Technical Lead AI Software Engineer

IDEXX Veterinary Software is on a mission to offer the first vertical SaaS platform for Animal Health. We’re growing our engineering tribes to tackle a range of challenges.  

We’re seeking a skilled Technical Lead AI Software Engineer with a passion for Developer Experience (DevEx) and a deep interest in AI-powered developer tooling. In this role, you'll be at the forefront of building systems, tools, and experiences that make software development faster, easier, and more joyful — using the latest advancements in AI. 

You will work across engineering teams to identify friction points, prototype and build intelligent developer workflows, and drive the adoption of best-in-class tooling. You will have significant ownership and impact in shaping the future of how our engineers work. 

• Play a foundational role in defining our Developer Experience strategy. 

• Work with cutting-edge AI technologies in real-world production environments. 

• Empower talented developers by eliminating friction from their workflows. 

• Join a culture that values innovation, collaboration, and developer happiness. 

We work with modern web technologies, including TypeScript, Go, and cloud-native architectures, to develop robust and maintainable solutions. With a strong focus on DevOps and automation, you'll contribute to CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and system reliability. If you're passionate about building cutting-edge applications in a fast-moving environment and enjoy working with event-driven architecture, domain-services, containerization, and distributed systems, we'd love to hear from you!   

Some key responsibilities of your role:    

• Design, build, and maintain AI-augmented developer tools, services, and workflows. 

• Lead initiatives to improve code quality, velocity, and team productivity. 

• Integrate AI into internal tooling (e.g., AI code review assistants, intelligent test generation, automated documentation). 

• Partner with engineering leadership and developers to identify and prioritize DevEx improvements. 

• Create tooling that integrates into CI/CD pipelines, IDEs, and development workflows. 

• Stay ahead of the curve on AI advancements and developer platform technologies. 

• Mentor other engineers on best practices for developer tooling and automation. 

• Advocate for a culture of excellent developer experience across the company. 

What you need to succeed:   

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2+ years focusing on Developer Experience or developer tooling. 

• Deep understanding of software development workflows, CI/CD, source control (Git), testing, and automation. 

• Hands-on experience integrating AI/ML models into engineering processes (e.g., LLMs like OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source LLMs). 

• Proficiency in backend development (e.g., Python, Go, Node.js) and scripting languages. 

• Experience building plugins or extensions for developer tools (e.g., VS Code, GitHub Apps, CLI tools). 

• Strong communication skills and empathy for developer pain points. 

• Bias for action — you turn insights into working solutions quickly and iteratively. 

Bonus Points 

• Experience building with AI platforms (OpenAI, Hugging Face, LangChain, etc.). 

• Experience working in platform engineering, productivity engineering, or DevOps. 

• Prior contributions to open-source developer tools. 

• Familiarity with observability and performance tooling. 

• Background in machine learning, natural language processing, or prompt engineering. 

What you can expect from us: 

• Structured onboarding, induction, ongoing training and transparent performance driven professional development 

• Rewarding salary packages including lucrative incentive schemes for all 

• Continuous L&D (both internal and externally) 

• Great tech kit for both work and personal use 

• Hybrid working with a great office space to collaborate - including a gym and roof top terrace! 

• Coffee + snacks + Food Truck Friyay several times a month! 

• Dog friendly office 

• Fully subsidized Southern Cross Health insurance 

• Part subsidized parking via Parkable 

• Career pathways that will take you places if you are willing and able 

So, what is IDEXX Veterinary Software?   

Here in Auckland we develop a portfolio of cloud platforms and applications. We’re building a vertical SaaS platform for animal health that requires significant technical expertise to deliver. Solutions for practice management (PIMS), diagnostics, payments, client engagement, analytics & insight plus many more. We’re on a mission to build the best health technology business and we need you to help us do it! You can learn more about IDEXX Veterinary Software here: https://careers.idexx.com/us/en/veterinary-software 

At IDEXX we are dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of pets, people, and livestock around the world. Through the power of the cloud, IDEXX Veterinary Software solutions simplify the flow of information across any practice and link vets to what they need when they need it. Patient data. Client communications. Business insights. All at their fingertips. 

Our journey is solving veterinary practices’ most pressing needs by focusing on innovation to drive meaningful improvements in animal health. 

Why IDEXX 

We’re proud of the work we do, because our work matters. An innovation leader in every industry we serve, we follow our Purpose and Guiding Principles to help pet owners worldwide keep their companion animals healthy and happy, to ensure safe drinking water for billions, and to help farmers protect livestock and poultry from disease. We have customers in over 175 countries and a global workforce of over 10,000 talented people. 

So, what does that mean for you? We enrich the livelihoods of our employees with a positive and respectful work culture that embraces challenges and encourages learning and discovery. At IDEXX, you will be supported by competitive compensation, incentives, and benefits while enjoying purposeful work that drives improvement. 

Let’s pursue what matters together. 

IDEXX values a diverse workforce and workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply. IDEXX is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, or any protected category prohibited by local, state, or federal laws. 

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