Senior Software Engineer

About Conrad Labs

Conrad Labs is a software technology company with teams in Lahore and Karachi. We build production software across client delivery, MVP and venture studio projects, and internal products.

We are building an engineering culture where strong fundamentals and agentic development go together. Our engineers use modern tools to move faster, but they remain accountable for architecture, code quality, testing, security, maintainability, and production outcomes.

About the role

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer who can own meaningful areas of a product or system, work through ambiguity, lead technical execution, mentor other engineers, and deliver production-quality software.

This role is for engineers already comfortable using agentic development tools in real engineering workflows. You should have demonstrated current fluency with tools such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or comparable tools.

To be direct about the bar: at the senior level this is a requirement, not a preference. We look for agentic workflows that go well beyond autocomplete or occasional chat prompts. You should be able to use these tools to understand codebases, plan changes, implement features, refactor safely, write tests, debug failures, review generated code, and prepare high-quality PRs. An engineer with deep fundamentals but no real agentic practice is not yet a fit for our senior roles; we would encourage you to look at our Software Engineer II role, where you can ramp into it. We would rather point you to the right fit than have you join into the wrong one.

What you will do

Depending on the project, you may work on client delivery, MVP builds, venture studio projects, or internal products. Your work will include:

• Owning medium-to-large features or technical workstreams from planning to production
• Translating ambiguous requirements into clear technical plans, milestones, and validation steps
• Designing maintainable solutions using appropriate architecture patterns, and writing and reviewing production-quality code across backend, frontend, database, and integration layers
• Using agentic coding tools to accelerate understanding, implementation, testing, refactoring, and debugging
• Reviewing AI-generated code critically for correctness, maintainability, security, performance, and fit with existing patterns
• Leading code reviews and design discussions, and improving testing, observability, CI/CD, and release quality
• Mentoring engineers through pairing, reviews, and feedback, and raising the team's bar for agentic workflows
• Communicating technical tradeoffs clearly to engineering and non-engineering stakeholders

Required engineering skills

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong hands-on experience building production web applications
• Strong backend, API, database, and system design fundamentals
• Solid frontend understanding, especially in modern web application development
• Experience designing and delivering maintainable systems or modules
• Strong debugging and root-cause analysis skills
• Experience with automated testing and quality practices across the stack
• Experience with cloud platforms and production deployment workflows
• Strong Git, PR, CI/CD, and release management practices
• Ability to mentor other engineers and improve team execution
• Strong written and verbal communication

Required agentic development skills

The senior skill here is not generating code; it is exercising judgment over what these tools produce, catching the subtle bug, the security smell, or the plausible-but-wrong design before it reaches a pull request.

• Demonstrated current fluency with Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or comparable agentic coding tools, on non-trivial production work
• Using agentic tools to explore unfamiliar codebases and identify relevant files, flows, dependencies, and risks
• Converting vague requirements into specs, implementation plans, agent tasks, and test plans
• Running an agentic implementation loop: plan, generate or edit, inspect, test, debug, refactor, document, and prepare PR
• Evaluating AI-generated code for hidden bugs, weak abstractions, missing tests, security issues, and poor integration
• Guiding junior engineers in responsible agentic development
• Knowing when not to use an agent, when to slow down, and when human design judgment is required
• Awareness of privacy, IP, client confidentiality, and data leakage risks

Preferred skills

• Experience with TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, Python, or similar stacks
• Experience with AWS, Vercel, Render, Docker, Kubernetes, or similar platforms
• Experience in services delivery, product engineering, or MVP environments
• Experience creating technical design docs, RFCs, ADRs, or architecture notes
• Experience improving CI speed, test reliability, observability, or deployment quality
• Experience creating repo-level instructions or workflows for agentic tools, such as CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, custom commands, hooks, or repeatable review prompts
• Experience with AI-assisted code review or test generation workflows

How we hire

Our interview process includes a live pairing session where you will work through a real problem with one of our engineers, including working alongside agentic tooling. At the senior level this is where we confirm the fluency and judgment described above; we watch how you reason about what the tools produce, where you trust them, and where you do not. We do not require experience with one specific vendor.

We hire on merit and welcome applicants of every background. Strong written and spoken English is required, since you will lead technical discussions with clients and teammates in other time zones.