Backend Developer (Lead) - Contract

ROLE OVERVIEW
Our client is seeking a Java Backend Engineer to serve as Technical Lead for our backend development team. In this role, you will own the end-to-end design and delivery of cloud-native microservices, batch processing solutions, and enterprise API integrations. You will set the technical direction, uphold engineering quality standards, and be the primary bridge between product requirements, architecture decisions, and engineering execution.

This is a hands-on leadership role - you are expected to code, review, mentor, and collaborate daily while maintaining accountability for delivery quality and system reliability.

TECHNOLOGY SNAPSHOT

Java 11/17 | Spring Boot | Spring Batch | Hibernate | Microservices

AWS ECS | AWS SDK | Docker | Kubernetes | CI/CD

JUnit | Mockito | PowerMock | REST APIs | PostgreSQL

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Delivery & Design

Lead the design and development of backend microservices, including APIs for UI backends and integrations with external applications, aligned to architectural standards and non-functional requirements.

Oversee development of batch processing programs (Spring Batch) for large-volume data processing within defined schedules and operational windows.

Provide technical design guidance on service decomposition, API contracts, error handling, logging strategies, and resiliency patterns.

Leadership & Team Enablement

Act as technical lead for the backend team - providing guidance, mentorship, and hands-on code-level support to developers.

Review code and design artefacts to ensure coding standards, security best practices, and performance guidelines are consistently applied.

Support sprint planning and task estimation by decomposing backend work into clear, actionable technical tasks.

Quality, Performance & Operations

Drive application performance tuning and troubleshooting to ensure services meet SLA, scalability, and reliability requirements.

Define and enforce unit testing and code quality practices - JUnit, Mockito, PowerMock - ensuring adequate coverage and early defect detection.

Collaborate with DevOps and infrastructure teams on deployment pipelines, monitoring, and operational readiness of backend services.

Stakeholder & Cross-Team Collaboration

Work closely with Business Analysts, QA, and Solution Architects to clarify requirements, resolve technical risks, and support defect resolution.

Provide technical input during design reviews - surfacing dependencies, constraints, and trade-offs to inform sound architectural decisions.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Delivery & Design

Lead the design and development of backend microservices, including APIs for UI backends and integrations with external applications, aligned to architectural standards and non-functional requirements.

Oversee development of batch processing programs (Spring Batch) for large-volume data processing within defined schedules and operational windows.

Provide technical design guidance on service decomposition, API contracts, error handling, logging strategies, and resiliency patterns.

Leadership & Team Enablement

Act as technical lead for the backend team - providing guidance, mentorship, and hands-on code-level support to developers.

Review code and design artefacts to ensure coding standards, security best practices, and performance guidelines are consistently applied.

Support sprint planning and task estimation by decomposing backend work into clear, actionable technical tasks.

Quality, Performance & Operations

Drive application performance tuning and troubleshooting to ensure services meet SLA, scalability, and reliability requirements.

Define and enforce unit testing and code quality practices - JUnit, Mockito, PowerMock - ensuring adequate coverage and early defect detection.

Collaborate with DevOps and infrastructure teams on deployment pipelines, monitoring, and operational readiness of backend services.

Stakeholder & Cross-Team Collaboration

Work closely with Business Analysts, QA, and Solution Architects to clarify requirements, resolve technical risks, and support defect resolution.

Provide technical input during design reviews - surfacing dependencies, constraints, and trade-offs to inform sound architectural decisions.

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

5 years & above of Java backend development with deep hands-on experience in Spring, Spring Boot, Spring Batch, Hibernate, and microservices architecture.

Strong AWS experience: designing and configuring ECS task definitions, integrating services via AWS SDK, and supporting cloud-native deployments.

Proven expertise in testing strategies and frameworks - JUnit, Mockito, PowerMock - with the ability to define and enforce unit testing standards across a team.

Solid understanding of API design principles, RESTful services, error handling, and distributed systems patterns.

Experience leading technical teams: code reviews, sprint planning, mentoring junior and mid-level engineers.

Good to Have

Experience with React.js and Node.js to support full-stack discussions and API-to-UI integration.

Scripting experience for test automation and data migration activities.

Experience developing AWS Lambda functions using Python.