Software Engineer III

Brief Description

This position is located on site in Des Moines, Iowa.

About WG Connect

WG Connect, a Wittern Portfolio Company, is at the forefront of revolutionizing controlled and semi-controlled distribution through innovative edge devices and cloud-based solutions. We are developing cutting-edge vending machine technologies that operate independently or seamlessly integrate with our IQ Tech Portal, our cloud-based inventory management system. Our team is passionate about pushing the boundaries of technology to deliver exceptional customer experience.

Role Requirements

Software Development & Architecture

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain high-quality software solutions across cloud, edge, and embedded platforms.
• Lead the implementation of complex features and technical initiatives.
• Contribute to architectural decisions that improve scalability, maintainability, performance, and security.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues across multiple systems and technology stacks.
• Ensure software solutions align with established engineering standards and architectural principles.

Technical Leadership

• Provide mentorship and technical guidance to Software Engineers I and II.
• Lead code reviews and promote engineering best practices throughout the organization.
• Participate in technical design reviews and architectural discussions.
• Influence engineering standards, coding practices, and development processes.
• Help identify and reduce technical debt through ongoing platform improvements.
• Mentor engineers and cross-functional partners on practical, responsible use of AI LLM tools to support software design, code generation, test planning, documentation, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing.

Agile Delivery

• Actively participate in daily standups, sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives.
• Collaborate with Product Owners and stakeholders to clarify requirements and define acceptance criteria.
• Assist teams in estimating work, identifying risks, and delivering predictable outcomes.
• Support continuous improvement efforts across engineering and product delivery processes.

Quality & Testing

• Champion Test Driven Development (TDD) and automated testing practices.
• Ensure appropriate unit, integration, and end-to-end test coverage.
• Maintain high standards for code quality, reliability, and performance.
• Support root cause analysis and remediation of production issues.

DevOps & Operational Excellence

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) initiatives.
• Support observability, monitoring, logging, and operational readiness efforts.
• Participate in production support and incident resolution activities as required.
• Promote deployment automation and release quality improvements.

Security & Compliance

• Apply secure software development practices throughout the software lifecycle.
• Ensure solutions comply with applicable business, security, regulatory, and licensing requirements.
• Participate in security reviews and vulnerability remediation activities.

Innovation & Continuous Learning

• Stay current with emerging technologies, industry trends, cloud platforms, AI-assisted development practices, and embedded systems advancements.
• Recommend technologies and solutions that improve operational efficiency, product quality, customer value, or business outcomes.
• Contribute to technical knowledge sharing and engineering capability development.
• Evaluate and apply AI-assisted development practices, including prompt engineering, model-assisted design reviews, automated documentation support, and AI-informed testing strategies, while maintaining sound engineering judgment and accountability for final deliverables.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics or a related technical field.
• Equivalent professional experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.

Experience

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• Demonstrated experience delivering production-quality software solutions.
• Experience operating within Agile software development environments.

Technical Skills

Candidates will possess significant experience in one or more of the following areas:

Cloud Software Development

• AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
• Modern application architectures and microservices
• REST APIs and event-driven systems
• Relational and NoSQL databases
• Containerization and orchestration technologies

Embedded/Firmware Development

• Embedded Linux or Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS)
• Device communications and networking
• Hardware integration and diagnostics
• Protocols such as I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, MQTT, and TCP/IP

Software Delivery

• Source control systems (Git)
• CI/CD pipelines
• Automated testing frameworks
• Debugging and performance analysis tools
• AI-assisted software delivery using large language models for solution design, development support, test case generation, documentation, code review preparation, and engineering workflow acceleration.

Professional Competencies

The Successful Candidate Consistently Demonstrates

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
• Ownership mentality and accountability for results.
• Sound technical judgment and decision-making.
• Ability to influence without direct authority.
• Commitment to quality, continuous improvement, and customer success.
• Desire to learn, mentor others, and contribute to a high-performing engineering culture.

Career Level Expectations

Software Engineer III is distinguished from lower career levels through demonstrated ability to:

• Lead complex technical initiatives with limited supervision.
• Influence architectural and technical decisions.
• Mentor and develop other engineers.
• Drive engineering best practices across teams.
• Serve as an orchestrator of AI-assisted engineering workflows, helping teams use LLMs effectively across design, development, testing, documentation, and delivery coordination.
• Balance technical excellence with business priorities.
• Independently deliver solutions to ambiguous and complex problems.

Summary

Software Engineer III is a senior-level individual contributor responsible for designing, developing, and delivering complex software solutions that power WG Connect's cloud and edge technology platforms.

This role serves as a technical leader within the engineering organization by driving solution design, mentoring engineers, improving development practices, and collaborating closely with Product Management, Quality Assurance, DevOps, and Hardware Engineering teams.

The role also acts as an AI-enabled software delivery orchestrator, coordinating design, development, testing, and documentation activities through the effective use of AI large language models (LLMs) to accelerate delivery, improve quality, and strengthen engineering collaboration.

Software Engineers III are expected to work independently, influence technical direction, and contribute to both tactical delivery and long-term platform evolution.

This job is located on site in Des Moines, IA.