.NET Lead

Kickdrum is seeking a proactive and hands-on C#/.NET Lead to architect, develop, and deploy cloud-native systems. This role involves leading an engineering squad, collaborating closely with Kickdrum leadership and client teams, and maintaining a high technical standard across backend, cloud, data, and modern TypeScript frontend development. You will be instrumental in accelerating delivery cycles and ensuring successful product outcomes.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor a team of 3-6 engineers through the entire software development lifecycle, from discovery to production. This includes reviewing and approving estimates, designs, code, and test plans.
• Translate complex business requirements into clear technical designs, actionable tasks, and comprehensive release plans, actively driving sprint execution and resolving impediments.
• Design and iterate on distributed architectures leveraging Azure or AWS, focusing on microservices, event-driven systems, robust APIs, and background processing.
• Develop backend services using C#/.NET Core with REST/gRPC, utilizing technologies like .NET Aspire and Dapr building blocks, EF Core for data access, and ensuring well-defined API contracts via OpenAPI/Swagger.
• Engineer sophisticated data layers, demonstrating deep expertise in SQL Server (query optimization, indexing, transaction management, deadlock analysis), Dapper and/or EF Core, and strategic application of NoSQL databases (Cosmos DB/MongoDB), caching solutions (Redis), and search engines (Elasticsearch/OpenSearch).
• Architect eventing and integration strategies using platforms like Azure Event Hubs/Service Bus, Kafka, or SQS/SNS, making informed decisions on eventual vs. immediate consistency.
• Implement comprehensive observability with OpenTelemetry (OTEL) for tracing, metrics, and logging, integrating with tools such as Application Insights, Prometheus/Grafana, or the ELK stack.
• Champion API-first development principles, robust security practices (OAuth2/OIDC, Azure AD/Entra, Key Vault/Secrets Manager), and critical reliability patterns (circuit breakers, retries, idempotency).
• Provide technical guidance to frontend engineers working with TypeScript and React (and potentially Angular), focusing on API integrations, state management, performance optimization, and developer experience.
• Drive rapid MVP delivery within weeks, facilitate data-informed iterations, and maintain clear, concise communication with stakeholders regarding progress.

Requirements:

• 8-12+ years of experience in software engineering, with a minimum of 3 years in a technical leadership role (Tech Lead/Lead Engineer).
• Proficiency in C# across both .NET Framework and modern .NET versions, with production experience in ASP.NET Core and REST/gRPC services.
• Experience working with legacy .NET Framework systems, including code analysis, stabilization efforts, and migration planning.
• Familiarity with .NET Upgrade Assistant, code analyzers, multi-targeting, and compatibility shims is advantageous.
• In-depth knowledge of SQL Server, including T-SQL, query plan analysis, indexing strategies, isolation levels, deadlock resolution, and database profiling tools.
• Hands-on experience with .NET Aspire (AppHost/ServiceDefaults, components, dashboard) and Dapr (service invocation, pub/sub, state management, bindings), coupled with EF Core for data access. Ability to strategically decide when to use Aspire/Dapr versus direct SDKs.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Bicep, ARM templates, or Terraform.
• Practical application of EF Core and various data access patterns.
• A strong grasp of distributed systems concepts, including idempotency, sagas/outbox patterns, partitioning/sharding, eventual consistency, and resiliency strategies.
• Exposure to frontend leadership, particularly with TypeScript and React, covering routing, state management, testing methodologies, and performance considerations.
• A commitment to a strong testing culture, utilizing frameworks like xUnit/NUnit, mocking libraries, contract testing (e.g., Pact), API/integration tests, and tools like Playwright/Cypress/Jest, integrated into CI quality gates.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.

Cloud-native design and implementation on Azure and/or AWS, encompassing:

• Containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes/AKS/EKS), networking configurations, secrets management, and optimizing for cost and performance.
• Compute services (AKS/EKS, App Service, Functions/Lambda) and container orchestration.
• Data storage solutions (Cosmos DB/MongoDB, Redis/ElastiCache, file/object storage).
• Messaging and streaming platforms (Event Hubs/Service Bus, Kafka, SQS/SNS).
• Observability tools and practices (OpenTelemetry) with dashboarding and alerting (App Insights, Grafana, CloudWatch).

Nice to have:

• Experience with AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or Claude Code, including establishing team guidelines for AI-assisted coding.
• Proven ability to build and deploy AI-powered features utilizing platforms like Azure AI Foundry (Azure OpenAI), AWS Bedrock, and Ollama/llama.cpp. Familiarity with agentic SDKs like LangChain or Semantic Kernel, and practical application of RAG patterns and vector stores (Azure AI Search, Pinecone, Redis Stack, pgvector).
• Advanced frontend expertise with frameworks like Next.js, Vite, understanding of performance budgets, and commitment to accessibility standards.
• Knowledge of security best practices and compliance frameworks (OWASP ASVS/Top 10), including secrets management and threat modeling.
• Experience implementing and managing feature flags, A/B testing, and product analytics.
• Familiarity with Domain-Driven Design, Clean Architecture principles, and strategies for migrating from legacy .NET Framework to modern .NET.

Technology Stack:

While we maintain a technology-agnostic approach, our current focus and the technologies we are actively seeking for this role include:

• Backend: C#, .NET Framework, .NET 6/7/8/9+, ASP.NET Core, gRPC, .NET Aspire, Dapr, EF Core, Azure Functions/AWS Lambda.
• Frontend: TypeScript, React (preferred), Angular (nice to have), Vite/Webpack, Jest/Cypress, Storybook.
• Data: SQL Server, Cosmos DB/DynamoDB/MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, Azure Blob Storage, S3.
• Messaging/Streaming: Azure Event Hubs/Service Bus, Kafka, SQS/SNS.
• Cloud/DevOps: Azure (preferred) / AWS, Docker, Kubernetes (AKS/EKS), Terraform/Bicep, GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps/Jenkins.
• Observability: OpenTelemetry, Application Insights, Prometheus/Grafana, ELK, AWS CloudWatch, and X-Ray.
• Security: OAuth2/OIDC, Azure AD/Entra, Key Vault/Secrets Manager.