Lead Software Engineer

Your Future Evolves Here

Evolent partners with health plans and providers to achieve better outcomes for people with most complex and costly health conditions. Working across specialties and primary care, we seek to connect the pieces of fragmented health care system and ensure people get the same level of care and compassion we would want for our loved ones.

Evolent employees enjoy work/life balance, the flexibility to suit their work to their lives, and autonomy they need to get things done. We believe that people do their best work when they're supported to live their best lives, and when they feel welcome to bring their whole selves to work. That's one reason why diversity and inclusion are core to our business.

Join Evolent for the mission. Stay for the culture.

What You’ll Be Doing:

Position Summary

The Lead Software Engineer leads the design, development, and delivery of the web user experience for the Evolent Platform. This role defines the front-end architecture and technical strategy for a React and Next.js (TypeScript) application that consumes Pydantic AI agents over the AG-UI protocol and ensures the agent-to-human handoff is fast, accessible, secure, and auditable.

This individual provides technical leadership and mentorship to a team of front-end engineers, sets the standards others follow, and partners with architecture, agent, platform, design-system, and product teams to prioritize work and deliver on schedule. The role is expected to use approved AI-assisted tools to accelerate delivery and improve quality while remaining fully accountable for every result delivered.

AI-Assisted Engineering Expectations

Evolent engineers are expected to effectively leverage approved AI-assisted development and productivity tools (e.g., code assistants, copilots, automation agents, knowledge assistants, and analytics tools) to improve quality, efficiency, and innovation while maintaining accountability for all delivered work. These expectations span the full engineering lifecycle, not only code generation, including iterating with AI on solution design and architecture, evaluating alternatives, revising existing architecture, and producing design artifacts. Engineers remain responsible for validating outputs, ensuring solution quality, protecting sensitive information, and complying with security, privacy, regulatory, and Responsible AI standards.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Delivery

• Lead the design, development, and delivery of the agent-to-human handoff experience, ensuring alignment with business goals, product requirements, and regulatory decision timeframes.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the front-end engineering team, fostering a collaborative and productive development environment.
• Oversee the full front-end development lifecycle, from initial concept to production deployment and ongoing maintenance.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, UX designers, clinical stakeholders, and other engineers to prioritize work, set timelines, and deliver features on schedule.

Front-End Architecture and Standards

• Define and implement the React and Next.js architecture, including Server and Client Component boundaries, an opt-in caching standard, and read-your-writes behavior for decision forms.
• Establish the self-hosting standard for Next.js as containers on AKS, avoiding hosting-specific features that limit portability.
• Define the backend-for-frontend (BFF) pattern and the integration approach for .NET (C#) and Python (FastAPI) services, and Entra ID / OpenID Connect authentication.
• Partner with design-system owners on a technology-agnostic design token layer and a single Material-based theme across component libraries (e.g., KendoReact, MUI).
• Own npm supply-chain controls, including SBOM generation, pinned lockfiles, dependency allow-lists, and scanning through GitHub Actions, CodeQL, Dependabot, and JFrog Xray.
• Conduct code reviews and ensure adherence to coding standards, accessibility requirements, and security guidelines.
• Plan and lead framework and library upgrades, including annual Next.js major-version migrations.

Agentic User Experience

• Architect streaming user interfaces (SSE) that render agent narratives, tool calls, citations, and generative UI using the Vercel AI SDK, assistant-ui, and CopilotKit over the AG-UI protocol.
• Define the AG-UI event contract with the agent team, including shared state, frontend tools, and human-in-the-loop approval interrupts raised by Pydantic AI tools that require approval.
• Design human-in-the-loop patterns that let reviewers approve, modify, or override agent recommendations with structured rationale that supports the audit trail.
• Establish patterns for slow, interrupted, or failed agent calls, including resumable streams, retries, timeouts, and clear status for the reviewer.
• Lead delivery of data-heavy screens, including large sortable and filterable grids, PDF and document viewers, rich-text editors, and workflow wizards.
• Ensure WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA and Section 508 conformance across the application, including support for independent accessibility conformance reviews.
• Instrument the front end with OpenTelemetry to trace the agent-to-human handoff end to end.

