Lead Backend Developer (Java, Spring Boot, Distributed Systems)
Position Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced Lead Backend Developer with deep expertise in Java, Spring Boot, and distributed microservices architectures. This role is responsible for leading backend system design, ensuring scalability and reliability, and driving best‑in‑class engineering practices. You will architect robust platforms, mentor engineers, and collaborate with cross‑functional teams—including React/TypeScript frontend teams—to deliver seamless, secure, and high‑performance product experiences.
Key Responsibilities
Backend Architecture & Development
- Lead the end‑to‑end design and development of backend services using Java, Spring Boot, and cloud‑native patterns.
- Architect distributed, scalable, fault‑tolerant microservices with strong observability, resilience, and performance characteristics.
- Implement high‑quality REST and GraphQL APIs, ensuring efficient data flow and low‑latency interactions for frontend clients.
- Design systems with a strong understanding of concurrency, multi‑threading, memory management, and performance tuning, consistent with expectations for senior Java engineers working at scale.
Security, Auth, and RBAC
- Implement modern authentication/authorization patterns such as OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, and RBAC‑driven access control.
- Collaborate with security teams to enforce secure coding practices, encryption standards, and compliance requirements.
- Ensure backend‑frontend auth flows integrate smoothly with React + TypeScript clients and identity providers.
API & Frontend Integration
- Partner closely with frontend engineering teams (React/TypeScript) to define API contracts, streamline integrations, and optimize data delivery.
- Design type‑safe API boundaries via OpenAPI/Swagger, JSON schema, or TypeScript interfaces to ensure smooth frontend interoperability.
- Support real‑time communication where needed (WebSockets, Kafka event streaming, server‑sent events).
Distributed Systems & Event‑Driven Architecture
- Design and maintain event‑driven systems using messaging platforms such as Kafka, SQS, or RabbitMQ—including topic design, schema evolution, and consumer scaling.
- Build resilient services capable of operating in high‑traffic, highly concurrent environments.
DevOps, CI/CD & Cloud
- Collaborate on CI/CD improvements, containerization strategies, and deployment automation (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS/EKS, Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
- Ensure systems are production‑ready with comprehensive monitoring (CloudWatch, AppDynamics, Splunk), logging, and alerting.
- Participate in post‑incident reviews and drive improvements for system reliability (SLOs, SLIs, error budgets).
Leadership & Cross‑Functional Collaboration
- Lead technical initiatives, guide architectural decisions, and drive best practices in coding, testing, and design.
- Mentor backend engineers through code reviews, pairing, and long‑term skill development.
- Partner with Product, Design, and Platform teams to translate requirements into robust technical solutions.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of professional experience building highly scalable backend systems using Java, Spring Boot, and modern microservices patterns.
- Expert understanding of distributed systems, service‑to‑service communication patterns, caching, and data consistency models.
- Proven experience designing and scaling APIs for large‑scale applications.
- Strong experience with SQL/NoSQL databases, ORM frameworks, and data modeling for both transactional and analytical workloads.
- Hands‑on experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), containerization, and Kubernetes‑based deployments.
- Strong foundation in testing methodologies: JUnit, TestNG, Mockito, integration tests, contract testing, etc.
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical projects with minimal supervision.
Preferred Skills
- Experience with event‑driven architectures, streaming systems, or real‑time processing.
- Familiarity with large‑scale SaaS environments and multi‑tenant platform considerations.
- Background in frontend‑backend integration patterns and API‑driven design systems.
- Experience with distributed caching (Redis, Hazelcast), circuit breaking, and resilience patterns.
What Success Looks Like
- Delivering reliable, scalable backend systems that power seamless user experiences across React/TS frontends.
- Establishing engineering excellence through improved performance, reduced system complexity, and strong code quality.
- Supporting long‑term technical strategy through architectural leadership, innovation, and platform‑wide thinking.
- Uplifting team capabilities through mentorship, technical guidance, and thoughtful collaboration.