Lead Cloud Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 9, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 9, 2026.
The Company
Herd-i builds computer vision and analytics systems for the dairy industry. Its platform processes video and sensor data to deliver insights into animal health, welfare and farm performance. The work brings together edge computing, machine learning and cloud systems to solve practical problems on farms. This is a growing business where you stay close to the technology and have a direct influence on how the platform develops. Walker Smith is partnering exclusively with Herd-i on this search.
The Role
Herd-i is seeking a hands-on Lead Cloud Engineer to lead a small engineering team and help build the next generation of its platform. You’ll combine technical leadership with software development, working across Python services, AWS infrastructure, data systems and React applications. You’ll guide technical decisions, mentor engineers and take responsibility for the quality and delivery of the team’s work, while working closely with the ML, IoT and operations teams to deliver reliable systems for a growing business. Agentic AI tools such as Claude Code are central to how the team works, and you’ll use them actively and help the team apply them well.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Leading a small engineering team of 2, providing technical direction, mentoring and day-to-day support
- Working with product and engineering colleagues to turn priorities into practical plans and deliver working software
- Designing, building and maintaining Python services, APIs and AWS infrastructure
- Developing and integrating React applications with backend services and data systems
- Guiding architectural decisions, balancing delivery speed, reliability, maintainability and cost
- Improving how the team uses AI tools for development, prototyping, refactoring and troubleshooting
Skills and Experience We’re Looking For
- At least 1-2 years’ experience leading a small software engineering team
- Strong hands-on software engineering experience and a willingness to stay actively involved in development
- Experience supporting engineers, reviewing technical work and taking responsibility for team delivery
- Solid Python experience, including frameworks such as Flask, Django, Streamlit or similar
- Experience designing, building and consuming RESTful APIs
- Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS, including Lambda and service-based architectures
- A good understanding of SQL, relational data modelling and efficient data access
- Comfort using AI-assisted development tools and critically assessing their output for correctness, security, performance and maintainability.
- Experience with Claude Code, Codex or similar tools is highly desirable
This is a full-time, on-site role based in Christchurch. If you’re looking to lead a small team, stay close to the code and shape how AI-assisted engineering works in practice, apply now or contact Luke Wilson at Walker Smith for a confidential conversation.