Sr Lead Developer - Backend (Java Springboot) - Plano, TX

We are seeking an experienced 8 plus years Senior JAVA Developer with a proven track record of designing and delivering microservices architectures for large-scale, mission-critical applications. In this leadership role, you will define architectural standards, mentor development teams, and work closely with business stakeholders to align technology solutions with strategic objectives. You should excel at communicating complex technical concepts, have deep knowledge of distributed systems, and possess a forward-thinking mindset that balances innovation with enterprise-level reliability.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Design Leadership

Define and evolve the overarching architecture for microservices, ensuring alignment with business and technical objectives.

Provide technical oversight and guidance on domain-driven design (DDD), service boundaries, and data management strategies.

Strategic Technology Roadmap

Collaborate with senior executives and product owners to develop a multi-year technology roadmap, focusing on scalability, resilience, and high availability.

Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend adoption where appropriate to maintain a competitive edge.

Microservices Implementation

Lead teams in designing, developing, and deploying microservices using best practices around RESTful APIs, event-driven architectures, and asynchronous messaging.

Ensure each service adheres to established coding standards, security practices, and API versioning guidelines.

Performance, Scalability & Resilience

Oversee capacity planning and performance tuning efforts to handle high throughput and large data volumes.

Implement fault-tolerant patterns (e.g., circuit breakers, retries, load balancing) and strategies to mitigate single points of failure.

DevOps & CI/CD

Advocate for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) best practices, including automated build pipelines, containerization (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes).

Work with DevOps teams to optimize deployment processes, reduce downtime, and ensure rapid rollbacks when necessary.

Observability & Monitoring

Champion the implementation of centralized logging, distributed tracing, and real-time monitoring tools (ELK, Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger).

Drive incident response and root cause analysis workflows to foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Data Strategy & Governance

Determine data storage solutions (SQL, NoSQL) and data partitioning/sharding strategies aligned with service boundaries.

Ensure compliance with data governance and regulatory requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.) as needed.

Technical Leadership & Mentoring

Mentor mid-level and junior engineers, fostering a learning culture through design reviews, code reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions.

Partner with project managers, product owners, and QA leads to ensure clear priorities and high-quality deliverables.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Work closely with business stakeholders, transforming high-level requirements into scalable technical solutions.

Facilitate communication between engineering teams, executive leadership, and non-technical stakeholders to ensure alignment.

Risk Assessment & Management

Identify technical risks and propose mitigation strategies, including spikes, proofs of concept, or architectural adjustments.

Regularly update leadership on project risks, constraints, and timelines.

Qualifications

Education & Background

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent real-world experience).

Proficiency in microservices architecture, domain-driven design (DDD), and event-driven systems.

Deep experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), and modern CI/CD pipelines.

Strong understanding of messaging systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and distributed transactions (Saga patterns, eventual consistency).

Expertise in observability (monitoring, logging, tracing) and performance tuning for large-scale, high-throughput applications.

Solid background in relational and NoSQL databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra) with an emphasis on data modeling and scalability.

Soft Skills

Outstanding communication and presentation skills, able to convey complex technical concepts to varied audiences.

Proven leadership and mentorship abilities, adept at guiding teams through change and fostering innovation.

Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to quickly make informed decisions.

Preferred Qualifications

Certifications in AWS.

Experience with service mesh (Istio, Linkerd) or advanced orchestration features for large-scale microservices.

Familiarity with security best practices (OAuth2, SAML, PKI) and compliance frameworks.

Compensation, Benefits and Duration

Minimum Compensation: USD 44,000

Maximum Compensation: USD 156,000

Compensation is based on actual experience and qualifications of the candidate. The above is a reasonable and a good faith estimate for the role.

Medical, vision, and dental benefits, 401k retirement plan, variable pay/incentives, paid time off, and paid holidays are available for full time employees.

This position is available for independent contractors

No applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post