Java Backend Developer Kafka / Microservices

ROLE/RESPONSIBILITIES: This position will serve as a Senior Java Microservices Developer supporting the Total Rewards portfolio, with primary responsibility for designing, developing, and modernizing enterprise APIs, event-driven services, and cloud-ready microservice solutions that enable strategic initiatives including SMB 1.5, Trial Offers, Offer Modernization, Rewards Platform Modernization, and Zafin integration enhancements. The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on experience with Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, and Apache Kafka, along with experience working in complex enterprise environments.

Java Backend Developer Kafka / Microservices

POSITION LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, 15222

WORK ARRANGEMENT: 5 days onsite

SCHEDULE: M-F 8-5 EST; Monthly (once) weekend support for Production deployment

Pay Rate: $60-75/hr. on W2 ONLY

LENGTH OF ASSIGNMENT: 4 Months Contract to Hire role.

FUNCTION OF THE GROUP/INITIATIVES/PROJECTS: Total Rewards Portfolio and modernization.These initiatives focus on improving customer eligibility processing.

TEAM DYNAMIC: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Application Manager, Senior Developers and Lead Developer.

INDUSTRY BACKGROUND: Prior Client Experience, Banking & Finance experience preferred.

ROLE/RESPONSIBILITIES:

• This position will serve as a Senior Java Microservices Developer supporting the Total Rewards portfolio, with primary responsibility for designing, developing, and modernizing enterprise APIs, event-driven services, and cloud-ready microservice solutions that enable strategic initiatives including SMB 1.5, Trial Offers, Offer Modernization, Rewards Platform Modernization, and Zafin integration enhancements. These initiatives focus on improving customer eligibility processing

Position Summary

• We are seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer to design, develop, and support scalable enterprise applications and event-driven solutions. The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on experience with Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, and Apache Kafka, along with experience working in complex enterprise environments.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, test, and maintain enterprise applications using Java and Spring Boot.
• Build scalable microservices and REST APIs.
• Design and implement Kafka-based event-driven integrations, including producers, consumers, topics, and message processing.
• Develop reliable integrations between upstream and downstream applications.
• Troubleshoot applications, API, Kafka, and data-processing issues across environments.
• Implement appropriate error handling, retry, logging, and exception-management patterns.
• Participate in solution design, code reviews, unit testing, integration testing, and production implementation.
• Work closely with product owners, architects, QA, DevOps, and other engineering teams.
• Support CI/CD processes and application deployments.
• Monitor production applications and assist with incident resolution and root-cause analysis.
• Develop maintainable, reusable code following enterprise engineering and security standards.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to other developers.

Required Technical Skills:

• Strong hands-on experience with Java
• Spring Boot / Spring Framework
• Apache Kafka
• Microservices architecture
• RESTful APIs
• JSON and API integration
• SQL and relational databases
• Git-based source control
• Maven and/or Gradle
• Unit and integration testing, including tools such as JUnit and Mockito
• CI/CD and automated deployment concepts
• Application logging, monitoring, and troubleshooting
• Experience working with Agile/Scrum delivery teams

Preferred Skills:

• Experience developing high-volume, event-driven applications.
• Kafka consumer groups, partitioning, offset management, retries, and error handling.
• Containerization and cloud technologies.
• Kubernetes / OpenShift experience.
• Observability tools such as Dynatrace or Splunk.
• Experience supporting production systems in a large financial-services or similarly regulated enterprise environment.

MUST HAVE SKILLS: 6 to 8 years experience required:

• Java (non-negotiable)
• Spring Boot / Spring Framework (non-negotiable)
• Apache Kafka - Design and implement Apache Kafka-based even-driven integrations (non-negotiable)
• Microservices Architecture (non-negotiable)
• RESTful API s, JSON & API Integration (non-negotiable)
• SQL & Relational Databases
• Git
• Maven / Gradle
• JUnit, Mockito
• CI/CD
• Prior Client Experience, Banking & Finance experience preferred.

FLEX SKILLS:

• Agile / Scrum
• Event-Driven & High-Volume Application Development
• Advanced Apache Kafka (Consumer Groups, Partitioning, Offset Management, Retries, Error Handling)
• Containerization & Cloud Technologies
• Kubernetes / OpenShift
• Observability & Monitoring Tools (Dynatrace, Splunk)
• Production Support in Large Enterprise or Financial Services Environments

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor s degree in computer science/relevant field or equivalent work experience required.
• 6 to 8 years experience required.

PRE-SCREENING QUESTIONNAIRE:

1. What experience you have designing REST API and Microservices.
2. Experience in deploying Kubernates or openshift.
3. Describe a complex production issue you have personally diagnosed and resolved?

INTERVIEW PROCESS:

• 1 round with HM & Senior Developer ~45 min 1 hour

STACK RANKING (ORDER OF PREFERENCE):

1. Must Have Skills
2. Former Client Exp.
3. Location
4. Rate