Associate Director Staff Engineer (GraphQL, Java, Kotlin, Nodejs)

Key Responsibilities (Top 5)

• Architecture Design & Domain-Aligned Solutions

• Define and evolve scalable, resilient architectures for communication platforms supporting customer engagement (voice, messaging, digital channels)

• Design solutions aligned to industry-specific requirements:

• Financial Services: security, compliance, auditability

• Communications: real-time processing, high availability

• MarTech: personalization, event-driven engagement

• Ensure alignment with enterprise target-state architecture and platform strategy

• Hands-on Engineering (≈50%)

• Design and implement backend services, APIs, and integration layers

• Build and deploy applications using containerized environments and Kubernetes orchestration

• Develop production-grade code, prototypes, and reference implementations

• API, Data & Integration Architecture

• Architect API-first ecosystems, including GraphQL and RESTful services

• Design event-driven and streaming architectures to support real-time communication and marketing workflows

• Integrate with enterprise platforms such as:

• CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce)

• Contact center / CPaaS platforms

• Marketing automation and customer data platforms

• Cross-functional Leadership & Influence

• Collaborate with engineering, product, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure solution alignment and execution

• Act as a thought partner, introducing innovative approaches and improving system design quality

• Influence decisions across teams without formal authority

• Standards, Governance & Continuous Improvement

• Establish and enforce architecture standards, reusable patterns, and engineering guardrails

• Drive simplification, scalability, and reduction of technical debt

• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend pragmatic adoption aligned to business value

Technical Skills Required Skills & Experience

• Strong expertise in backend architecture and distributed systems design

• Hands-on experience with:

• Kubernetes and containerization (Docker, orchestration patterns)

• GraphQL and modern API architectures (REST, event-driven systems)

• Microservices and cloud-native platforms

• Observability: Distributed tracing (X-Ray/OpenTelemetry), structured logging, metrics/alerting pipelines.

• Messaging & Orchestration: SQS/EventBridge or equivalents (Pub/Sub, Service Bus); DLQs; workflow engines.

• CI/CD: Automated pipelines with tools including Github Actions, Jenkins or equivalent experience

• Experience building or supporting real-time or high-throughput systems

• Proficiency in backend technologies (e.g., Java, Kotlin, Node.js, Go, or similar)

• Bachelor's Degree in Information systems, Computer Science or a related field.

Domain Experience (Preferred) Candidates should have experience in one or more of the following:

• Financial Services

• Secure, compliant systems (PII, PCI, regulatory constraints)

• Transactional platforms (payments, lending, servicing)

• Communications / MarTech / Contact Center

• Low-latency, high-availability distributed systems

• Personalization engines, campaign orchestration

• Voice, messaging, IVR, or omnichannel engagement platforms

Architecture & Engineering Capabilities

• Ability to operate across strategic architecture and hands-on implementation

• Strong grounding in:

• scalability, resiliency, and performance engineering

• API lifecycle and governance

• system integration and orchestration patterns

• Experience aligning solutions to enterprise target-state architecture

Personal Attributes

• Self-starter: Proactively drives outcomes with minimal oversight
• Thought provocateur: Challenges existing paradigms and elevates architectural thinking
• Collaborative: Builds alignment across engineering, product, and architecture teams
• Pragmatic: Balances long-term vision with near-term delivery needs
• Influential communicator: Clearly conveys complex technical concepts to varied stakeholders