Junior Full Stack Java Developer Jobs in Elkhart, IN

Hands-on technical leadership: code, architecture, and delivery.

• Manage a small full-stack applications engineering team.

PWI is seeking a Software Applications Manager to lead a small team responsible for custom applications and integrations that support our business. This is primarily a management and technical-leadership role, not a full-time development position. The manager remains hands-on and is expected to write production code regularly while contributing through architecture, technical review, complex debugging, prototypes, and small projects.

The Software Applications Manager turns incomplete business requests into clear project scopes, realistic plans, sound application architecture, and completed releases. The manager leads developers day to day, reviews pull requests, protects engineering quality, and confirms that work is properly tested and ready for users.

The right candidate combines strong leadership and follow-through with the technical depth to coach developers, evaluate application architecture, identify weak code, and assist with difficult implementation work when needed. The goal is steady delivery and a team that keeps getting stronger — momentum on the work, and real room for developers to grow through expanding ownership and responsibility.

• Turn incomplete requirements into buildable project scopes. Meet with users, stakeholders, domain leads, and subject-matter experts to identify missing information, clarify business rules, document decisions, and distinguish the underlying need from a requested solution.
• Plan and coordinate reliable delivery. Estimate projects, plan sprints around the team’s actual capacity, assign work, track commitments, remove blockers, set realistic deadlines, and communicate risks or schedule changes early.
• Control scope without lowering quality. Identify scope drift before it threatens the schedule. When necessary, stage, simplify, or defer features rather than weakening architecture, testing, maintainability, or release safety.
• Assign and coordinate day-to-day development tasks. Distribute and adjust development tasks across the team as priorities and project needs shift.
• Own application architecture within approved standards. Make sound project-level architecture decisions, identify architectural drift, enforce engineering standards, and assist in defining technical standards.
• Review completed work as a finished product. Confirm that work meets approved requirements, follows approved architecture, is maintainable and usable, and has been appropriately tested and made ready for release.
• Coach through technical review. Explain why issues matter, give clear guidance for correcting them, and treat review as a standing channel for sharpening developer skill and judgment.
• Create room for developers to grow. Match people to work that stretches them, expand ownership as they are ready for it, and support ongoing education.
• Manage routine product updates. Set release cadence and coordinate deployments so updates arrive fully reviewed, tested, and grouped to limit change burden on end users.
• Maintain the health of published applications. Triage and coordinate resolution of bugs and functional gaps. Plan technical-debt work, dependency and framework updates, and security corrections.
• Contribute technically as needed to unblock the team. Plan architecture, review complex logic, assist with debugging, prototype solutions, complete small projects, and write production code when direct implementation is the best use of the manager’s time.
• Identify opportunities for automation and agentic tooling. Find business workflows that would materially benefit from automation, then scope and coordinate the work that delivers it.
• Oversee AI-assisted development practices. Establish responsible use patterns, verify AI-generated work, and guide the team in applying agentic tools and new technologies to practical development and business needs.

The manager leads custom solutions built end-to-end, including:

• Internal web applications
• Desktop applications
• Internal and vendor integrations

Current technologies include Flutter, Node.js, React, and .NET.

Known upcoming work includes:

• A customer-facing web portal for PWI’s proprietary design automation platform
• ERP integrations and customization
• Agentic workflows incorporated into existing applications
• An internal MCP server that allows teams to connect systems and workflows to AI

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Character

• Strong sense of ownership and follow-through
• High attention to detail
• Pragmatic over perfectionist
• Balances hands-on technical work with people leadership
• Clear communicator who can translate business needs into technical direction
• Curious learner who enjoys staying current with software developments
• Demonstrates PWI’s Core Values in daily decisions and interactions

Education or Experience

• Prior leadership experience — formal management, team or technical leadership, project coordination, volunteer or community leadership, or comparable work.
• Formal software-management experience
• Experience with more than one modern technology stack
• Experience with web applications and cloud functions
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
• Experience with Flutter, TypeScript/Node.js, React, .NET, mobile development, or desktop development

A specific degree and a minimum number of years of experience are not required. Demonstrated leadership, technical capability, judgment, and a record of completed work will carry more weight than credentials alone.

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations

• No specific certifications required.
• Additional training will be provided as needed.
• Cloud certifications (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform) or relevant development certifications may be helpful, though not required.

Other Skills & Abilities

• Strong proficiency in at least one modern technology stack based on object-oriented programming or comparable structured application development.
• Ability to read and write production code, design complete applications, understand data access, and diagnose complex defects.
• Ability to perform meaningful code review and identify weak architecture, incorrect logic, code smells, usability concerns, and obvious performance issues.
• Strong understanding of one or more common application architecture patterns, such as MVVM, MVC, or Clean Architecture.
• Strong proficiency with LLM-assisted development and practical experience using AI agents for development, research, planning, or related technical work.
• Ability to verify and correct AI-generated work, recognize its limitations, and learn unfamiliar AI tools as they evolve.
• Strong working knowledge of database design and querying, interacting with cloud-hosted databases, and building cloud services.
• Ability to learn unfamiliar frameworks, services, and technologies with limited guidance.

Physical Abilities

• Must be able to sit and work at a computer for extended periods of time.
• Frequently required to communicate with team members and stakeholders in person, in writing, and by phone or video call.
• May occasionally move or organize equipment, materials, or documents as needed.

Cognitive and Communication Abilities

• Ability to track commitments, maintain momentum, resolve blockers, and carry important work through to reliable completion with minimal oversight.
• Ability to recognize when work is sufficiently complete, without letting perfectionism or over-engineering delay delivery.
• Ability to coach developers, delegate meaningful ownership, and provide direct feedback.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment in decision-making: move quickly on low-risk decisions and carefully evaluate those with significant or difficult-to-reverse consequences.
• Ability to turn unclear or incomplete technical requests into actionable development work that meets business expectations.
• Ability to meet directly with users, stakeholders, and subject-matter experts; identify missing information; question assumptions; clarify business rules; and document decisions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical issues, tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations clearly to non-technical users.
• Ability to constructively challenge weak requirements and assumptions, and willingness to support the final business decision once it is made.

Location

• Willing to work on-site at PWI in Nappanee, Indiana

• Positive work environment where culture and Core Values are the highest priority
• Full-Time status with regular overtime
• Paid time off, with up to 3 weeks of paid time off with tenure
• 401k retirement plan with up to 4% company match
• Employer-sponsored individual health insurance, with options for dental and vision
• Wellness Reimbursement
• Paid birthdays off and a 7-year employed all-inclusive vacation package

$90,000 – $110,000+ salary plus annual profit-sharing bonus

PWI’s most vital concerns are the safety, health, and wellbeing of its employees and all people who come into contact with its workforce, property, and/or its products, and services. In light of this, as a part of PWI's hiring process, PWI may make all job offers contingent upon results from various checks including background checks, drug screens, reference checks, previous employment checks, and driving record checks (dependent upon position applied for). Our PWI team also takes part in ongoing periodic drug screens whether through random draw, reasonable cause, or post-accident testing.

I understand and acknowledge that any job offer may be contingent upon additional screening as indicated above. *