AI-Enabled Delivery

• Utilize approved AI-assisted engineering tools, such as GitHub Copilot, to accelerate software development, testing, documentation, troubleshooting, and analysis activities.
• Evaluate and validate AI-generated outputs for correctness, security, maintainability, compliance, and business appropriateness.
• Continuously identify opportunities to improve engineering productivity and solution quality through AI-enabled workflows and automation.
• Contribute reusable prompts, skills, agents, engineering playbooks, and AI-assisted development patterns to benefit the broader engineering organization.

Governance and Compliance

• Follow enterprise policies governing AI usage, intellectual property protection, security, privacy, PHI handling, and Responsible AI practices.
• Handle patient data safely under HIPAA, keeping PHI out of browser storage, client logs, and telemetry.
• Ensure no confidential, regulated, or protected information is used with unapproved AI services or tooling.
• Participate in peer reviews and validation processes for AI-assisted solutions.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software development experience, including 4+ years building production web applications with React and TypeScript.
• 2+ years of experience leading teams of 3+ software engineers.
• Deep, hands-on experience with Next.js, including Server and Client Components, server-side rendering, streaming, and caching.
• Experience building AI or agent-driven user interfaces (e.g., Vercel AI SDK, assistant-ui, CopilotKit, AG-UI) or equivalent streaming, real-time interfaces using Server-Sent Events or WebSockets.
• Experience designing and delivering data-heavy enterprise screens, such as large grids, document viewers, rich-text editors, and multi-step workflows, using component libraries such as KendoReact (Telerik) or MUI.
• Proven experience with the backend-for-frontend pattern and integrating front ends with services written in other languages, such as .NET (C#) and Python (FastAPI).
• Experience implementing authentication with Entra ID (Azure AD) and OpenID Connect.
• Demonstrated expertise delivering applications that meet WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA and Section 508.
• Experience with front-end testing using Vitest or Jest, React Testing Library, and Playwright.
• Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes (AKS preferred), CI/CD with GitHub Actions, and OpenTelemetry.
• Experience applying npm supply-chain security practices, such as SBOMs, lockfile policy, and dependency scanning.
• Strong, daily use of AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to lead and mentor a team of engineers.
• Experience in Agile development methodologies and working in cross-functional, globally distributed teams.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to resolve complex technical challenges and make critical decisions under pressure.

Preferred Qualifications

• Working knowledge of Python and Pydantic AI, including agent tool approval and the AG-UI and Vercel AI SDK adapters.
• Experience designing human-in-the-loop experiences for AI agents, including approval, override, and audit workflows.
• Experience with FHIR R4; Da Vinci Prior Authorization Support (PAS) a plus.
• Experience consuming events from Azure Service Bus or similar message brokers.
• Experience with C# and .NET.
• Experience with design systems and design tokens, including Material Design.
• Experience integrating AI services, models, or agents into production applications.
• Healthcare domain experience, including handling PHI under HIPAA.

Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

To ensure a secure hiring process we have implemented several identity verification steps, including submission of a government issued photo ID. We conduct identity verification during interviews, and final interviews may require onsite attendance. All candidates must complete a comprehensive background check, in-person I-9 verification, and may be subject to drug screening prior to employment. The use of artificial intelligence tools during interviews is prohibited and monitored. Misrepresentation will result in immediate disqualification from consideration.

Technical Requirements:

We require that all employees have the following technical capability at their home: High speed internet over 10 Mbps and, specifically for all call center employees, the ability to plug in directly to the home internet router.

Evolent is an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or disability status. If you need reasonable accommodation to access the information provided on this website, please contact [email protected] for further assistance.

The expected base salary/wage range for this position is $140,000 - 160,000. As part of our total compensation package, Evolent is proud to offer comprehensive benefits (including health insurance benefits) to qualifying employees. All compensation determinations are based on the skills and experience required for the position and commensurate with experience of selected individuals, which may vary above and below the stated amounts.