Senior Engineer (Team Lead)

Orbis is seeking a Senior Engineer (Team Lead) to lead one of three integration teams supporting an ongoing program for a government client in the Middle East. In this role, you will carry dual responsibility: you are the strongest technical contributor on your team, and you are accountable for everything your team ships. You will take the hardest integrations yourself, set the technical standard for your team's work, plan and prioritize the team's backlog, and manage rotation handoffs to maintain continuity across deployments. Roughly 60% of your time is hands-on engineering; 40% is team coordination, planning, and people development. This is not a management role that happens to touch code -- it is an IC role that carries team accountability.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

* Own the team's delivery. Be accountable for the full output of your integration team (Senior Integration Engineer + Integration Engineer + yourself) across all assigned data sources and domains

* Take the hardest integrations. Design and build adapters for the most complex, undocumented, or high-risk source systems -- the work nobody else on the team can crack

* Plan and prioritize work. Translate the PTL's program-level priorities into your team's work plan; sequence integrations, make tradeoff calls, and keep the team focused on what ships next

* Set the technical bar. Define what "done" looks like for your team -- code review standards, deployment quality gates, documentation expectations. Hold the team to it

* Manage rotation continuity. Own handoffs between overseas rotations: what's in flight, what's blocked, what the next rotation picks up. Ensure nothing drops between cycles

* Coordinate across teams. Aligning with the other two teams leads to deconflict shared dependencies, surface reusable patterns, and avoiding duplicated adapter work across Teams A, B, and C

* Grow your people. Develop both the Senior Integration Engineer and the Integration Engineer on your team. Identify skill gaps, give direct performance feedback, and decide who's ready for more responsibility

* Coordinate with the Staff Engineer. Align your team's integration approaches with the program-wide patterns and standards the Staff Engineer defines. Surface cross-team issues, adopt shared playbooks, and feed back field realities that should inform the architecture

* Interface with the platform product team through the Staff Engineer. Escalate bugs and platform gaps with clear reproductions; decide when to adopt new platform versions for your team in line with program cadence

* Report upward clearly. Give the PTL a clear read on your team's status, risks, and blockers. Surface problems early with proposed mitigations, not just flags

* Deploy and validate in theater. Stay hands-on through deployment into customer environments -- cloud-native, on-premises, and tactical edge. Validate your team's integrations work where they need to work

* Engage in customer technical exchanges. Represent your team's integration work in technical working groups; translate engineering detail for non-technical stakeholders when needed

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

* 7-10 years of professional software engineering experience with a focus on system integrations and data pipelines

* Proficiency in TypeScript/Node.js

* Experience with GraphQL and pub/sub architectures (Zenoh or equivalent)

* Demonstrated ability to lead a small technical team while remaining a hands-on contributor

* Track record of owning delivery outcomes for a team, not just individual work

* Hands-on experience deploying and managing containerized applications (Docker, Kubernetes/Helm) across multiple environment types

* Experience debugging complex, cross-system integration failures in production environments under operational pressure

* Strong ability to prioritize, sequence, and plan technical work for a team against shifting program needs

* Proven ability to develop engineers -- mentoring, performance feedback, and skill growth

* Strong communication skills in distributed, remote, cross-functional, multi-time zone teams

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

* Familiarity with defense data standards and protocols: ASTERIX, Cursor on Target (CoT), STANAG, radar UDP

* Experience designing integration patterns for undocumented or poorly documented source systems

* Background with military, law enforcement, or intelligence community operations and organizations

* Experience leading teams on international programs with rotating deployments across multiple time zones (8+ hours differential)

* Understanding of service mesh concepts, mTLS, and zero-trust network architectures

* Familiarity with edge-native deployment patterns and constrained operational environments

* Experience with customer enablement, technical training, or knowledge transfer in field environments

* Fluency with AI-assisted development tooling (Claude, Copilot, Cursor, or equivalents) as part of daily engineering practice

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

The following describes the physical demands of this position. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions in accordance with the ADA.

Sedentary Work: Primarily performs work in a seated position for extended periods; occasionally required to stand, walk, or move within the work area

Fine Motor Skills: Regularly required to use hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard, mouse, and standard office equipment

Vision: Must be able to read and view a computer screen for extended periods; close vision and ability to adjust focus required

Communication: Must be able to communicate clearly and effectively in person, via telephone, and through video conferencing platforms; ability to hear and understand spoken information in a professional setting required

Lifting: Occasionally required to lift and/or move items up to 25 pounds (e.g., files, documents, office supplies)

Concentration: Must be able to maintain sustained focus and attention to detail in a professional office or hybrid work environment

Travel: Extended travel to the Middle East, including time spent in geopolitical hot zones on a rotational basis (60 days in country and 60 days in the US working remotely).

Orbis Operations is an Equal Opportuity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Orbis Operations is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace where all employees are valued and respected. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals, including those from underrepresented groups.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Orbis Operations will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and employment process. If you require an accommodation, please contact us at hr@orbisops.com