Senior Software Engineer – Backend & AI

Location / Remote: Hybrid in St. Louis, MO (3 days onsite per week)

Employment Type: 6-month Contract-to-Hire (W-2 only)

Compensation: Up to $80/hour W-2; conversion target up to $150k base

We are seeking a backend-focused Software Engineer to join a small, high-impact team modernizing enterprise systems within a B2B services platform. The team is driving an AI-first automation strategy, building new cloud-native services that orchestrate and automate complex workflows across a large and diverse legacy application ecosystem.

This role is ideal for an engineer whose primary strength is backend application development (Java and/or Python), with the ability to work across the stack when needed. Frontend work exists but is not the primary focus of the role. AI is used pragmatically to automate workflows and reduce manual intervention — this is not a research or ML-heavy position.

You will work on proofs of concept that are expected to mature toward production, collaborating closely with product, architecture, and reliability partners in a regulated environment.

• Design and build backend application services using Java (Spring Boot) and/or Python
• Own and evolve RESTful APIs and microservices that integrate with a broad legacy ecosystem (200+ applications)
• Apply AI-driven automation (e.g., agent-based workflows, decision automation, document processing, conversational flows) within backend systems to remove humans from the loop
• Support frontend functionality as needed (e.g., React-based UIs consuming backend services), without a primary focus on UI development
• Build and deploy services using cloud-native patterns on Google Cloud Platform (preferred) or other public clouds
• Leverage AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Git Hub Copilot or similar) to improve development velocity and code quality
• Participate in CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and deployment workflows
• Collaborate with product managers, architects, and engineers
• Troubleshoot and resolve application, performance, and reliability issues
• Contribute to technical documentation and shared engineering standards
• Participate in Agile ceremonies and take ownership of deliverables in a fast-moving environment

• 5+ years of professional software development experience
• Strong backend experience building application services with Java (Spring Boot) and/or Python
• Demonstrated ownership of APIs, backend workflows, and service integrations
• Solid object-oriented design skills
• Experience deploying backend services to a public cloud platform (GCP preferred; AWS or Azure acceptable)
• Practical experience applying AI within application workflows (automation, chatbots, agent-style orchestration, document processing)
• Experience using AI coding assistants or similar developer productivity tools
• Strong understanding of REST APIs, microservices and distributed systems
• Strong problem-solving, debugging, and communication skills
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a hybrid team environment

• Some experience supporting frontend applications (React or Angular) that consume backend services
• Experience working on PoCs that evolve toward production
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience with CI tooling and automated build/deploy pipelines
• Exposure to observability, monitoring, or logging tools
• Experience working in regulated or compliance-driven environments
• Experience modernizing or orchestrating systems across large legacy portfolios