
Lead Application Modernization Engineer
Liatrio · United States
- Hybrid
- Full-time
- $160,000 / year
- United States
Job highlights
- Lead engineers in AI modernization projects.
- Architect and build cloud-native solutions.
- Integrate AI and LLM capabilities.
- Manage technical delivery and stakeholder communication.
- Requires 7+ years of software engineering experience.
About the role
About Us
At Liatrio, we enable real transformation. We help industry-leading enterprises break free from legacy systems and adopt AI that reshapes how teams build, deliver, and thrive at scale. We partner directly with enterprise teams to embed AI-native practices into delivery– accelerating modernization, reducing risk, and shipping production-grade AI systems that set the standard for the industry. Our people embed directly inside client organizations, leading hands-on AI enablement and transformations that reshape how entire enterprises build and operate at scale. If you’re ready to lead real AI transformation, this is where you belong.
About The Role
We're looking for an AI App Modernization Lead Engineer who owns a portion of the technical scope on a workstream, architects the solutions within it, and leads a small team of engineers to deliver against it. You work closely under the guidance of an account lead or architect — you're not setting the overall engagement strategy, but you are designing the solutions, making the day-to-day architecture calls, and being accountable for the technical quality of what your team ships. You write the hard code, keep the team unblocked, and make sure the client always knows where things stand. At Liatrio, we enable.
What You'll Do
Technical Delivery and Oversight
You'll Own a Defined Portion Of The Technical Scope — Designing The Architecture, Doing The Work, And Leading Your Team Through It. That Looks Like:
- Architecting technical solutions within your workstream — designing the approach, documenting tradeoffs, articulating it clearly to clients, and leading your team through implementation
- Designing and building cloud-native services from legacy systems — decomposing tightly coupled monoliths into APIs and services, migrating data, and keeping production running throughout
- Building full-stack, production-grade applications — frontend interfaces, backend services, APIs, and the integrations that connect them across complex enterprise environments
- Writing and reviewing code across multiple languages and paradigms — setting the technical standard for your workstream through your own work, not just through direction
- Designing event-driven and microservices architectures that can scale, evolve, and be operated by teams beyond the ones that built them
- Integrating AI and LLM capabilities into client applications — building agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, and intelligent automation that ships to production and stays reliable
- Implementing CI/CD pipelines and delivery automation that give teams the confidence to ship frequently
- Making day-to-day architecture decisions within your scope and escalating the right ones to the account lead or architect when they have broader implications
- Identifying technical risk early and surfacing it clearly before it becomes a delivery problem
- Generating ideas, failing fast, and demonstrating with POCs
- Driving knowledge sharing in and out of client engagements
- Participating in business development
Team and People
- Lead a small team of engineers — organizing work, breaking down tasks, pairing on hard problems, and keeping the team moving
- Uplift engineers through code review, pairing, and day-to-day technical mentorship
- Mentor junior team members through 1:1s, feedback, and guiding technical growth
Stakeholder Communication
- Serve as a technical point of contact for your scope — representing the work clearly to client engineers and project stakeholders
- Keep account leaders and architects up to date on concerns, blockers, and changes
- Adapt quickly to change and shift focus as required to meet customer needs
- Provide feedback on team performance and areas for growth
Experience and Skills
Engineering
- You've built and shipped full-stack applications — greenfield and legacy modernization — and you have real depth in at least one part of the stack with enough breadth to work productively across the others
- You're fluent in multiple programming languages and paradigms — you write clean, testable, production-quality code and you know the difference between code that works and code that lasts
- You've delivered cloud-native solutions across greenfield builds and brownfield modernization — frontend, backend APIs, cloud-hosted services — and you can speak to the tradeoffs at each layer
- You've made real architecture decisions — designed systems under constraints, documented tradeoffs, and been accountable for what happened when those decisions met production
- You've worked inside enterprise environments with complex distributed systems and multi-cloud setups, and you know how to keep delivery moving despite the organizational friction that comes with them
- You can own code quality for a team — writing, reviewing, and raising the bar for the engineers around you without creating a bottleneck
- You're comfortable with cloud-native architecture, branching strategies, and CI/CD automation — and you understand enough about platform and infrastructure to make good application-layer decisions
- You've been embedded with or worked closely alongside Operations teams — you understand cloud-native platform adoption, whether that's Kubernetes, managed container services, or other orchestration platforms depending on client environment, infrastructure as code, observability, and what it means to build software that can actually be run in production
AI and Intelligent Systems
- You've shipped AI-powered features in production — you understand the full lifecycle from integration through monitoring and maintenance
- You use AI coding tools like Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf as a core part of how you work every day — to think faster, review smarter, and ship higher quality code
- You're comfortable working with retrieval-augmented generation, LLM orchestration, or agentic workflows — either hands-on or close enough to guide others doing the work
Requirements
- 7+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with some demonstrated technical leadership
- Must be authorized to work in the United States or Canada without sponsorship
- Travel availability: 25-50% depending on client needs
Specifics
- Full benefits including unlimited PTO, funded HSA option, 401k match, monthly LiveWell stipend, and quarterly company bonus
- Annual base salary: $140,000-$180,000, depending on experience
Equal Opportunity Employer
Liatrio is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity at our company and strive to create a culture of inclusion. We do not discriminate, nor do we tolerate harassment, on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.
