions with Wellmark’s enterprise technology strategy and long-term business goals.
  • Demonstrated, strong ability to gather information, perform necessary research needed for root cause analysis, problem definition and formulation, recommend solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization, using data to support recommendations.
  • Demonstrated ability to build relationships to reach outcomes that gain the support and acceptance of all parties. Ability to communicate key information in a timely manner to the appropriate stakeholder audience with the ability to adjust communication style that will best suit the audience.
  • Ability to thrive in fast-paced environment with changing priorities. Excellent organizational skills. Strong time management skills with the ability to set and meet established timeframes with little direction, while assuring data and information integrity.
  • Eagerness to learn and stay current on industry trends and have a continuous learning mindset.
  • Ability to collaborate and work as a team to accomplish goals and / or solve problems. Ability to earn trust and respect from peers, leadership, and stakeholders. Ability to learn by actively listening and applying coaching feedback.

    • Additional Information

    a. Lead system development and engineering for highly complex programs. Coordinate the preparation, coding, testing, and debugging of complex programs; including the analysis and development of workflows that utilize emerging technology and meet and exceed Wellmark’s evolving business needs.

    b. Serve as subject matter expert in the implementation of innovative and cost-effective business solutions for multiple applications and systems utilizing information technology, business, and industry trends.

    c. Provide leadership, training, and guidance to others on the team in the gathering of information, necessary research needed for root cause analysis, problem definition and formulation, solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization. Ensure analysis of defects to find root cause and guide others in the identification of potential improvement opportunities.

    d. Mentor, guide and problem-solve with other technology areas in the development and implementation of solutions, including how to use new or enhanced software / applications.

    e. Coordinate with company resources to accomplish integration of products and processes and complex solutions. Provide timely and accurate results, and exceptional customer service.

    f. Utilize established relationships with Wellmark leaders and acts as a primary consultant on business status, issues, process improvements and technology enhancements or capabilities.

    g. Participate in project proposals, estimates and proof-of-concept activities as needed.

    h. Maintain awareness of industry’s best practices and standards and proactively participates in industry / knowledge reference groups relative to role. Provide direction for enterprise standards. Conduct code reviews and monitor standard adherence.

    i. Other duties as assigned.

    All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

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    Lead Software Engineer • Des Moines, IA, US