Full Stack Tech Lead

What the Role Is

The Tech Lead Engineer is Northwoods’ senior-most individual contributor role, sitting at the intersection of hands-on engineering and technical leadership. The bar for this hire is intentionally high.

This is not a management position — this person writes code and carries a full delivery workload. But it comes with a clear expectation to drive how the team engineers software: setting technical direction, establishing the code quality bar, and actively advancing the engineering playbook.

The role carries dual accountability: deliver Traverse product features end-to-end, and co-build the agentic engineering framework that continuously raises the standard for how software gets built at Northwoods. AI-forward development is not a tool this person reaches for occasionally — it is the operating model for everything they build.

The Single Most Important Thing

Proactiveness. If this person has to be pulled into conversations or asked for input, the fit is wrong. They insert themselves into the team rhythm and push things forward without being asked.

What the Person Does Day to Day

• Picks up and works cards independently — expected within the first two weeks.

• Owns product features end-to-end: technical design, implementation, automated testing, deployment, and production operation.

• Sets and enforces the code quality bar for the team: architecture decisions, design patterns, code review standards, and security-by-default practices.

• Builds and continuously improves the agentic engineering framework — automated test generation, AI-assisted code review workflows, prompt engineering standards, and agentic runbooks.

• Mentors and coaches other engineers through pairing, code review, and direct, actionable feedback.

• Engages proactively with product managers — provides perspective on feature direction and the engineering implications of product decisions.

• Partners with QA to help them learn and improve processes.

• Stays active in Slack, contributing to architectural and design conversations without being asked.

• Buddied up by day 30, operating independently by day 60.

What “Good” Looks Like at 90 Days

By 90 days, this person feels fully part of the team and has inserted themselves into its rhythm without being invited. The simplest measure: they are a leader among the team.

30 Days

Environment set up day one. Working cards independently by week two. Active in Slack and architectural conversations. Buddied up on on-call.

60 Days

Mentoring others — working cards alongside teammates from a coaching and teaching perspective. Operating independently on on-call.

90 Days

Fully part of the team. Regularly collaborating with product managers, actively helping QA improve, contributing to architectural conversations. A leader among the team — not waiting to be included.

Qualities & Behaviors

Must-Have Behaviors

• Proactive leader — inserts themselves into conversations, architectural decisions, and team processes without being asked.

• Curious and hands-on — willing to get into the weeds and figure things out.

• Demonstrated tech lead experience — reviewing others’ work, setting engineering direction, coaching the team.

• Cross-functional collaborator — proactively engages product and QA, not just engineering peers.

• Strong written communicator — design docs, code review comments, and architecture decisions are clear and useful to someone who wasn’t in the room.

• High autonomy — defines the approach, executes, and surfaces blockers early rather than waiting to be unblocked.

What Separates Good from Great

• Shows up in architectural conversations and brings perspective without being invited.

• Improves the SDLC — writes runbooks, automates processes, and raises the baseline as ongoing delivery work, not a side project.

• Holds a high bar for themselves and others — clean code, SOLID principles, test-first thinking, security-by-default.

• Open to learning — curiosity and willingness to pick up new things matters more than already knowing every tool in the stack.

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Technical Must-Haves

Non-Negotiable

• Full-stack capability across all layers of the stack — front end, back end, database, CI/CD.
• AI-First Engineering Mindset: Proven trajectory of daily, high-impact AI-assisted development using agentic tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) prioritized over raw years of experience.
• Full-Stack Proficiency: Solid, end-to-end expertise across C# (.NET) for backend, and frontend JavaScript frameworks (strongly preferred).
• Engineering fundamentals: test-first development (tests before implementation), clean code, code quality, consistent conventions.
• Database & Data Layer Mastery: Strong proficiency in database design and management, with direct experience in PostgreSQL (strongly preferred).
• Ability to contribute meaningfully to architecture and system design conversations.

Flexible / Broader Lens

• Specific Ruby on Rails or AWS experience is a plus but not a dealbreaker — leader and engineer capability comes first, stack specifics second.
• At this level, the candidate should navigate across languages and frameworks with relative ease.
• React/TypeScript, and PostgreSQL is a strong advantage.
• AI tool preference is agnostic — the specific tool does not matter as long as they work fluently with AI in their daily practice.