Full Stack Associate Job Jersey City area,New Jersey USA,Software Development

Position: Full Stack Associate Level
Employment Type: Contract-to-Hire (CTH)
Contract Duration: 12-Month Contract (Possible Extension)
Work Location: Dallas / Jersey (Hybrid)
Role Expectations
Overall Experience & Mindset

Early-career to developing engineer with ~2–4 years of hands-on experience in full-stack application development.
Demonstrates strong fundamentals, willingness to learn client standards, and the ability to grow with guidance from senior engineers.
Comfortable working in Agile teams, taking ownership of assigned stories and tasks.
AI tool exposure like Git Hub Copilot is a plus but not required.

Technical Expectations
Backend Development (Primary)

Solid understanding of Java and Spring Boot fundamentals.
Experience building or modifying RESTful APIs.
Basic knowledge of microservices concepts (service boundaries, configuration, logging).
Familiarity with messaging concepts (Kafka/JMS) is a plus, but deep expertise is not required at this level.
Uses structured logging and understands basic error handling.

Frontend Development

Working knowledge of Angular or React (components, services, state basics).
Ability to build simple UI features and integrate them with backend APIs.
Understanding of basic UI/UX principles and accessibility awareness (at least at a conceptual level).

Database & SQL
Ability to write basic to intermediate SQL queries:

SELECT
JOINs
WHERE clauses
GROUP BY / ORDER BY

Understands relational database concepts:

Tables
Indexes
Primary/Foreign Keys

Development Practices & Tools

Comfortable using an IDE (IntelliJ, VS Code, or Eclipse).
Familiar with Git (branching, pull requests, resolving conflicts).
Exposure to unit testing (JUnit / Jest or similar).
Basic understanding of CI/CD pipelines and deployment workflows.
Willingness to follow client engineering standards, security guidelines, and compliance requirements once onboarded.

Cloud & Platform (Baseline Awareness)

General familiarity with cloud environments (AWS or similar).
High-level understanding of containers (Docker) and platform concepts (Open Shift/Kubernetes) is sufficient.
No expectation to design infrastructure independently at this level.

Interview & Hiring Expectations (Important)
Must be able to:

Explain actual project work they have contributed to (academic, personal, or professional).
Walk through code they have written. There should be sample projects in their IDE and should be good enough to showcase his/her skills. A Helloworld program is not acceptable.
Answer basic Java, SQL, and frontend questions without relying on memorized answers.

Should be prepared for:

Screen sharing
Demonstrating problem-solving using an IDE
Deep system design is not expected, but clarity of thought and fundamentals are required.

Behavioral & Professional Expectations

Communicates clearly with team members and mentors.
Open to feedback and actively incorporates suggestions.
Understands the importance of quality, security, and reliability in a regulated financial environment.
Shows accountability for deliverables and timelines, even for smaller assignments.

What Is Not Expected at Associate Level

Designing complex distributed systems independently.
Owning architectural decisions end-to-end.
Advanced Kafka tuning, cloud cost optimization, or complex performance engineering.
Leading squads or mentoring others formally.