Lead Java Engineer

Job Title

Lead Java Engineer

St. Louis, MO

6+ months

12+ Years

We are seeking a highly accomplished Principal Java Engineer to lead the design and evolution of large-scale, mission-critical backend systems. This role is ideal for a hands-on technical leader who combines deep Java expertise with architectural vision, performance optimization skills, and a strong engineering craftsmanship mindset. You will define technical direction, guide engineering standards, and build highly scalable, resilient systems operating at high throughput (TPS) in cloud-native environments.

• Lead architecture and design of high-scale distributed systems using Java
• Define and enforce engineering best practices, coding standards, and design principles
• Design scalable microservices and event-driven architectures
• Drive performance optimization, scalability improvements, and system reliability
• Mentor senior engineers and influence cross-team technical decisions
• Conduct architectural reviews and provide consultative guidance
• Ensure high code quality through TDD, code reviews, static analysis, and automation
• Collaborate with Product, Dev Ops, and Platform teams to align system design with business goals
• Lead modernization initiatives (legacy to microservices, monolith decomposition, cloud migration)
• Contribute to observability, resilience, and fault-tolerant system design

• Deep expertise in Java 8/11/17
• Strong knowledge of:
  • Lambda expressions & Stream API
  • Concurrency & multithreading
  • Completable Future & async programming
  • JVM performance tuning & memory management
• Extensive experience with Spring Boot / Spring Cloud

• Microservices architecture
• Event-driven systems (Kafka or equivalent)
• REST API design (spec-first / OpenAPI preferred)
• High-availability & fault-tolerant system design
• Circuit breakers, rate limiting, caching strategies
• Horizontal scaling and high TPS environments

• Strong expertise with:
  Oracle / DB2 / Postgre
  
  SQL / MySQL, Mongo
  
  DB or other No
  
  SQL databases
• Data modeling for high-scale systems
• Performance tuning (query optimization, indexing strategies)

• CI/CD (Jenkins, Git Hub Actions, or equivalent)
• Docker & Kubernetes
• Observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, etc.)
• Cloud platforms (AWS / Azure / Google Cloud Platform)

• TDD / BDD
• Static analysis tools (Sonar Qube)
• Strong understanding of design patterns & SOLID principles
• Experience in conducting architectural reviews

• Act as a technical authority and strategic advisor
• Influence engineering culture toward craftsmanship and excellence
• Challenge assumptions using data and performance benchmarks
• Mentor engineers across levels
• Drive long‑term architectural vision

• 12‑18+ years of experience in backend engineering
• Proven track record of designing high‑scale, always‑on systems
• Experience in payments, telecom, fintech, healthcare, or other high‑throughput domains preferred
• Strong communicator capable of presenting to senior stakeholders

Java 8/11/17, Lambda, Stream API, JVM, Kafka