Junior Back End Developer Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Role: Technical Lead / Lead Java Backend Developer
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Work Model: Hybrid — currently two days per week onsite

Let’s create our future together at The AES Group!

About The AES Group:

The AES Group is a premier technology and engineering consulting company that has been bringing businesses and talent together for over 20 years to deliver innovative solutions that have the greatest positive impact on society. AES has helped over 40 business enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, engage their customers, empower their employees, and transform their business operations with the power of cloud, data, AI, engineering, and other emerging technologies. 

Why Join This Opportunity?

• Lead the development of a modern, enterprise-scale digital platform.
• Guide and mentor a geographically distributed engineering team of at least eight members.
• Work with Java 17, AWS cloud services, distributed systems, and high-availability architectures.
• Take ownership of technical delivery, engineering KPIs, software quality, and team performance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams on business-critical applications and platform capabilities.
• Gain exposure to architecture decisions, cloud-native development, DevOps, and enterprise technology standards.

Position Overview

The AES Group INC. is seeking a Technical Lead / Lead Java Backend Developer for one of our clients in the industrial technology sector.

This position requires a highly experienced, hands-on Java engineering leader who can contribute directly to backend development while leading a team of at least eight engineers. The successful candidate will be responsible for application design, technical delivery, engineering standards, team mentorship, KPI ownership, and the development of scalable, secure, and reliable cloud-based solutions.

This is not a frontend, UI, or primarily architecture-focused position. Candidates must demonstrate recent hands-on Java backend development experience, strong AWS knowledge, and measurable technical leadership responsibilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a geographically distributed development team of at least eight engineers while remaining actively involved in hands-on backend development.
• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support complex enterprise applications using Java 17 and modern backend engineering practices.
• Build scalable RESTful web services and cloud-native solutions using AWS services.
• Own and monitor engineering KPIs related to delivery, quality, reliability, availability, productivity, and operational performance.
• Provide technical direction, code-level guidance, and application leadership to developers and support teams.
• Establish software development standards, engineering best practices, code-review processes, and quality controls.
• Mentor junior and mid-level developers while identifying opportunities for team development and performance improvement.
• Lead the delivery of new functionality across cross-functional business and technology teams.
• Diagnose and resolve complex application, integration, infrastructure, and production-support issues.
• Participate in architecture discussions, technology evaluations, and recommendations for enterprise-wide solutions.
• Perform integration testing and support customer acceptance testing through detailed planning and execution.
• Promote reusable components, enterprise standards, high availability, security, and reliable system design.
• Coordinate priorities, work assignments, technical dependencies, and delivery commitments with limited supervision.
• Communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, end users, engineering teams, and business partners.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related field.

Experience

• At least 10 years of experience designing and developing Java-based software applications.
• At least three years of experience leading geographically distributed engineering teams.
• Demonstrated experience directly leading a team of eight or more members.
• Strong hands-on experience with backend application development.
• Proven ownership of engineering KPIs, delivery metrics, software quality measures, or operational performance indicators.

Technical Skills

• Advanced hands-on experience with Java 17.
• Strong backend development expertise.
• RESTful web services and API development.
• AWS services, including IAM, Kinesis, DynamoDB, API Gateway, SQS, SNS, and KMS.
• SQL query development; experience with Slick is preferred.
• DevOps practices, automated delivery, and production support.
• High-availability, reliable, secure, and scalable system design.
• Working knowledge of application and solution architecture.
• Integration testing and customer acceptance testing.

Ready to make an impact? Apply now and join us on our journey!