Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer (Full Stack, Java, AWS)
Location: Vashi, Navi Mumbai
The Role:
At Morningstar, helping investors is what brings us together and drives our work. We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer who combines deep technical expertise with strong ownership and leadership. This role is critical in driving high-quality, scalable solutions, while leading a squad to deliver business impact with speed, clarity, and accountability.
You will operate at the intersection of engineering, product, and execution-owning delivery end-to-end, mentoring engineers, and ensuring we build the right solutions the right way. This role is pivotal in helping us scale our platform, improve engineering quality, and deliver business value faster. You will directly influence how we build, ship, and operate software-while shaping the next generation of engineers.
This position is based in our Mumbai office.
Key Responsibilities:
Engineering Excellence

• Enforce and evolve best engineering practices:

• Clean, maintainable, and testable code

• Strong code reviews (PR ownership and guardrails)

• CI/CD, automation, and observability

• Performance, scalability, and security best practices

• Experience with event-driven architecture

• Exposure to AI-assisted development workflows

• Prior experience working in high-scale, client-facing platforms

Technical Leadership & Delivery

• Lead end-to-end design and delivery of scalable, high-performance applications

• Lead development and maintenance of both live production systems and legacy applications, ensuring stability while progressively modernizing the platform

• Balance business continuity with technical evolution, reducing technical debt without impacting client delivery

• Own system architecture decisions across frontend, backend, and data layers

• Drive full-stack development with strong focus on backend (Java) and modern frontend frameworks

• Ensure systems are resilient, observable, and production-ready

Quality Ownership & Shift-Left Mindset

• Champion a shift-left engineering approach, where quality is owned by engineers from design to production

• Ensure features are built with testability, observability, and validation in mind from day one

• Drive practices such as unit testing, integration testing, and automation as part of development-not post-development

• Eliminate dependency on downstream QA by embedding quality checks within the development lifecycle

• Foster a culture where engineers are accountable for the correctness and reliability of their code in production

Squad Leadership & Mentorship

• Lead a squad of engineers (junior to mid-level), providing technical guidance and mentorship

• Set clear expectations on delivery, code quality, and ownership

• Actively coach engineers to improve design thinking, coding standards, and debugging skills

Product & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product Managers to understand business priorities and translate them into clear technical execution plans

• Drive clarity in requirements, scope, and trade-offs

• Ensure alignment between business goals and engineering outcomes

AI-Enabled Development

• Leverage AI tools (e.g., company approved coding assistants) to improve productivity and speed

• Ensure thoughtful and responsible usage-not blind reliance

• Guide the team in using AI for the right problem statements (automation, acceleration, not shortcuts)

Ownership & Accountability

• Take end-to-end ownership of systems and deliverables

• Be accountable for delivery timelines, quality, and production stability

• Proactively identify risks, resolve blockers, and drive outcomes without dependency

• Contribute to internal knowledge sharing through documentation, technical talks, or workshops.

• Showcase delivery outcomes and business impact to stakeholders through clear, structured, and data-driven communication.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a related field.

• 7+ years of Strong backend expertise in Java (Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices architecture)

• Experience in full-stack development (modern frontend frameworks like Vue/React preferred)

• Deep understanding of databases (SQL/NoSQL, schema design, performance tuning)

• Hands-on experience with AWS cloud services (compute, storage, networking, observability)

• Strong grasp of system design, scalability, and distributed systems

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and monitoring tools

• Proven ability to lead and mentor engineering teams

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability-you don't wait, you drive

• Ability to balance speed with quality-both are non-negotiable

• Clear, structured thinking and communication

• Bias for action with data-driven decision making

• Ability to operate in ambiguity and bring clarity

• Commitment to continuous learning and improving the team around you

Morningstar is an equal opportunity employer.
If you receive and accept an offer from us, we require that personal and any related investments be disclosed confidentiality to our Compliance team (days vary by region). These investments will be reviewed to ensure they meet Code of Ethics requirements. If any conflicts of interest are identified, then you will be required to liquidate those holdings immediately. In addition, dependent on your department and location of work certain employee accounts must be held with an approved broker (for example all, U.S. employee accounts). If this applies and your account(s) are not with an approved broker, you will be required to move your holdings to an approved broker.
Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in-person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in-office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.
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