Lead Software Engineer - Technical Support

Position Overview

Derq is an MIT spinoff building AI-powered traffic safety and smart infrastructure. We're a team of passionate innovators leveraging the latest in AI and technology to transform the future of mobility. Our patented technology collects and analyzes data from connected sensors such as cameras, radar, and traffic signal controllers to predict and prevent road incidents while deploying edge and cloud solutions that make intersections and highways safer and smarter.

We're looking for a Lead Software Engineer to lead and scale our Technical Support organization. You will own function-level performance, delivery quality, and team growth while working closely with Squad Leads. This role blends leadership with hands-on engineering, allocating roughly 70% of your time to guidance and 30% to technical execution – including configuration, deployments, QA, monitoring, troubleshooting, and building automation to improve system reliability and speed. You will collaborate with Project Management, Engineering, and Product teams to ensure smooth customer deployments and drive process improvements.

Key Responsibilities

• System Deployment & Configuration:
  • Use the Derq Deployment Manager to configure and calibrate sensors and define intersection layouts for accurate event detection.
  • Plan and execute deployments tailored to unique intersection or highway characteristics.
  • Configure and maintain traffic light controller integrations and V2X connectivity.
  • Deploy and maintain edge Linux servers, routers, and network infrastructure.
  • Provide support for Derq's demo setups to clients and partners and stage hardware for projects or proofs of concept.
• QA:
  • Oversee the QA squad ensuring consistent validation of events, configurations, and end-to-end application behavior.
  • Own release quality gates to ensure deployments meet reliability, performance, and support standards pre- and post-go-live.
  • Collaborate with Product and Engineering to coordinate validation of fixes and new features and ensure proper issue tracking and resolution.
• Maintenance & Support:
  • Monitor live systems for uptime, performance, and sensor health.
  • Troubleshoot and resolve Level 1 and Level 2 issues related to networking, configuration, and software.
  • Escalate Level 3 issues to Engineering, track their resolution, and keep stakeholders informed.
  • Continuously improve incident response processes for faster resolution.
• Team Leadership:
  • Manage and mentor 3 Squad Leads along with their Support Engineer teams.
  • Lead and coach configuration, QA, and support engineers.
  • Set priorities and ensure SLA compliance for configurations, updates, and fixes.
  • Align timelines with Project Managers for customer deployments.
  • Strengthen team skills in monitoring, troubleshooting, and proactive issue resolution.
  • Support recruitment and onboarding as the organization grows.
• Engineering Collaboration & Process Improvement:
  • Participate in engineering sprints to advocate for deployment and support needs.
  • Contribute to GitHub repositories with configuration files, automation scripts, monitoring tools, and minor fixes.
  • Provide structured feedback on systemic issues to Product and Engineering teams.
  • Identify repetitive tasks and implement automation and tooling.
  • Enhance monitoring dashboards, alerting systems, and overall system health checks.
  • Maintain clear documentation, runbooks, and playbooks.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience Required: 8-10 years of experience in Software Technical Support / Systems Support Engineering.
• Experience Required: 4-8 years of experience leading technical teams, ideally via team leads or supervisors.
• Qualifications: Strong Linux server administration and troubleshooting skills.
• Solid networking fundamentals including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, NAT, routing, VLANs, and port forwarding.
• Hands-on scripting with Python and Shell for automation.
• Familiarity with GitHub workflows: commits, pull requests, and version control processes.
• Strong leadership, team mentoring, and escalation management skills.
• Excellent communication skills for both customer and internal team interactions.
• Highly organized, proactive, and adept at problem-solving.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with traffic systems, smart infrastructure, video analytics, or IoT deployments.
• Understanding of SPaT/MAP and ITS protocols.