Senior Backend Engineer Java Scala

Kforce Inc.

Greenwood Village, CO

JOB DETAILS
SALARY
$45–$67.50
SKILLS
AWS Lambda, Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Analysis Skills, Architectural Services, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Caching, Circuit Breakers, Continuous Deployment/Delivery, Continuous Integration, Database Design, Design Document, Distributed Computing, High Throughput, Integration Testing, Java, Leadership, Legal, Machine Tool, Make-Versus-Buy Analysis, Metrics, Microservices, MongoDB, Network Security, On Call, Performance Tuning/Optimization, Process Improvement, Production Support, Query Analysis, Query Optimization, Redis, Reporting Dashboards, Risk Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, Scala Programming Language, Short Messaging Service (SMS), Simple Queue Service (SQS), Software Engineering, Splunk, Technical Leadership, Technical Writing, Technical/Engineering Design, Test Plan/Schedule, Test Strategy, Value Engineering
LOCATION
Greenwood Village, CO
POSTED
Today
Kforce has a client in Greenwood Village, CO that is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer Java Scala. The Senior Backend Engineer Java Scala will be responsible for the full lifecycle of backend services: from design and development through production reliability. In an era where AI can generate code, we value engineers who think critically, anticipate problems, and drive systems forward. Responsibilities:
  • Own features from design -> development -> testing -> deployment -> production support
  • Take accountability for the reliability and performance of your services in production
  • Drive technical decisions without waiting to be told what to do
  • Design scalable, resilient distributed systems handling millions of daily transactions
  • Make pragmatic trade-off decisions (consistency vs. availability, complexity vs. speed)
  • Produce clear technical design documents and lead design reviews
  • Evaluate build vs. buy decisions with data
  • Build high-throughput, low-latency microservices
  • Write clean, maintainable code, but more importantly, know when and what to build
  • Write meaningful unit, integration, and contract tests, not just for coverage metrics
  • Own E2E test strategy for your services
  • Build confidence in deployments through automated validation
  • Datadog - build dashboards, set meaningful alerts, track SLOs, analyze APM traces
  • Splunk - log analysis, search queries, correlation across services for incident investigation
  • *Analyze production incidents: read logs, trace requests, identify root cause under pressure
  • Think about failure modes before they happen (circuit breakers, retries, fallbacks, graceful degradation)
  • Participate in on-call rotations and drive blameless post-mortems
  • Proactively identify capacity risks and performance bottlenecks
  • Identify risks, tech debt, and performance bottlenecks before they become incidents
  • Propose and drive improvements - don't wait for a ticket

Requirements:

  • Understand distributed tracing, structured logging, and metric-driven decision making
SRE Mindset
  • Strong proficiency in Java and/or Scala
  • Hands-on with AWS services (ECS/EKS, Lambda, S3, SQS, CloudWatch, IAM)
  • Understand networking, security, and cost implications of architectural choices
  • Comfortable with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/CloudFormation)
  • Kafka - design event-driven architectures, manage topics, handle consumer lag and rebalancing
  • Redis - caching strategies, pub/sub, cluster management
  • MongoDB/DocumentDB - schema design, indexing, query optimization, aggregation pipelines
Nice to Have
  • Experience with circuit breaker patterns (Hystrix, Resilience4j)
  • Performance tuning at scale (JVM, GC, thread pools, connection pools)
  • Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment strategies (blue-green, canary)
  • Contributions to internal tooling or developer experience improvements
  • Experience leading technical initiatives across multiple teams

The pay range is the lowest to highest compensation we reasonably in good faith believe we would pay at posting for this role. We may ultimately pay more or less than this range. Employee pay is based on factors like relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, location, performance, union contract and business needs. This range may be modified in the future.

We offer comprehensive benefits including medical/dental/vision insurance, HSA, FSA, 401(k), and life, disability & ADD insurance to eligible employees. Salaried personnel receive paid time off. Hourly employees are not eligible for paid time off unless required by law. Hourly employees on a Service Contract Act project are eligible for paid sick leave.

Note: Pay is not considered compensation until it is earned, vested and determinable. The amount and availability of any compensation remains in Kforce's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified in its discretion consistent with the law.

This job is not eligible for bonuses, incentives or commissions.

Kforce is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.

By clicking “Apply Today” you agree to receive calls, AI-generated calls, text messages or emails from Kforce and its affiliates, and service providers. Note that if you choose to communicate with Kforce via text messaging the frequency may vary, and message and data rates may apply. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. You will always have the right to cease communicating via text by using key words such as STOP.


About the Company

K

Kforce Inc.

Kforce is a solutions firm specializing in technology, finance and accounting, and professional staffing services. Our KNOWLEDGEforce® empowers top companies to achieve their digital transformation goals. We curate teams of technical experts who deliver solutions custom-tailored to each client’s needs. These scalable, flexible outcomes are shaped by deep market knowledge, thought leadership and our multi-industry expertise.

 

Our integrated approach is rooted in 60 years of proven success deploying highly skilled professionals on a temporary and direct-hire basis. Each year, approximately 18,000 talented experts work with the Fortune 500 and other leading companies. Together, we deliver Great Results Through Strategic Partnership and Knowledge Sharing®.

COMPANY SIZE
1,000 to 1,499 employees
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
FOUNDED
1962
WEBSITE
http://www.kforce.com/