Lead Software Engineer

Department:

We are Walker & Dunlop.  We are one of the largest providers of capital to the commercial real estate industry, enabling real estate owners and operators to bring their visions of communities — where people live, work, shop, and play — to life. We are committed to creating meaningful social, environmental, and economic change in our communities.

Department Overview

WDTech is W&D’s in-house technology team – a group of collaborative and highly skilled technology professionals, all of whom are leading experts in real estate data, data science, and technology.

WDTech Engineering builds solutions that impact not only our products but also the people and processes across our organization. A commitment to innovation and a passion for disrupting the old-fashioned real estate industry are our highest priorities.  

The Impact You Will Have

As a Lead Software Engineer, you will define the technical vision and engineering standards for our Loan Origination and Servicing platform — the digital backbone of how capital is structured and deployed. You will architect and evolve scalable, high-performance systems that transform complex, data-rich workflows into intuitive, real-time experiences. This role goes beyond feature delivery; you will guide long-term architectural decisions that enable smarter financial decisions at scale. Through technical leadership and hands-on execution, you will ensure our platform remains resilient, secure and future-ready.

tion, you will ensure our platform remains resilient, secure and future-ready.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design and delivery of scalable, high-quality web applications across new and existing product lines
• Own major initiatives end-to-end — from technical vision and architecture through development, deployment and long-term evolution
• Define and evolve our core technology stack (Python, FastAPI, Vue.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes), establishing best practices and engineering standards
• Drive architectural decisions across services, APIs, data models and infrastructure to ensure scalability, reliability and maintainability
• Partner with Product Management, Product Design and business stakeholders to translate complex requirements into durable, well-structured technical solutions
• Champion engineering excellence in performance, reliability, observability, testing strategy and CI/CD maturity
• Lead code reviews, mentor engineers and foster a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement
• Contribute to hiring, onboarding and technical talent development
• Identify and mitigate technical risk, balancing long-term architectural health with near-term business priorities
• Perform other duties as assigned

Education and Experience

• 10+ years of software development experience, including leading complex technical initiatives
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field preferred
• Proven experience designing and evolving API ecosystems, including OpenAPI specifications, versioning strategies and service-level contracts
• Experience implementing mapping and geospatial solutions (e.g., Mapbox) and integrating location-based data
• Deep experience with AWS, event-driven architectures and scalable, client-facing data applications
• Extensive hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes and production-grade deployments
• Experience in Real Estate, Financial Services or Capital Markets strongly preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Deep expertise in Python (3.6+) and modern backend frameworks such as FastAPI, with emphasis on clean architecture, scalability and maintainability
• Advanced proficiency in SQL database design, performance tuning and large-scale optimization
• Strong experience designing distributed backend systems
• Extensive experience with queues, background processing, scheduled jobs, caching strategies and high-throughput system optimization
• Strong system design skills, including trade-off analysis, scalability modeling and fault tolerance
• Deep understanding of testing methodologies (unit, integration, contract and end-to-end) and test strategy
• Ability to create clear architecture diagrams and technical documentation to influence engineering direction
• Experience leveraging AI tools to accelerate development, documentation and testing
• Familiarity with Event Sourcing and/or Domain-Driven Design (DDD) in complex domains
• Demonstrated leadership mindset with strong ownership and accountability
• Ability to show ownership of your work, take on challenges and acknowledge growth opportunities, and demonstrate patience when learning new processes
• Courtesy, respect, and thoughtfulness in teaming with colleagues and other stakeholders

This position has an estimated base salary of $165,000 - $175,000 plus a discretionary bonus. An employment offer is based on the applicant’s relevant work experience, applicable knowledge, skills, abilities, internal equity, and alignment with market data.

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What We Offer  

• The opportunity to join one of Fortune Magazine’s Great Places to Work winners from 2015-2023 

• Comprehensive benefit options* that have earned Walker & Dunlop the silver level of the 2022 Cigna Healthy Workforce Designation™, some of which include:
    - Up to 83% subsidized medical payroll deductions
    - Competitive dental and vision benefits
    - 401(k) + match
    - Pre-tax transit and commuting benefits
    - A robust health and wellness program – earn cash rewards and gain access to resources that
      promote health, engagement, and balance
    - Paid maternity and parental leave, as well as other family paid leave programs
    - Company-paid life, short and long-term disability insurance
    - Health Savings Account and Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending 

• Career development opportunities 

• Empowerment and encouragement to give back – volunteer hours and donation matching 

 
*Eligibility may vary based on average number of hours worked 

EEO Statement

We are committed to equity in all steps of the recruitment and employment experience. We believe in equal access to opportunities in our workplace. We do not tolerate discrimination, including harassment, based on any characteristic protected by applicable law, such as race, color, national origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, sex, age, disability, veteran or military status, and genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We strive to be a safe place to ask questions, build professional relationships, and develop careers.

SPAM
Please be wary of recruitment scams. An indication of a scam might be a request for sensitive or bank information at the time of application or emails coming from a non walkerdunlop.com email address. Please call us at 301.215.5500, if you have any concerns about information requested during or after the application process.

Fair Chance Hiring

Background checks, including any questions related to infractions, arrests, or conviction records, will not be conducted until after a conditional offer of employment has been accepted. We will consider for employment qualified applicants regardless of arrest and conviction records, in accordance with federal, state, and local laws.