Lead programmer

In the software engineering profession, a lead software engineer is responsible for providing technical oversight and outside communication in a team of software engineers. Alternative titles include development lead, technical lead, lead engineer, lead programmer, or lead application developer.

Responsibilities

A lead software engineer's exact responsibilities vary from company to company. In general, he or she is responsible for overseeing the work, in a technical sense, of a team of software engineers working on a project. The lead engineer ensures work meets set technical requirements and coding conventions. A lead software engineer's duties are often "hands-on", meaning they typically write software code on a daily basis. They may act as a mentor for new or lower-level software developers or programmers, primarily through processes such as pair programming, conducting of code reviews, promoting good development principles, such as test-driven development, and taking the lead in correcting code defects.

Although the responsibilities are primarily technical, lead software engineers also generally serve as an interface between the programmers and management. Lead engineers may serve as technical advisers to management and provide programming perspective on requirements. In some non-agile work environments, a lead engineer may also have ownership of their team's development plans, responsibilities in delegating work, assisting with hiring and reviewing staff performance. Typically a lead engineer will oversee a development team of between two and ten programmers.