Lead Software Engineer

About PactFi Private asset markets (PE, Private Credit, VC, Real Estate) have 10x to 9.8T in AUM over the past decade and are projected to grow to $17T in the next five years. However, digital infrastructure has not kept pace, with most of the market operating predominantly in error-prone, internal-only software solutions. PactFi provides secure, end-to-end, operational infrastructure for managing complex private credit transactions. Our web-based application brings together all parties involved in such a transaction to more efficiently allocate capital, complete KYC, share documents, manage funds flow, and more. The platform is secured to a bank-grade standard, and we have received our SOC 2 Type 2 attestation. PactFi was developed in close partnership with two of the industry's largest players, both of whom represent the top 3 players in the private credit space by both size (AUM) and deal activity. PactFi is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to act as technical lead for a product squad. We're looking for a generalist builder, someone who can pick up whatever the problem requires, ship it, and bring the team with them. This is a hands-on role: you'll spend most of your time building and reviewing code, and the rest raising the level of everyone around you. You'll set technical direction for your area, grow the engineers around you, and partner with the Head of Engineering, Product Managers, and QA to turn business goals into shipped software. We care far more about your judgment, breadth, and track record of delivery than about any specific language or framework. This is a technical leadership track with up to 2 direct reports (optional). Key Responsibilities Technical Delivery - Design, build, and ship full-stack features end to end (data model, API, and interface) owning them from architecture through production support. - Set and enforce technical standards for your area: architecture patterns, API design, testing strategy, and documentation. - Lead design discussions and make pragmatic trade-off calls across performance, security, cost, and delivery timelines. - Identify and pay down technical debt, and drive improvements to reliability, observability, and developer experience. Technical Leadership & Mentoring - Mentor mid-level and junior engineers through pairing, code review, and structured feedback, and support their growth plans. - Break large initiatives into well-scoped work, sequence delivery, and keep the squad unblocked. - Run architecture and code reviews that raise quality without slowing the team down. - Help interview and onboard new engineers, and contribute to hiring bar and onboarding materials. - Own the delivery and health of your squad's work: surface risk early, keep quality high, and hold the team to a shared standard. Cross-Functional Partnership - Work with the Head of Engineering to align technical roadmap with company strategy. - Partner with Product Managers to shape requirements, surface constraints early, and propose alternatives. - Coordinate with QA on test coverage, release readiness, and incident follow-up. - Communicate technical decisions and risks clearly to non-technical stakeholders. Qualifications - 6+ years of professional software development experience shipping and operating production web applications. - Depth in at least one modern server-side language and framework and one front-end framework — PHP/Laravel, Python, Node/TypeScript, Ruby, Go, or similar. The specific stack is not a requirement. - Demonstrated ability to move into unfamiliar languages, frameworks, and problem domains quickly and ship in them. - Demonstrated experience leading projects and mentoring engineers as a technical lead, staff engineer, or equivalent. - Strong grasp of API design, scalable application architecture, and the common patterns behind them. - Advanced relational database skills, including schema design, query optimization, and caching strategy. - Experience with authentication and authorization across multiple systems and environments. - Track record of integrating multiple data sources and third-party APIs into coherent systems. - Excellent communication skills and the credibility to influence technical direction without formal authority. Nice to Have - Experience with AWS or another cloud platform, including CI/CD pipelines. - A strong automated testing practice, in whatever stack you've worked in. - Exposure to PHP/Laravel or Vue.js — our current stack. Helpful context, not a requirement. - Background in fintech, financial services, or another regulated environment. - Experience building AI or LLM-powered features into a production application. - Prior experience growing a team or defining engineering process. What We Offer - Competitive salary + equity. - Healthcare coverage. - 401k