Accessibility
We want our process to be accessible for everyone. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law, or you require a religious accommodation, and you wish to discuss potential accommodations related to applying for employment at our company, please contact accessibility@liatrio.com.
AI in Hiring
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
Key skills/competency
- Application Modernization
- Lead Engineer
- AI Integration
- Cloud-Native Development
- Microservices Architecture
- Full-Stack Development
- CI/CD Pipelines
- Technical Leadership
- Legacy System Migration
- Enterprise Architecture
Skills & topics
- Lead Application Modernization Engineer
- AI
- LLM
- Cloud Native
- Microservices
- Full Stack
- Software Engineering
- Technical Leadership
- Legacy Modernization
- DevOps
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight 7+ years of software engineering experience, technical leadership, and full-stack development, emphasizing AI/LLM integration and cloud-native solutions.
- Showcase leadership: Provide examples of leading small engineering teams, mentoring junior developers, and making architectural decisions.
- Demonstrate AI expertise: Detail experience shipping AI-powered features, using AI coding tools, and working with RAG or LLM orchestration.
- Prepare for technical interviews: Be ready to discuss system design, code quality, cloud-native architecture, and CI/CD practices.
- Understand Liatrio's mission: Articulate how your skills align with their goal of enabling enterprise AI transformation.
Technical preparation
Behavioral questions
Frequently asked questions
- What is Liatrio's approach to AI modernization for enterprises?
- Liatrio partners with enterprises to embed AI-native practices, accelerating modernization, reducing risk, and shipping production-grade AI systems. They focus on hands-on AI enablement and transformations within client organizations.
- What are the day-to-day responsibilities of a Lead Application Modernization Engineer at Liatrio?
- This role involves owning a portion of the technical scope, architecting solutions, leading a small engineering team, writing code, unblocking the team, and communicating project status to clients. Key activities include designing cloud-native services, building full-stack applications, integrating AI/LLM capabilities, and implementing CI/CD pipelines.
- What kind of AI and LLM experience is Liatrio looking for?
- Liatrio seeks candidates who have shipped AI-powered features in production and are comfortable with AI coding tools. Experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), LLM orchestration, or agentic workflows is highly valued.
- What are the required technical skills for the Lead Application Modernization Engineer role?
- The role requires strong experience in full-stack application development (greenfield and modernization), fluency in multiple programming languages, cloud-native solutions, architecture decision-making, enterprise environments with distributed systems, and CI/CD automation. Familiarity with operations and platform adoption (Kubernetes, IaC, observability) is also important.
- What is Liatrio's stance on diversity and inclusion?
- Liatrio is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. They do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
- Does Liatrio offer remote work options for the Lead Application Modernization Engineer position?
- The job description mentions 25-50% travel availability, suggesting a hybrid or on-site arrangement with client-facing travel rather than a fully remote position. Specifics would need to be clarified during the application process.
- What is the salary range for the Lead Application Modernization Engineer role at Liatrio?
- The annual base salary for this position is between $140,000 and $180,000, depending on the candidate's experience.
- How does Liatrio use AI in its hiring process?
- Liatrio may use AI tools to assist in reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, and assessing responses. However, these tools supplement human judgment, and final hiring decisions are made by people.