Lead Developer - Technical Lead (Freelance)

Experience Without Limits Come shape the future of brand experience. At Jack Morton, we design and build head-turning, smile-inducing, impact-driving brand experiences that redefine what experiential marketing can achieve. We help our clients unlock the full value of experiences by turning bold ideas into meaningful connections. That takes a team that's bold, curious, and acts as one. We build on each other's ideas, challenge conventions, and show up for one another every day. Here, you'll do your best work, grow quickly, and partner across clients, disciplines, and global teams to bring new ideas to life. This is a place where curiosity drives what’s next, boldness raises the bar, and every win is shared. Where ownership is expected, egos are left at the door, and the work reflects the passion and talent of the people behind it. Experience without limits—in your work, your growth, and your impact. Lead Developer / Technical Lead - Freelance AI-Enabled Product & Data Platform Hands-on engineering lead to turn a mature R&D prototype into a secure, reusable, production-ready product platform. Role Details Reports to Product Lead / Technology Executive Engagement Contract, fixed-term or permanent - to be confirmed Working pattern Flexible hybrid / remote Start date As soon as possible Role Overview We are seeking a senior, hands-on technical lead to assume ownership of an existing product codebase and lead its transition from R&D prototype to production-ready platform. The role will contribute code from day one, own application architecture and delivery standards, and coordinate a second developer focused on the shared data and intelligence layer. The successful candidate will work across product, data, cloud, QA, security and UX to deliver a secure, scalable first release and establish the foundation for future modules. Key Responsibilities Assess the current codebase, environments and contracts, then lead the transition from prototype to a secure, maintainable product. Design and build the reusable platform core, including the API/BFF layer, operational database, tenant/client/event model, roles, permissions, entitlements, configuration, audit and usage telemetry. Remain hands-on across React/TypeScript front-end development, Python/FastAPI services, AWS infrastructure, integrations and automated testing. Define versioned APIs and data contracts between the product platform and the shared data/intelligence layer, including backward-compatibility rules. Provide day-to-day technical oversight to the data-platform developer and coordinate data products, AI tools, evidence/lineage outputs, schema changes and release dependencies. Enforce client and event-level isolation, anonymized data handling, secure access, auditability and governed AI outputs. Establish engineering standards for code review, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, quality gates, security and release management. Maintain concise architecture documentation using UML/PlantUML and Architecture Decision Records, while mentoring and unblocking additional developers as the team grows. Use generative AI to accelerate implementation, testing, documentation and refactoring while maintaining human review and secure engineering controls. Technical Environment Front end React, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS, data visualization and schema validation. Back end Python, FastAPI, Pydantic and container/serverless API patterns. Cloud AWS API Gateway, Lambda, Cognito/OIDC, S3, CloudFront, KMS, Secrets Manager, CloudWatch and CloudTrail. Data & AI PostgreSQL-compatible operational database; Snowflake or comparable cloud data platform; governed enterprise AI/LLM integration. DevOps Terraform, GitHub Actions, Docker, OIDC-based deployment and multi-account governance. Quality Unit, integration, contract, security, data-quality and end-to-end testing. Required Experience 8+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in a lead developer, technical lead or hands-on architecture role. Strong full-stack capability across modern React/TypeScript applications and Python/FastAPI services. Production experience with AWS, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, observability, secrets management and secure identity patterns. Experience with PostgreSQL and Snowflake or a comparable cloud data platform. Strong understanding of multi-tenant SaaS, RBAC, entitlements, client isolation, auditability and security-by-design. Experience designing versioned APIs, schemas and data contracts, including breaking-change management. Strong automated testing discipline across application, data and AI workflows. Proven ability to lead and mentor developers while remaining an active contributor to the codebase. Clear communication with product, data, QA, security and executive stakeholders. Preferred Experience Snowflake Cortex, enterprise AI agents, governed AI tools, RAG or comparable LLM platforms. Cognito, OAuth/OIDC, serverless/event-driven integration patterns and AWS multi-account governance. Data anonymization, pseudonymization, DLP, consent, retention and privacy-sensitive product design. TOGAF, UML/PlantUML and ADR-driven architecture governance. Usage metering, cloud cost attribution, FinOps or consumption-based product models. Client-facing consulting, analytics products, event/attendee data or product-incubation experience. First 90 Days Days 1-30 Assume ownership of the repository and environments; run the platform locally; assess architecture, contracts, security and deployment; produce a current-state/target-state gap assessment and prioritized backlog. Days 31-60 Begin productizing the platform core: operational database, client/event entitlements, versioned API/BFF, data-platform adapter, local development workflow and QA/security test harness. Days 61-90 Deliver a pilot-ready end-to-end thin slice with secure client isolation, product-grade dashboards, governed AI outputs, audit/usage telemetry, repeatable deployment and a roadmap for team growth. Working Model This is a hands-on lead role, not a management-only position. The successful candidate will initially spend a significant portion of the engagement writing and reviewing production code while setting technical standards and overseeing the data-platform developer. The role will expand as additional engineers and product modules are funded. We make our careers website accessible to any and all users. If you need an accommodation to participate in the application process, please contact us at jobaccomodations@jackmorton.com. 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