Freelance Java Spring Developer Jobs in Naperville, IL

Job Title: Java Developer - Notifications Platform & AI Engineering Location: Chicago, IL Duration: Temp - 9 months (possible extension) Pay Range: $45/hr $48.27/hr (W2) Job ID: 406611 About BCforward BCforward is a leading global IT consulting and workforce solutions firm providing services and support to Fortune 500 and government clients. Founded in 1998, BCforward has grown with our customers needs into a full-service business solutions provider. With delivery centers and offices across North America and India, we take pride in building long-term relationships and delivering excellence through innovation, collaboration, and integrity. Job Description We are seeking a Java Developer - Notifications Platform & AI Engineering to join our dynamic team. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in Java backend development, event-driven integrations, AWS cloud, and applied AI/GenAI and a proven ability to design, build, deploy, and support production-grade notification platform services and AI-enabled communication capabilities. Responsibilities: Design and implement core services for the enterprise Notifications platform, including APIs, event-driven integrations, orchestration components, templates, and platform capabilities. Write, review, debug, and optimize production code; lead through hands-on engineering contribution. Build cloud-native backend services using Java, Spring Boot, Apache Camel, microservices, containers, and AWS services. Develop and integrate AI/GenAI capabilities, including prompt design, LLM integration, RAG pipelines, embeddings/vector search, semantic search, classification, summarization, and AI-assisted communication workflows. Prototype, validate, and productionize AI-enabled features with attention to latency, accuracy, cost, monitoring, fallback design, and reliability. Design for high availability, scalability, resiliency, observability, performance, security, privacy, and compliance. Integrate with enterprise systems, eventing platforms, data providers, communication providers, and vendor-managed services. Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues including performance, integration, data, and reliability concerns. Collaborate with architects, product owners, stakeholders, development teams, and vendors to convert requirements into working solutions. Contribute to technical design, documentation, code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD, release readiness, and production support. Ensure alignment with enterprise engineering standards, security expectations, and application lifecycle practices. Mentor developers through code-level guidance and design reviews while delivering hands-on work. Required Skills & Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, related field, or equivalent work experience. 8+ years of software engineering and SDLC delivery experience. 8+ years of hands-on Java backend development with Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, and open-source technologies. 3+ years with event-driven systems, messaging, streaming, integration, or notification platforms. Hands-on experience with Apache Camel or similar enterprise integration frameworks. 4+ years with AWS or equivalent cloud services such as EC2, S3, RDS, VPC, CloudFront, Lambda, EKS, ECS, API Gateway, DynamoDB, DocumentDB, or AmazonMQ. Proven AI/GenAI implementation in production applications, including LLM integration, prompt engineering, RAG, embeddings/vector search, semantic search, classification, summarization, or workflow automation. Understanding of responsible and secure AI practices including data privacy, access control, guardrails, evaluation, monitoring, hallucination risk, human review, and auditability. Experience with observability and analytics tools such as Dynatrace, ELK Stack, or CloudWatch. Experience in agile environments with CI/CD, automated testing, code quality, deployment readiness, and production support. Knowledge of version control, packaging, release management, secure coding, and operational readiness. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to diagnose complex issues independently. Self-motivated and collaborative with effective communication to technical and non-technical stakeholders. Preferred Skills: Experience designing and developing enterprise notification, communication, messaging, content management, or eventing platforms. Experience with Twilio or similar communication platforms. Applied AI for communication use cases such as personalization, routing, prioritization, content quality checks, template assistance, intent classification, summarization, or anomaly detection. Experience with AI observability, LLMOps/MLOps, model and prompt evaluation, guardrails, and production monitoring of AI features. AWS or equivalent cloud certification. Experience in high-scale, 24x7 production environments. Experience in airline, travel, customer platforms, or crew operations domains. Why BCforward? At BCforward, we believe in advancing lives and careers. When you join our team, you gain access to: Competitive compensation and benefits. Opportunities for growth with global clients. A supportive, inclusive culture that values innovation and people. Exposure to cutting-edge technologies and projects. About Our Commitment BCforward is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status. Interested? Apply Now! If this sounds like the right opportunity for you, please apply with your most recent resume.