Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

ABOUT THE TEAM

Imagine building the analytics layer that thousands of business users rely on to understand their data. At Appian, we don’t just ship features, we build the reporting, charting, and AI-powered insights engine at the heart of the Appian platform. Our work spans from interactive chart builders and drag-and-drop dashboards to LLM-powered copilots that generate KPIs and insight summaries from process data. If you want to work across the full stack, from database schema design to chart components to AI prompt pipelines, this is the role.

This role is based at our headquarters in McLean, Virginia. Appian was built on a culture of in-person collaboration, which we believe is a key driver of our mission to be the best. Employees hired for this position are expected to be in the office 5 days a week to foster that culture and ensure we continue to thrive through shared ideas and teamwork. We believe being in the office provides more opportunities to come together and celebrate working with the exceptional people across Appian.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As a Lead Software Engineer working on the Appian platform, your mission will be to ensure Appian is always fast, scalable, and up to whatever tasks our customers configure it to do. Your scope extends from the high-performance data layer to the cross-platform user interface to the design tools used to create it.You’ll work on complex issues where analyzing situations or data requires an in-depth evaluation of variable factors. You will exercise judgment in selecting methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria to obtain results. As a technical leader, you will be expected to influence team dynamics positively, model strategic communication, actively mentor peers, and collaborate with key partners across and outside your immediate domain.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Lead feature development and architectural decisions using spec-driven workflows while keeping the platform modern and scalable
• Leverage deep knowledge of data structures, algorithms, and design patterns to write software in a full-stack web and mobile environment
• Manage availability, latency, scalability, and efficiency by engineering reliability into software and systems
• Contribute heavily to software performance analysis and system tuning, ensuring our analytics engine and data layers operate at peak efficiency under high-volume workloads
• Design and implement features end-to-end across Liquibase/JPA schemas, Spring/Java services, SAIL system rules, and React/TypeScript components
• Build and extend LLM copilot pipelines, prompt workflows, and rich data visualization experiences like chart widgets and dashboard builders
• Conduct thorough design and code reviews, model best practices, and actively mentor engineers to increase team proficiency and development velocity
• Communicate complex designs clearly across teams and contribute high-quality technical content

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• B.S. in Computer Science or related (7+ years experience) or M.S. in Computer Science or related field (5+ years of experience)
• Proven track record in high-volume, critical production service environments
• Experience building interactive web UIs with TypeScript/React (or similar component frameworks)
• Experience leveraging modern AI coding tools and agentic workflows to accelerate development, improve spec generation, and automate boilerplate tasks
• Proven track record of collaborating with key contacts outside your immediate area of expertise and influencing team culture
• Demonstrated history of guiding less experienced engineers with empathy and taking full ownership of complex deliverables
• Strong Java fundamentals - Spring Framework, Hibernate/JPA, interface-first architecture, dependency injection

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Hands-on experience building or integrating LLM pipelines, prompt workflows, and AI copilot services into customer-facing products
• Experience setting up custom agent harnesses, context configuration files (e.g., AGENTS.md, custom linters), or spec-driven execution workflows
• Experience with data visualization libraries (Highcharts, D3, Chart.js) and state management patterns (Redux)
• Strong UI/Full-Stack foundation using React, TypeScript, and functional UI principles
• Familiarity with process mining, analytics, or business intelligence platforms