IT Software Engineer 5 / Lead Java Backend Developer

Chicago, United States | Posted on 09/02/2026 Job Title: IT Software Engineer 5 / Lead Java Backend Developer Location: Chicago, IL preferred but the role can be 100% remote butthere will be travel involved when needed. Duration: 12 months contract. Position’s Contributions to Work Group:

Provides technicalleadership and delivery ownership for a team of software engineers building andoperating scalable cloud-native applications on AWS. Drives architecturedecisions, engineering best practices, and solution design across Spring Bootmicroservices, OpenSearch platforms, CI/CD, observability and AWSinfrastructure. Collaborates withproduct, architecture, and platform teams to deliver secure, resilient, andhigh-performing solutions while mentoring engineers, improving developmentprocesses, and ensuring successful execution of business objectives.

Typical task breakdown:

Leads softwareengineers in delivering business-critical applications. Establishestechnical direction and architectural standards. Drives AWS cloudadoption and modernization initiatives. Ensures solutionscalability, performance, security, and reliability. Promotes DevOps,CI/CD, automation, and AI-assisted development practices. Supports incidentresolution, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.

Interaction with team:

Mentors’ engineersand develop technical talent. Partners with ProductOwners, Architects, and stakeholders to align technology investments withbusiness goals.

Education & Experience Required:

10+ years’experience in this capacity with 5+ years in a lead role.

Required Technical Skills:

Java (latest would be ideal), Spring Boot, Microservices, REST APIs,AWS (ECS/Fargate, IAM, ALB, RDS, CloudWatch, Secrets Manager),OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, Docker, CI/CD, GitHub, Distributed Systems, CloudArchitecture, Observability, DevOps, Infrastructure as Code, SQL/NoSQLdatabases, Event-Driven Architecture, API Integration, PerformanceOptimization, and AI-assisted Development Tools.

Soft Skills:

Strong technical leadership, communication, stakeholder management,mentoring and coaching, collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking,decision making, ownership, conflict resolution, adaptability, and the abilityto influence cross-functional teams while driving successful delivery ofcomplex cloud-native solutions.

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