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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Full Stack Java Developer

💰 $100,000 - $140,000

TechnologyFull‑StackJava

🎯 Role Definition

As a Full Stack Java Developer, you will design, implement, and support full‑lifecycle software applications—from user‑friendly front‑end interfaces to robust backend services. You will work with Java frameworks, microservices, RESTful APIs, modern JavaScript frameworks and cloud/DevOps environments. You will partner with product owners, UX designers, QA engineers and operations teams to deliver high‑quality, scalable, maintainable solutions that meet business and technical objectives.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Software Engineer (Java or Web)
  • Front End Developer or Backend Java Developer moving into full‑stack
  • Junior Full Stack Developer

Advancement To:

  • Senior Full Stack Developer
  • Lead Full Stack Engineer or Tech Lead – Java Full Stack
  • Architect (Microservices / Cloud Native) or Engineering Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Platform Engineer (Java)
  • DevOps/Cloud Engineer with Java full‑stack focus
  • UI‑UX Engineer with hybrid full‑stack responsibilities

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  1. Architect, design and implement scalable backend services, microservices and REST‑APIs using Java, Spring Boot, Hibernate/JPA and related technologies.
  2. Develop rich, responsive front‑end interfaces using modern JavaScript frameworks such as React or Angular, along with HTML5, CSS3 and TypeScript.
  3. Integrate frontend and backend systems seamlessly, ensuring smooth data flow, performant APIs and clean user experiences across web and mobile devices.
  4. Participate in all phases of the software development life cycle (SDLC)—from requirements gathering and analysis, design, development, testing to deployment and production support.
  5. Write clean, efficient, reusable and testable code, with strong emphasis on unit testing, integration testing, code reviews and continuous integration practices.
  6. Own the architecture and design of data models (relational and NoSQL), ensure optimal data access and high performance of database operations.
  7. Collaborate with DevOps/Cloud teams to deploy applications using containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP).
  8. Monitor, troubleshoot and resolve production issues across the full stack—backend, frontend, database, infrastructure—and propose architectural improvements to eliminate root‑causes.
  9. Conduct performance profiling, debugging and optimization of applications, identifying bottlenecks in code, queries, UI and services.
  10. Enforce and contribute to best practices: coding standards, design patterns (SOLID, GoF), clean architecture, modularization, code maintainability, and documentation.
  11. Mentor and coach junior developers, participate in peer code reviews, knowledge‑sharing sessions and foster a culture of continuous learning.
  12. Work closely with product owners, UX/UI designers, QA and business stakeholders in agile teams to translate requirements into technical tasks and deliver features on time.
  13. Design and maintain frontend component libraries, reusable UI patterns, and ensure responsive, cross‑browser and mobile‑compatible interfaces.
  14. Drive technology upgrade initiatives: migrate legacy systems, adopt new frameworks, cloud services, microservices architecture and ensure the stack remains modern and maintainable.
  15. Ensure application security and data protection best practices are embedded — handle input validation, authentication/authorization, secure data storage and transmission.
  16. Define and implement APIs for third‑party integrations, external services, internal modules, and maintain API documentation and versioning.
  17. Contribute to sprint planning, agile ceremonies and backlog refinement, provide development estimates, identify technical risks and align delivery plans with business objectives.
  18. Participate in architecture discussions, propose scalable solutions for distributed systems, high availability, resilience and fault‑tolerance.
  19. Maintain documentation of design decisions, system architecture, API specifications, release notes and ensure knowledge transfer across the team.
  20. Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends (Java versions, front‑end frameworks, cloud, DevOps) and lead evaluation of new tools to enhance productivity and quality.
  21. Estimate and manage development effort, ensure tasks meet acceptance criteria, drive deployments into production and monitor live systems.
  22. Optimize code deployment workflows, support CI/CD, maintain version control (Git, Bitbucket), branching strategies and release processes.

Secondary Functions

  • Contribute to ad‑hoc data requests, exploratory performance analysis, application usage metrics and support improvements in instrumentation across the stack.
  • Assist in the organisation’s technology roadmap, help define full‑stack Java strategy, infrastructure standards and tooling evaluation.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate technical back‑end and front‑end requirements into engineering deliverables.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the software engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Java programming proficiency (Java 8+, 11+, or later) with deep understanding of object‑oriented programming, functional programming and Java internals.
  • Experience with Spring Framework (Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring MVC) or similar Java full‑stack frameworks.
  • Proficiency in building and consuming RESTful APIs, designing microservices architectures, service‑oriented systems.
  • Front‑end web technologies: JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML5, CSS3, frameworks such as Angular or React, responsive design.
  • Strong knowledge of relational (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle) and/or NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra) and data modelling.
  • Familiarity with version control systems (Git, Bitbucket), build tools (Maven, Gradle) and DevOps/CI‑CD pipelines.
  • Experience with containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and associated services.
  • Performance tuning, troubleshooting, debugging full‑stack application issues, optimizing front‑end and back‑end code for scalability and reliability.
  • Knowledge of design patterns (GoF, SOLID principles), clean architecture, modularization and test‑driven development (TDD).
  • Experience with front‑end/back‑end integration, APIs, distributed systems, message streaming or event‑driven patterns (Kafka, RabbitMQ) is a plus.

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical thinking and problem‑solving mindset to tackle complex technical challenges.
  • Excellent communication skills: able to present technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders and collaborate cross‑functionally.
  • Effective team collaboration: working in agile teams, mentoring others, knowledge sharing and promoting best practices.
  • Adaptability and continuous learning attitude to stay up‑to‑date with evolving Java, web and cloud ecosystems.
  • Time‑management and organisational skills: ability to prioritise tasks, estimate effort and meet deadlines.
  • Ownership and accountability: end‑to‑end responsibility for features, code quality, production readiness and operational stability.
  • Attention to detail: ensure code maintainability, readability, testability and adherence to standards.
  • Coaching and mentoring mindset: support junior team members, guide technical growth and contribute to team culture.
  • Strategic thinking: understand business context, align technical decisions with business goals, and recommend improvements.
  • Resilience and proactiveness: able to troubleshoot live issues, propose enhancements and drive improvements under pressure.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or Information Systems, or equivalent experience in a full‑stack Java role.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Web Development / Information Systems
  • Cloud Computing / Distributed Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–6 years of full‑stack Java development (for mid‑level roles) or 5+ years for senior roles.

Preferred:

  • 6–12 years of professional experience building enterprise‑grade full‑stack applications with Java backend and modern front‑end frameworks, with proven track record of ownership and delivery.
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