Entrylevel Java Backend Developer Jobs in Detroit, MI

As a Software Engineer, you will help build and scale a newly launched AI-first product with direct revenue impact. Our platform analyzes client communications and engagement signals to help mortgage bankers, the sales professionals who guide clients through home financing, focus on the clients most likely to convert. You'll build agentic AI applications: systems where agents reason, plan, use tools, and act on their own to drive real business outcomes.
This role is for an engineer who wants to ship real product: building features across the stack, deploying to production, and learning from real usage. AI is not a side tool here. You'll use it as a core part of how you design, code, test, debug, review, and ship software.
You'll work closely with engineers, product partners, and business stakeholders across distributed teams. The ideal candidate is curious, driven, comfortable asking questions in ambiguous situations, and excited to build a career at the front edge of AI-native engineering.
Why Now
This is a rare setup. You get the pace and greenfield energy of an early-stage startup, backed by the stability, resources, and built-in distribution of an established company. The product just launched, usage is growing, and the systems are still being shaped. Engineers joining now get outsized ownership, mentorship from senior engineers invested in their growth, and learning opportunities that are hard to find at this career stage. As the product and team grow, so does the opportunity: a clear path to senior, real architectural exposure, and the chance to build AI-native engineering skills that are in high demand. You'll also get access to frontier AI development tools, including AI coding agents like Claude Code, as a core and funded part of how the team works.
About the role

• Build and ship full-stack features from design through implementation, release, measurement, and iteration.
• Contribute to agentic AI capabilities such as agent orchestration, tool calling, retrieval-augmented workflows, and LLM-powered features.
• Help build evaluation, observability, and guardrail mechanisms for AI agents, ensuring reliability, safety, and measurable quality as agent behavior translates into product functionality.
• Implement scalable backend and frontend solutions using technologies such as C#, Python, Angular, AWS, and Kubernetes.
• Work with product, design, data, and senior engineers to turn requirements into reliable, well-tested solutions.
• Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and team practices that raise the quality bar.
• Collaborate effectively across distributed engineering teams, including partners in India.

About you
You're a builder who cares about outcomes, not just tickets. You ship, seek feedback, and improve quickly. You're serious about AI and eager to go deeper. You're comfortable operating in an early-stage product environment where requirements evolve and priorities shift, and you see that as a chance to learn faster rather than a source of frustration.
Minimum Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional software development experience.
• Experience building production software in languages such as C#, Java, Python, JavaScript, or TypeScript.
• Experience contributing to full-stack applications across frontend, backend, APIs, or data integrations.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Solid grasp of software design fundamentals, testing, and writing maintainable code.
• Ability to communicate clearly and collaborate effectively across teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with LLM APIs, agentic AI frameworks (e.g., LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, CrewAI, or similar), or Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool integrations.
• Exposure to LLM application patterns such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), prompt engineering, or evaluating AI output quality.
• Hands-on usage of AI tools in your development workflow, such as AI coding agents, AI-assisted reviews, or prompt-driven development.
• Experience with AWS, Kubernetes, CI/CD, or automated testing.

What you'll get
Our team members fuel our strategy, innovation and growth, so we ensure the health and well-being of not just you, but your family, too! We go above and beyond to give you the support you need on an individual level and offer all sorts of ways to help you live your best life. We are proud to offer eligible team members perks and health benefits that will help you have peace of mind. Simply put: We've got your back. Check out our full list of Benefits and Perks.
On-Call Expectations
This role may include participation in an on-call rotation to support production systems and ensure service reliability. On-call responsibilities may include coverage during nights and weekends. If applicable, frequency and scheduling will be determined by team needs and communicated accordingly.
About us
Rocket is a Detroit-based company made up of businesses that provide simple, fast and trusted digital solutions for complex transactions. The name comes from our flagship business, now known as Rocket Mortgage®, which was founded in 1985. Today, we're a publicly traded company involved in many different industries, including mortgages, fintech, real estate and more. We're insistently different in how we look at the world and are committed to an inclusive workplace where every voice is heard. Apply today to join a team that offers career growth, amazing benefits and the chance to work with leading industry professionals.
This job description is an outline of the primary responsibilities of this position and may be modified at the discretion of the company at any time. Decisions related to employment are not based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, military or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law. The company provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with applicable state and federal laws. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodations in completing the application and/or participating in the application process should contact a member of the Human Resources team, at Careers@Rocket.com.