Software Development Engineer III

SDE-3

Full-Time - Gurugram, Haryana Experience - 5-8 Years

Location : Gurugram, Haryana (Work From Office)

Employment Type : Full-Time

Experience : 5 - 8 Years

About Dhwani :

Dhwani Rural Information Systems (Dhwani RIS) is a social/development sector-focused advisory and consulting firm that develops IT applications for NGOs, government functionaries, CSRs, and international funding organizations to manage their projects and programs in India and abroad.

We build technology solutions supporting programme management, grants management, HR, finance, operations, monitoring & evaluation, and impact reporting. Our work combines technology, data, and social impact to solve real-world challenges at scale.

About the Role :

We are looking for an SDE-3 to own technology end-to-end - from understanding the business problem and designing the architecture, to guiding the team, writing critical code, and taking full accountability for the outcome in production.

This is not a role for someone who executes assigned tasks. The SDE-3 will work closely with Product Managers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, DevOps, QA, junior developers, and client stakeholders - translating business requirements into technically sound solutions and leading their delivery.

If you think in systems, take ownership without being asked, and can lead a team while staying hands-on - we would like to hear from you.

What You'll Do :

Architecture & System Design :

- Design architecture for features, modules, and full applications - covering frontend, backend, database, APIs, integrations, and infrastructure.

- Make technology and architectural decisions with clear awareness of trade-offs, scalability, security, performance, and maintainability.

- Review existing architecture to identify bottlenecks and design gaps, and drive improvements.

- Translate business requirements into technically sound designs and explain decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Hands-On Engineering :

- Write, review, and own critical parts of the codebase - this is a hands-on role, not pure management.

- Debug complex issues and perform root-cause analysis across the full stack.

- Design and optimise database schemas, SQL queries, and API contracts.

- Ensure code quality, testing practices, and engineering standards across the team.

- Think beyond "does it work?" - consider edge cases, failure modes, security, and long-term maintainability.

End-to-End Ownership :

- Own the full delivery lifecycle : Requirement - Technical Approach - Architecture - Task Breakdown - Development - Testing - Deployment - Production Support - Optimisation.

- Proactively identify risks, dependencies, and edge cases before implementation begins.

- Follow production issues through to resolution and root cause - not just acknowledgement.

Team Leadership :

- Lead, mentor, and unblock a team of junior and mid-level developers.

- Break down work, delegate effectively, and maintain delivery accountability across the team.

- Conduct code and architecture reviews with clear, constructive feedback.

- Identify technical gaps within the team and help close them.

Stakeholder Communication :

- Switch fluently between business-level and technical-level conversations.

- Communicate risks, timelines, and trade-offs proactively - not reactively.

- Work closely with Product Managers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, QA, DevOps, and clients.

What We're Looking For :

We value engineering depth, ownership, and structured thinking above framework familiarity. You will thrive in this role if you :

- Take accountability for outcomes - not just tickets. You don't wait for someone else to define every technical decision.

- Think in systems - you ask how things interact, fail, scale, and age, not just whether they work.

- Can handle ambiguity and challenge assumptions constructively while moving forward.

- Are technically curious and continuously building your own depth.

Must-Haves :

Technical Depth (Non-Negotiable) :

- Strong programming fundamentals - data structures, algorithms, OOP, design patterns, and software engineering principles.

- Strong hands-on production experience with at least one of Node.js, Python, or Java, along with proficiency in a relevant framework.

- Full-stack development : strong backend with meaningful hands-on experience across frontend, APIs, databases, integrations, and application architecture.

- Database engineering : schema design, SQL, indexing, transactions, query optimisation, and performance tuning for large datasets.

- API & integration design : REST APIs, authentication/authorisation, integration patterns, asynchronous processing, and distributed system concepts.

- System design & architecture : ability to translate requirements into scalable, maintainable, and reliable end-to-end technical solutions.

- Scalability & reliability - caching, queues, concurrency, fault tolerance, observability, and performance optimisation.

- Debugging & problem-solving - strong root-cause analysis, production debugging, and structured problem-solving skills.

- Testing & code quality - unit/integration testing, code reviews, clean code, static analysis, and engineering quality standards.

- Security awareness - secure coding practices, access control, data protection, and common application security principles.

Leadership & Ownership :

- Technical leadership - ability to guide engineers, conduct effective code/design reviews, mentor developers, and contribute to engineering standards.

- End-to-end ownership - proven ability to own and deliver complex, multi-component systems from requirements through design, development, deployment, and production support.

- Technical decision-making - ability to evaluate trade-offs and make pragmatic decisions considering scalability, maintainability, cost, and delivery timelines.

- Stakeholder communication - ability to communicate technical decisions, risks, dependencies, and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

- Execution maturity - ability to break down ambiguous problems, identify dependencies, manage risks, and drive initiatives to completion.

- Product & domain thinking - ability to understand complex business workflows and translate them into effective and maintainable technical solutions.

Education :

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Good to Have :

- Experience with Python and the Frappe/ERPNext framework.

- Familiarity with ERPNext modules, DocTypes, Client/Server Scripts, REST APIs, and Bench.

- Experience building business applications, ERP platforms, or domain-specific enterprise systems.

- Experience with AWS or similar cloud platforms, containerisation, and CI/CD pipelines.

- Exposure to observability, infrastructure-as-code, and production operations.

- Experience working with large datasets, data migrations, or ETL/data integration pipelines.

- Exposure to open-source development and contribution.

AI-Assisted Development :

At Dhwani, AI tools are part of the daily engineering workflow. We encourage developers to use AI for coding, debugging, architecture review, documentation, and problem-solving.

We encourage the use of AI tools; however, candidates are expected to understand, validate, and explain the code and solutions they build. Dhwani encourages responsible use of AI tools; however, candidates are expected to understand the concepts behind the solutions they build and independently validate AI-generated outputs. Strong fundamentals and learning ability are preferred over superficial framework experience.

Why Join Dhwani?

- Own the full technical picture - architecture, delivery, team, and production - in a role with real scope and accountability.

- Work on solutions that create measurable social impact across NGOs, CSR foundations, governments, and development organisations.

- Work directly with product, business, and leadership teams in a flat, ownership-driven environment.

- Build expertise across product and services delivery at a company where strong engineers grow fast.

Skills

System Design, System Architecture, Node.js, Python, Java, Full Stack, REST API, Data Structure