Description

We are looking for a Principal Java Backend Engineer to lead the design and delivery of scalable, integration-heavy backend systems. This role requires a hands-on technical leader who can unblock teams, influence stakeholders, and collaborate directly with client engineering teams to drive solutions.

You will operate at a Principal Engineer level, balancing architecture leadership with hands-on development.

Requirements

We are looking for a highly experienced Principal Backend Engineer to join our Domain Services portfolio. This is a high-impact role within an established, integration-heavy enterprise environment.

The successful candidate will step into a complex delivery landscape and help strengthen technical direction, improve engineering standards, and drive better ways of working through technical credibility and influence.

This is not a greenfield role — it requires someone comfortable navigating ambiguity, improving existing systems, and leading change without formal authority.

🔹 Technical Leadership

• Lead architecture and design of domain services and integration-heavy systems
• Act as a technical escalation point to unblock teams and resolve complex challenges
• Drive best practices in microservices, event-driven architecture, and API design
• Ensure systems are scalable, resilient, and cloud-native
• Improve engineering standards, quality practices, and technical direction across teams

🔹 Hands-On Engineering

• Develop backend services using Java (11+), Spring Boot
• Build and maintain event-driven systems using Kafka
• Design and implement REST APIs (GraphQL experience is a plus)
• Work with MongoDB for high-volume, distributed workloads
• Contribute directly to code, reviews, and production issue resolution

🔹 Architecture & Integration

• Design secure, integration-focused workflows across systems
• Apply domain-driven design principles
• Improve performance, scalability, and observability
• Work within integration-heavy enterprise systems

🔹 Cloud & Engineering Practices

• Experience working with Microsoft Azure (preferred)
• CI/CD and DevOps-aware engineering mindset
• Strong testing discipline (JUnit, Mockito)
• Gradle or modern build systems

🔹 Leadership & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Influence architectural decisions across teams
• Partner with client stakeholders to unblock delivery challenges
• Provide mentorship and technical guidance to engineers
• Drive improvement through credibility rather than authority
• Comfortable working in established, multi-team enterprise environments

🔹 Required Experience

• 13+ years in backend engineering
• Deep expertise in Java & distributed systems
• Strong experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka)
• Experience improving legacy systems and integration-heavy platforms
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across teams

🔹 Nice to Have

• Micronaut framework experience
• Retail or enterprise-scale domain exposure
• Multi-cloud exposure (Azure/AWS)