Senior Backend Engineer — Java / Spring Boot

Senior Backend EngineerWe are seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to join a team building and modernizing highly scalable enterprise applications. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys solving complex technical problems, designing reliable backend systems, and working across distributed architectures.The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in Java and Spring Boot, strong experience with SQL databases and Redis, and a solid understanding of microservices, monolithic architectures, AWS, and containerized applications.This role is particularly well suited for an engineer who can go beyond implementing requirements and contribute to system design, architecture, scalability, performance, and technical decision-making.While AI-enabled development tools are becoming increasingly important, AI development is not the primary focus of this position. We are looking for strong software engineers who understand how to effectively leverage modern AI tools while maintaining strong engineering fundamentals.What You'll DoDesign, develop, and maintain high-performance backend applications using Java and Spring Boot.Design and implement scalable microservices and APIs while working within both modern microservices and existing monolithic architectures.Participate in system design and architecture discussions, making thoughtful decisions around scalability, reliability, maintainability, and performance.Design and optimize SQL databases, queries, data models, and database interactions.Implement and optimize caching strategies using Redis.Build and deploy containerized applications in AWS environments.Troubleshoot complex production and performance issues across distributed systems.Collaborate with other engineers, architects, product partners, and technical leaders to translate requirements into scalable solutions.Contribute to modernization initiatives, including evolving legacy/monolithic applications toward more scalable architectures where appropriate.Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code and participate in code reviews.Leverage modern AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity while maintaining ownership of technical decisions and code quality.Clearly communicate technical tradeoffs and defend architectural decisions.Required Qualifications7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant experience in backend development.Strong hands-on experience with Java.Strong experience with Spring Boot and the Spring ecosystem.Strong understanding of SQL databases, relational data modeling, and query optimization.Production experience with Redis or comparable caching technologies.Strong experience designing and developing microservices.Experience working with both microservice and monolithic architectures.Hands-on experience with AWS.Experience developing and deploying containerized applications.Strong understanding of REST APIs, distributed systems, and backend architecture.Demonstrated system design experience.Strong debugging and problem-solving skills.Ability to explain technical decisions and demonstrate deep understanding of technologies listed on your resume.AI / Modern DevelopmentAI experience is not the primary qualification for this position.We are not looking for someone who has spent years developing or training LLMs. Instead, candidates should be comfortable using modern AI-assisted development tools as part of their engineering workflow.Examples may include:GitHub CopilotChatGPT / OpenAI toolsCursor or similar AI coding assistantsAI-assisted debugging, testing, documentation, or developmentStrong backend engineering ability is more important than specialized AI experience.What We're Looking ForThe strongest candidates will be engineers who can:Take a complex backend problem and design the solution from the ground up.Explain why they chose a particular architecture, database, caching strategy, or technology.Write and troubleshoot production-quality Java code.Understand the tradeoffs between microservices and monolithic architectures.Design systems that are scalable, reliable, and maintainable.Speak deeply about the projects and technologies on their resume.Demonstrate genuine hands-on ownership rather than simply having exposure to a technology.