Lead Software Engineer
Location: Irving, Texas
Country: United States
Category: Software Development
Workplace Location: Onsite
Employment Type: Contract To Hire
Posted Date: August 25, 2026
Job ID: 648300
Job Description
Lead Software Engineer - Data Platform / Databricks
- Location: Greater Dallas/Fort Worth area
- Work Arrangement: Hybrid
- Employment Type: Contract to hire (No sponsorship permitted)
- Pay Rate: 75-85/hour
The Planet Group has partnered with a Dallas area company to locate a hands-on Lead Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for a team developing and enhancing a large-scale data and analytics platform. This is an individual contributor role combining approximately 50% hands-on development with 50% technical leadership, architecture, mentoring, and engineering best practices.
You will work closely with a team of seven engineers, helping establish technical direction, solve complex engineering challenges, improve development practices, and mentor team members. The environment is heavily focused on Azure, Databricks, Apache Spark, PySpark, and Python, with an emphasis on building scalable data platforms and pipelines.
This is an ideal opportunity for a senior engineer who enjoys remaining hands-on while also serving as a technical leader and mentor.
Requirements:
- Lead the technical design and development of scalable data and software solutions within an Azure-based environment.
- Remain hands-on with development, contributing production-quality code using Python and PySpark.
- Design, build, enhance, and support data pipelines and large-scale data processing solutions using Databricks and Apache Spark.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to a team of approximately seven engineers without direct people-management responsibilities.
- Establish and reinforce engineering best practices across coding standards, code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD, security, and maintainability.
- Guide engineers through complex design, architecture, performance, and troubleshooting challenges.
- Contribute to architectural decisions involving distributed systems, data platforms, pipelines, and lakehouse-based solutions.
- Partner with Product, Architecture, Delivery, CloudOps, and Security teams to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions.
- Break complex initiatives into actionable technical work and help the team prioritize development efforts.
- Identify technical risks, dependencies, and potential delivery issues and recommend appropriate solutions.
- Mentor engineers and promote knowledge sharing, technical growth, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Evaluate opportunities to incorporate AI, automation, and emerging technologies into engineering workflows.
- Communicate technical decisions, project progress, risks, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- 8+ years of professional software development or engineering experience.
- 2+ years of experience serving as a technical lead, lead engineer, or senior engineer responsible for mentoring other developers.
- Strong hands-on development experience with Python and PySpark.
- Strong experience with Databricks and Apache Spark in production environments.
- Experience designing and developing scalable data pipelines and large-scale data platforms.
- Strong experience working within Microsoft Azure environments.
- Experience with distributed data processing and modern data architecture.
- Strong understanding of software engineering best practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, code reviews, application security, and source control.
- Experience contributing to system design and architecture for scalable, distributed applications or data platforms.
- Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
- Experience working in Agile development environments and partnering across technical and business teams.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to provide technical guidance and explain complex concepts to varied audiences.
- Experience with Angular or other modern front-end technologies.
- Experience with lakehouse architectures, data warehousing, and data modeling.
- Experience with streaming or real-time data processing.
- Exposure to AI/ML workflows or AI-enabled development tools.
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EEO Statement
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The Planet Group and our companies are equal opportunity employers. It is our practice not to discriminate against any employee or applicant based on any criteria, condition or basis protected by laws or regulations in the locations where we do business. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply. We celebrate diversity and are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect. We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion enable us to better meet our mission and values while serving our clients across the globe. If you have a disability or handicap and would like us to accommodate you in any reasonable way, please inform your recruiter, or contact us, so that we can discuss the appropriate alternatives available.
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About The Planet Group
The Planet Group is a global professional services firm delivering strategic staffing and advisory solutions. We operate at the intersection of talent and transformation – connecting the right people with the right opportunities in the areas of technology, engineering, accounting & finance, digital marketing, and manufacturing.
As one of the largest staffing companies in the US, we operate with a global reach and a performance-first mindset. We partner with clients to move fast, stay agile, and drive measurable results – building high-impact teams that fuel transformation and growth.
