Expert Software Engineer

The Expert Software Engineer will help build, evolve, and support the Pega Applications Suite with a primary focus on enterprise Pega platform architecture, delivery, governance, and operational excellence. Along with writing effective, secure, and maintainable code and configurations, the position is responsible for designing, building, delivering, and maintaining highly scalable Pega applications, case management solutions, integrations, reusable components, and platform capabilities that support complex business processes and customer-facing experiences.

This role serves as a Pega Lead System Architect-level individual contributor and technical authority, providing hands-on architecture leadership across Pega application design, implementation patterns, performance, security, DevOps practices, guardrails adherence, and production support. The incumbent will lead the Pega Center of Excellence by establishing governance frameworks, engineering standards, reusable asset strategies, delivery oversight practices, and best-practice guidance across teams using the Pega platform.

The Expert Software Engineer will use industry best practices and work collaboratively with cross-functional teams of product managers, UX designers, architects, principal engineers, software engineers, test automation teams, DevOps engineers, business partners, and delivery teams to ensure Pega solutions are scalable, maintainable, reusable, secure, compliant, and aligned to enterprise technology strategy.

• Builds, configures, customizes, and supports products that provide innovative solutions to challenging business use cases, existing systems, and operational problems.
• Key contributor to an engineering team that builds and supports exceptional products that provide innovative solutions to challenging business use cases, existing systems, and operational problems.
• Leads architectural design, system analysis, and programming activities on application software; this may often require independent research and study.
• Provides Pega Lead System Architect-level technical leadership for enterprise Pega applications, including solution architecture, application design, case management design, data model strategy, decisioning patterns, integration patterns, reusable component design, and implementation governance.
• Designs and delivers scalable Pega applications using Pega best practices, including case lifecycle design, workflows, rulesets, data pages, decision rules, integrations, security models, user experiences, reporting, and operational support capabilities.
• Leads teams that develop high-quality and production-ready software by using best-practice data structures, algorithms, design patterns, and frameworks that are maintainable, scalable, responsive, and secure.
• Champions writing the highest quality code and Pega configurations with utmost attention to scalability, security, maintainability, performance, reuse, guardrails compliance, and production support, with an end-to-end mindset from conception to delivery and production health monitoring.
• Leads Pega application architecture reviews and ensures solutions comply with Pega guardrails, enterprise architecture standards, security requirements, performance expectations, and operational readiness practices.
• Establishes and leads the Pega Center of Excellence governance model, including architecture review processes, design standards, delivery quality checkpoints, reusable component strategy, guardrails monitoring, technical debt management, and platform best practices.
• Provides delivery oversight for Pega initiatives across teams by reviewing solution designs, identifying risks and dependencies, guiding implementation approaches, and ensuring delivery teams apply consistent architecture, quality, DevOps, and governance practices.
• Designs and supports integrations between Pega and enterprise systems using appropriate integration patterns, APIs, services, connectors, data synchronization approaches, error handling, security controls, and observability practices.
• Leads performance analysis and tuning for Pega applications, including identifying bottlenecks, reviewing application design, optimizing rules and data access patterns, supporting load and performance testing, and improving production reliability.
• Supports Pega DevOps practices, including automated deployments, environment management, release readiness, branching strategies, quality gates, testing practices, monitoring, and continuous improvement of delivery pipelines.
• Collaborates closely with Engineering leadership, Product Managers, Designers, QA, DevOps, Architecture, business units, and other teams to define, prioritize, sequence, and scope business and functional requirements and drive results.
• Scopes effort, identifies risks, evaluates dependencies, and clearly communicates technical trade-offs, solution options, delivery impacts, and platform considerations with team members and other stakeholders.
• Foresees and assesses the impact of product, platform, infrastructure, and software upgrades, including Pega platform upgrades, dependency management, regression risk, and operational readiness.
• Assists in planning, coordinating, and executing engineering projects, including Pega platform initiatives, application modernization efforts, reusable asset development, and CoE-driven delivery enablement.
• Maintains knowledge, ensures competency, and complies with policies and procedures to serve as the technical expert while collaborating with cross-functional teams.

• This list is not all-inclusive, and the incumbent is expected to perform other duties as requested or assigned.

• 7+ w/Bachelor's degree
• 7+ years of experience designing and developing high performing and secure Applications Products
• Pega Lead System Architect Certification is desired.
• Deep knowledge of Pega Platform architecture, application design, case management, business process management, rules design, data modeling, integration patterns, security, reporting, performance, and production operations.
• Demonstrated ability to operate at a Pega Lead System Architect level by defining end-to-end solution architecture, resolving complex technical issues, guiding delivery teams, and ensuring solutions align with enterprise architecture and platform standards.
• Knowledge of current technology trends and best practices enabling sound technology choices and strategic decisions.
• Ability to research and apply innovative methodologies, latest industry trends, design patterns, Pega best practices, and enterprise architecture patterns.
• Strong understanding of Pega guardrails, ruleset management, reusable component strategy, application layering, deployment practices, environment management, and upgrade considerations.
• Ability to lead and continuously improve a Pega Center of Excellence, including governance frameworks, standards enforcement, architecture review processes, reusable asset strategies, delivery oversight, enablement, and adoption practices.
• Ability to provide technical leadership and delivery oversight across multiple Pega teams or initiatives while remaining an individual contributor and hands-on technical authority.
• Recognizes underlying problems, opportunities, risks, dependencies, and organizational forces affecting technology delivery and platform adoption.
• Subject matter expert responsible for sharing expertise and insight with other engineers, system architects, delivery teams, and stakeholders.
• Identifies significant internal and external stakeholders and builds partnerships as part of an influencing strategy.
• Ability to define and promote reusable Pega assets, design patterns, implementation standards, documentation standards, quality gates, and DevOps practices.
• Ability to assess application performance, identify root causes of production or delivery issues, recommend remediation strategies, and support operational health of Pega solutions.
• Mentors and champions cultural as well as process change.
• Life-long learner and process improver.

Base Pay Information

The national base pay range at the end is a good-faith estimate of what Delta Dental may pay for new hires. Actual pay may vary based on Delta Dental's assessment of the candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), related experience, education, certifications and ability to meet required minimum job qualifications. Other factors impacting pay include prevailing wages in the work location and internal equity.
Pay Grade 23. $106,400 - $230,600