IT Software Engineer​/Lead Java Backend Developer

IT Software Engineer 5 / Lead Java Backend Developer

Location:

Chicago, IL preferred but the role can be 100% remote but there will be travel involved when needed. Duration: 12 months contract.

Position's Contributions to Work Group:

• Provides technical leadership and delivery ownership for a team of software engineers building and operating scalable cloud-native applications on AWS.
• Drives architecture decisions, engineering best practices, and solution design across Spring Boot microservices, Open Search platforms, CI/CD, observability and AWS infrastructure.
• Collaborates with product, architecture, and platform teams to deliver secure, resilient, and high-performing solutions while mentoring engineers, improving development processes, and ensuring successful execution of business objectives.

Typical task breakdown:

• Leads software engineers in delivering business-critical applications.
• Establishes technical direction and architectural standards.
• Drives AWS cloud adoption and modernization initiatives.
• Ensures solution scalability, performance, security, and reliability.
• Promotes Dev Ops, CI/CD, automation, and AI-assisted development practices.
• Supports incident resolution, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.

Interaction with team:

• Mentors engineers and develop technical talent.
• Partners with Product Owners, Architects, and stakeholders to align technology investments with business goals.

Education & Experience

Required:

• Bachelor's degree is a must.
• 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, Cloud Watch, Secrets Manager), Open Search/Elasticsearch, Docker, CI/CD, Git Hub, Distributed Systems, Cloud Architecture, Observability, Dev Ops, Infrastructure as Code, SQL/No
  
  SQL databases, Event-Driven Architecture, API Integration, Performance Optimization, 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 ability to influence cross-functional teams while driving successful delivery of complex cloud-native solutions.