IT Software Engineer / Lead Software Engineer

Role :IT Software Engineer / Lead Software Engineer

Job Location: Chicago, IL

Work Model: As specified by client

Estimated Duration: 10 months

Must-Have Skills

API, AWS, Azure, Elasticsearch, Java, JUnit, MySQL, Spring Boot, SQL, REST APIs, Microservices, Apigee, Event-Driven Architecture, CI/CD.

Required Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong experience designing, developing, testing, and deploying enterprise-scale software applications and digital platforms.

Required Skills & Experience

• Java & Spring Boot: Extensive hands-on experience with Java 17+ / Java 21+ and Spring Boot for RESTful API and microservices development.
• API Development & Management: Strong experience designing API-first solutions, REST APIs, service contracts, payload schemas, OpenAPI/Swagger specifications, and API gateways. Experience with Apigee or similar API management platforms is required.
• Cloud: Strong experience deploying and maintaining applications in public cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, or GCP . AWS experience is strongly preferred.
• Automated Testing: Experience developing comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end automated tests using JUnit, Mockito , and similar frameworks.
• Event-Driven Architecture: Experience designing and implementing event-driven architectures using technologies such as AWS Kinesis, SQS, SNS, Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Azure Event Hub .
• Databases: Strong understanding of multiple database technologies, including:
• Relational: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, AWS RDS/Aurora
• NoSQL: MongoDB, Cassandra, AWS DynamoDB
• Search: Elasticsearch
• Caching: Redis
• Vector Databases
• CI/CD: Hands-on experience building and deploying applications through CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GoCD , or similar tools.
• Security: Strong knowledge of secure service-to-service integrations using OAuth 2.0, JWT , and entitlement-based authorization models.
• Agile/Scrum: Experience working successfully in an Agile/Scrum development environment.
• Technical Leadership: Strong decision-making, critical-thinking, problem-solving, architecture, design, and technical leadership skills.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, testing, and deployment of enterprise-scale REST APIs and microservices using Java 21+, Spring Boot, Apigee API Gateway, and AWS cloud services .
• Design and implement scalable, secure, highly available, and maintainable digital platform solutions.
• Architect API-first solutions and define service contracts, payload schemas, and OpenAPI/Swagger specifications.
• Decompose complex business requirements into technical designs, user stories, development tasks, and implementation plans.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to engineers throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Design and implement secure service-to-service integrations using OAuth 2.0, JWT , and enterprise entitlement-based authorization models.
• Serve as the technical lead for complex initiatives, driving architecture decisions, design reviews, code reviews, and technical standards.
• Collaborate with product owners, UI development teams, architects, and partner teams to deliver high-quality, customer-focused solutions.
• Establish and promote engineering best practices related to reliability, scalability, observability, security, performance, and maintainability .
• Drive quality engineering practices, including automated testing, performance testing, load testing, and production-readiness reviews.
• Lead troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and resolution of complex production issues.
• Create and maintain technical documentation, operational runbooks, architecture documentation, and engineering standards.
• Take end-to-end ownership of software solutions from design and development through deployment, monitoring, production support, and continuous improvement.
• Mentor and provide technical direction to development teams and promote best practices across engineering initiatives.

Preferred / Nice-to-Have Skills

• Experience with AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot or Cursor .
• Experience with additional AWS services and cloud-native application development.
• Experience with modern observability, monitoring, and performance optimization tools.