Sr System Engineer -Technical Lead

Randstad is seeking a hands-on Senior Technical Lead Java / Distributed Systems to drive the technical design, development, and delivery of core enterprise applications supporting large-scale workforce and operations modernization. In this role, you will go beyond routine API creation to architect and build reusable software frameworks, rules-driven engines, event-driven pipelines, and shared libraries that power business-critical services across multiple applications. Operating as a coding leader rather than an administrative manager, you will partner closely with Architects, Product Owners, and engineering teams to evaluate technical trade-offs, conduct code reviews, mentor engineers, and enforce modern distributed-system patterns using Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, and AWS.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Hands-On Development: Drive the design, implementation, and deployment of resilient, high-throughput microservices and shared enterprise components using modern Java and Spring Boot.
• Build Reusable Frameworks: Design externalized, configuration-driven business rules engines, common SDKs, and shared libraries to standardize delivery and eliminate duplicate logic across teams.
• Architect Event & Integration Streams: Develop reliable Kafka producers, consumers, and distributed messaging pipelines implementing patterns such as retries, circuit breakers, and dead-letter queues.
• Data Modeling & Optimization: Design scalable relational and NoSQL data structures, author complex queries, and resolve database performance bottlenecks.
• Deploy Cloud-Native Solutions: Build and maintain containerized applications within AWS (Lambda, S3, EC2, API Gateway, SQS/SNS) with Infrastructure as Code and DevSecOps-driven CI/CD pipelines.
• Ensure Operational Observability & Security: Implement distributed tracing, metrics, centralized logging, secrets management, and robust API security standards (OAuth2, JWT).
• Technical Mentorship & Governance: Lead code reviews, troubleshoot complex cross-environment defects, establish development best practices, and guide engineers through implementation trade-offs.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education & Experience: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience, paired with 10+ years of software engineering experience (including 8+ years of dedicated Java development).
• Framework Mastery: 5+ years building enterprise microservices and services with Java, Spring Boot, and the broader Spring ecosystem.
• Technical Leadership: 3+ years serving as a hands-on Senior Technical Lead, Lead Engineer, or Principal Engineer leading delivery while remaining actively engaged in the codebase.
• Distributed Systems & Messaging: Proven expertise with Apache Kafka, event-driven architecture, domain-driven design, and fault-tolerant integration patterns.
• Database & Cloud Skills: Strong relational/NoSQL database performance tuning, complex SQL authoring, and practical development experience with AWS core services.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration platforms such as Docker, Kubernetes, or Red Hat OpenShift.
• Familiarity with enterprise observability tools such as Splunk, Datadog, Grafana, CloudWatch, or OpenTelemetry.
• Exposure to modern frontend engineering, particularly enterprise integration with Angular-based web applications.

Work Arrangement & Travel

• Model: Primarily remote, subject to client policy. In-person attendance may be required at client offices in Washington, DC, Wilmington, DE, or Philadelphia, PA for project-specific milestones.
• PI Planning: In-person attendance for SAFe PI Planning sessions is mandatory. The client provides rail travel vouchers, hotel accommodations, and meal options during PI Planning events.

Required Skills :

Basic Qualification :

Additional Skills :

Background Check : No

Drug Screen : No