Lead Software Engineer

Overview

Lead Software Engineer – Retirement Strategies

Location: Hybrid – Newark, NJ

Type: Contract-to-Hire

Pay Rate: $65–$75/hour (W2). C2C is not allowed.

A major financial services firm is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to join its Retirement Strategies Technology team. This is a contract-to-hire opportunity for a hands-on technical leader who thrives on solving complex problems, delivering impactful solutions, and driving innovation at scale.

You will collaborate with a cross-functional team of product owners, designers, engineers, and delivery experts to build enterprise-grade platforms that power next-generation retirement solutions.

What You'll Do:

• Design and build high-quality, scalable applications using modern coding practices
  , design patterns, and architectural principles
• Develop well-documented, efficient, and standards-compliant code
• Partner with product owners and tech leads to define technical design and understand business needs
• Write unit, integration, and functional automation tests to support quality delivery
• Investigate and resolve issues identified through QA or user feedback
• Mentor and support junior engineers while embedding learning and innovation into day-to-day development
• Tackle complex problems requiring thoughtful analysis and creative solutions

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• Strong experience with Agile methodologies and Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills
• A continuous learning mindset and the ability to coach others
• Solid understanding of business operations and how to align technology to deliver value

• Languages & Frameworks:
  • React, Spring Boot, Node.js, Flask, Django
• Java services with Spring, Maven, microservices, multi-threading, concurrency
• Data & Streaming:
  • No
    
    SQL & relational databases
  • Data streaming (SQS, Kinesis)
• API Development:
  • REST, SOAP, JSON, XML, JDBC, MySQL
  • Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
• Testing & Dev Ops:
  • Unit, interface, end-user, and automated testing
  • Accessibility and secure coding best practices
  • Git Hub, Bitbucket, Jenkins, and other Dev Ops tools
• Security:
  • SSL, JWT, SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect
  • AWS Core Services (compute, storage, DB, IAM, analytics)
  • Monitoring, logging, and full software development lifecycle (SDLC)

• Experience with Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
• Strong background in AWS cloud-native development
• Familiarity with architecture patterns and design thinking
• Financial or insurance industry experience (
  required
  )
• Exposure to AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Git Hub Copilot)