Lead Software Engineer, Workflow Automation & Orchestration

Location: Bucharest, Romania

About the Company

For more than three decades, our client has been a trusted leader in the IoT and Telecommunications industry, enabling large-scale IoT initiatives across Automotive, Utilities and Energy, Fleet Management and Logistics, Medical Devices, and Manufacturing.

Our client’s IoT technology expertise serves a global ecosystem of 7,000 enterprise customers, 30 mobile network operator partners, and 90 million IoT devices across the world. The company powers today’s connected smart world with innovative technologies and borderless connectivity that simplify management, enhance security, optimize performance, and drive growth.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to own and drive a high-impact project focused on converting manual operational processes into customer self-serve solutions.

This role goes beyond pure development. The lead engineer will be the primary technical point of contact, engaging directly with the Network Operations team to deeply understand existing manual workflows, translate them into formal design specifications, and implement them as automated orchestration pipelines on Apache Airflow / GCP Cloud Composer.

The right candidate is someone who can sit at the intersection of network operations and software engineering – someone who can speak the language of both worlds, take full ownership of the technical direction, and deliver with a small, focused team.

This is a long-term opportunity with an initial 12-month B2B agreement and strong potential for extension.

This is an urgent hire. The lead engineer will be transitioning the project from an outgoing team member and must be ready to ramp up and take ownership quickly.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Ownership & Leadership

• Take full technical ownership of the project from day one, including transition from the outgoing engineer
• Drive all phases of the software development lifecycle – requirements, design, implementation, testing, and deployment
• Provide technical direction, task assignment, and mentorship to two MTS L3 engineers
• Make key architectural and design decisions related to workflow orchestration and automation

Requirements & Specification

• Engage directly and regularly with the Network Operations team to understand and document existing manual processes and workflows
• Ask the right questions to uncover edge cases, dependencies, and operational nuances that impact automation design
• Transform operational knowledge into clear, structured technical design specifications that serve as the foundation for development
• Validate specifications with both the network team and engineering team before implementation begins

Workflow Automation & Development

• Model and implement complex, multi-step workflows as DAGs on Apache Airflow / GCP Cloud Composer
• Design workflows that accurately reflect the logic of manual operations, including error handling, retries, branching logic, and node communication patterns
• Develop automation that interfaces with network systems, APIs, and infrastructure services
• Ensure all workflows are production-grade – reliable, observable, maintainable, and well-tested
• Write primarily in Python, leveraging Java where applicable and advantageous

Communication & Collaboration

• Serve as the bridge between the network operations team and the engineering team
• Communicate technical designs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Work independently with minimal oversight once direction has been established
• Proactively surface risks, blockers, and dependencies to stakeholders

Required Qualifications

• 10–12 years of professional software development experience
• Strong proficiency in Python – this is the primary development language for the project
• Production-level hands-on experience with Apache Airflow and/or GCP Cloud Composer
• Deep expertise in DAG design and workflow modeling – including task dependencies, dynamic workflows, branching, error handling, and retry strategies
• Proven ability to engage with non-engineering teams (operations, network, infrastructure) to extract requirements and translate them into actionable technical specifications
• Demonstrated experience leading small engineering teams and owning end-to- end project delivery
• Experience orchestrating workflows that involve communication with external systems, APIs, or network infrastructure
• Superior English communication skills – written and verbal – capable of leading discussions with both operations engineers and technical stakeholders
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability – able to drive the project forward independently once high-level direction is provided
• Proficiency with Jira – for project tracking, sprint planning, task management, and reporting
• Proficiency with Bitbucket – for source control, branch management, pull requests, and code review workflows
• Advanced English proficiency (B2–C1 or higher)

Preferred Qualifications & Nice to Have

• Java experience is An advantage – candidates with hands-on Java development skills, particularly in backend or integration contexts, will be preferred over equally qualified candidates without it
• Experience with GCP services beyond Cloud Composer (e.g., Pub/Sub, Cloud Functions, Big Query, GKE)
• Familiarity with network management systems, infrastructure APIs, or telecom/enterprise network environments
• Prior experience in a project transition or knowledge transfer scenario
• Background in business process automation (BPA) or enterprise workflow automation

What Makes You a Strong Fit

• You are equally comfortable in a meeting room with network engineers discussing operational flows as you are at a keyboard designing and building Airflow DAGs
• You have a structured, analytical mindset that allows you to break down complex manual processes into automatable steps
• You take full ownership – you don’t wait to be told what to do next; you identify what needs to happen and make it happen
• You are a clear and confident communicator who can lead cross-functional discussions and produce documentation that both engineers and operators can work from
• You are comfortable navigating ambiguity and bringing order to loosely defined processes
• You write clean, well-tested, production-ready code and set the standard for the engineers you lead

We Offer

• We welcome new ideas and allow you to make an immediate impact on the team
• 21 days of paid time off
• Health and wellness package
• Personal laptop
• Budget for English lessons
• Remote work + 2 times per week office work