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Role Overview:

We are looking for a highly skilled Senior Java Backend Developer, with deep experience designing, building, and guiding the implementation of enterprise-scale, cloud-native systems on AWS. This role combines advanced Java engineering expertise with architectural leadership, AWS cloud architecture skills, and strong security practices. The ideal candidate has a track record of leading complex, mission-critical systems, setting technical direction, and ensuring robust security, scalability, and operational excellence.

You will collaborate with engineering, product, security, DevOps, and business stakeholders to define architecture vision, guide delivery teams, and ensure solutions follow best practices across performance, cloud cost optimization, resiliency, data integrity, and compliance.

This is a hybrid remote position that requires being located in Southern California and being onsite at our location in Orange County, California most likely once a week (give or take). It is a normal 8 hours per work day position and has the potential to be a long term position based on finding the right candidate. The position is a Contractor/Consultant position (1099 C2C/Indep Contractor) setup.

Key Responsibilities:

Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Lead the design and evolution of Java enterprise systems, microservices, APIs, and event-driven architectures.
• Define system architecture blueprints, integration patterns, and technical roadmaps for large distributed systems.
• Guide engineering teams in implementing best practices for Java development, code quality, scalability, and maintainability.
• Evaluate new technologies, frameworks, and cloud-native approaches; make recommendations based on business goals and technical feasibility.

Cloud Architecture (AWS)

• Architect and optimize solutions leveraging AWS core services:
• • Compute (EC2, ECS, EKS, Lambda)
  • Serverless & event-driven (Lambda, EventBridge, Step Functions)
  • Storage & database (S3, RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora)
  • IAM, KMS, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, WAF, Shield
• Design for scalability, reliability, high availability, disaster recovery, and global performance.
• Partner with DevOps teams to define CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure as code (CloudFormation / Terraform), and deployment automation.
• Establish architecture guardrails, tagging standards, and optimization strategies to manage cloud cost efficiency.

Security Architecture & Governance

• Ensure solutions adhere to security-by-design principles, including authentication, authorization, encryption, and secure coding standards.
• Collaborate with security teams to implement IAM, network segmentation, zero-trust patterns, and least-privilege access.
• Lead threat modeling and design reviews to identify and mitigate application and cloud vulnerabilities.
• Ensure compliance with relevant frameworks (SOC2, ISO 27001, NIST, PCI, HIPAA, etc.).
• Guide teams in implementing application-level security: JWT, OAuth2/OpenID Connect, CSRF and XSS protections, API gateway patterns.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as the technical authority across multiple teams, driving technical decisions, architecture choices, and engineering excellence.
• Partner closely with Product, QA, and DevOps to ensure successful releases and platform stability.
• Communicate complex technical concepts to senior leadership and non-technical stakeholders.
• Mentor senior engineers and contribute to internal engineering standards and architectural frameworks.
• Participate as a Lead Java Backend Developer on multiple Scrum Teams.

Required Qualifications:

Technical Skills

• 10+ years of experience with Java, Spring/Spring Boot, and related frameworks.
• 5+ years building cloud solutions on AWS, with proven architecture-level experience.
• Strong knowledge of microservices, event-driven systems, distributed systems design, and API frameworks (REST, GraphQL).
• Expertise in modern security:
• • IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager
  • OAuth2, OIDC, JWT
  • Network security (VPC, subnets, security groups, NACLs)
  • Data encryption at rest/in transit
• Experience with DevOps practices, CI/CD (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab), containers (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Strong understanding of relational and NoSQL databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Redis).
• Proficiency in architecture modeling, UML, and system diagramming.

Leadership & Communication

• Proven experience influencing senior stakeholders and guiding engineering teams.
• Ability to simplify complex problems and communicate architectural patterns clearly.
• Experience conducting code/architecture reviews, setting engineering standards, and mentoring developers.

Preferred Qualifications

• AWS professional certifications (Solutions Architect Professional, DevOps Engineer).
• Experience with API Gateway, Cognito, CloudFront, WAF, and serverless architectures.
• Experience in regulated environments (finance, healthcare, government).
• Working knowledge of threat modeling tools and security scanning technologies.
• Familiarity with Kafka, Kinesis, or other streaming platforms.
• Experience with multi-account AWS landing zones and enterprise-scale cloud governance.

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Strategic thinking with hands-on execution capabilities.
• Excellent documentation and presentation skills.
• Ability to lead through influence and drive consensus.

Why Join Us:

• Opportunity to shape the architecture of core enterprise platforms.
• Work with modern cloud-native technologies at scale.
• Culture that encourages innovation, ownership, and growth.