Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Java Software Engineer

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking a Java Software Engineer who will design, build, and maintain robust, secure, and scalable backend services. The ideal candidate is proficient in modern Java (Java 8+ / 11+), Spring ecosystem (Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Data), microservices architecture, and cloud-native development (AWS/GCP/Azure). This role demands strong software engineering fundamentals, hands-on experience with RESTful APIs, asynchronous messaging, relational and NoSQL databases, CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes). The Java Software Engineer will collaborate with product managers, QA, DevOps, and other engineering teams to deliver high-quality software, drive architecture decisions, and mentor junior engineers.

Keywords: Java Software Engineer, Java Developer, Spring Boot, microservices, REST API, cloud-native, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD, observability

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Junior Java Developer or Software Engineer I
Backend Developer with experience in Java or JVM languages
Computer Science graduate or Bootcamp graduate with backend internship experience

Advancement To:

Senior Java Software Engineer
Tech Lead / Team Lead
Software Architect or Principal Engineer
Engineering Manager (for those with leadership aspirations)

Lateral Moves:

Full-Stack Engineer (adding frontend skills)
DevOps / SRE Engineer (focus on automation and reliability)
Platform Engineer (internal tools and infrastructure)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Design, implement, and maintain high-performance, production-grade backend services in Java using modern frameworks such as Spring Boot, ensuring code is modular, testable, and maintainable.
Architect and develop RESTful APIs and/or gRPC endpoints that provide reliable, well-documented contracts for internal and external consumers, ensuring backward compatibility and versioning strategies.
Lead the development of microservices-based systems: design service boundaries, data flow, fault tolerance, service discovery, and inter-service communication patterns (synchronous and asynchronous).
Build and integrate event-driven architectures using message brokers (Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ) for scalable, decoupled processing of business events and asynchronous workflows.
Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to translate business requirements into clear technical tasks, acceptance criteria, and implementation plans.
Implement robust data models and persistence layers using relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL stores (MongoDB, Cassandra), ensuring data integrity, indexing, and query performance.
Write comprehensive unit, integration, and contract tests (JUnit, Mockito, Testcontainers) to maintain high code quality and prevent regressions; contribute to a strong test automation culture.
Optimize application performance and scalability: profile CPU/memory usage, diagnose bottlenecks, tune JVM settings, and implement caching strategies (Redis, in-memory caches) where appropriate.
Implement secure coding practices: enforce authentication and authorization (OAuth2, JWT), input validation, encryption of sensitive data at rest and in transit, and compliance with security standards.
Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) for continuous build, test, and deployment to development, staging, and production environments.
Containerize applications using Docker and manage deployments in Kubernetes/OpenShift, including configuration, Helm charts, secrets management, and rollout/rollback strategies.
Troubleshoot production incidents, perform root cause analysis, create postmortems, and implement long-term fixes and resilience improvements.
Collaborate with QA and SRE teams to define and enforce quality gates, SLOs/SLAs, monitoring, alerting, and incident response playbooks.
Conduct and participate in code reviews, mentoring junior engineers, and promoting best practices in clean code, design patterns (Factory, Strategy, Repository), and SOLID principles.
Lead or contribute to architectural discussions and design documents, evaluating trade-offs in reliability, cost, complexity, and deliverability for long-term product health.
Integrate third-party services and APIs, validate contracts, handle retries and circuit breakers (Resilience4j, Hystrix-style patterns), and ensure graceful degradation.
Maintain and improve observability: implement structured logging, distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger), and metrics collection (Prometheus, Grafana) to provide actionable telemetry.
Drive technical debt reduction projects by refactoring legacy code, improving test coverage, rationalizing libraries, and modernizing build and dependency management (Maven/Gradle).
Estimate development tasks, participate in sprint planning and backlog grooming, and deliver reliable commitments while balancing speed with operational stability.
Prepare and maintain technical documentation for APIs, services, runbooks, and developer onboarding materials to accelerate team productivity and knowledge transfer.
Participate in cross-functional feature delivery, pairing with frontend, mobile, and QA teams to ensure end-to-end user stories are fully delivery-ready.
Implement feature flags and staged rollouts to reduce release risk and support iterative experimentation and A/B testing.
Ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory requirements, including data protection (GDPR, CCPA) and industry-specific standards where applicable.
Evaluate and onboard new tooling and libraries to improve developer experience, security posture, and operational efficiency; run pilot projects and proof-of-concepts.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Java (Java 8, 11, or later): in-depth knowledge of language features, concurrency, collections, streams, and memory management.
Spring Ecosystem: Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Data, and experience configuring Spring Security.
Microservices architecture: service design, API gateways, service discovery, and inter-service communication patterns.
REST API design and best practices, including HATEOAS, pagination, filtering, and OpenAPI/Swagger documentation.
Message-driven systems using Kafka or RabbitMQ, including topic design, consumer groups, partitioning, and exactly-once/at-least-once semantics.
Relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and SQL optimization; experience with ORMs like Hibernate/JPA.
NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB) for designing appropriate data access patterns.
Containerization and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes (deployments, services, ingress, configMaps, secrets).
Cloud platforms: AWS (EC2, ECS/EKS, RDS, S3, IAM), GCP, or Azure; experience with cloud-native design patterns and cost considerations.
CI/CD and automation tools: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Spinnaker, Terraform/CloudFormation for infrastructure as code.
Build tools and dependency management: Maven, Gradle.
Testing frameworks: JUnit 5, Mockito, AssertJ, and end-to-end testing strategies.
Observability tools: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), OpenTelemetry, Jaeger.
Security controls: OAuth2/OpenID Connect, JWT, input sanitation, role-based access control, and secure storage of secrets.
Performance profiling and tuning: JFR, YourKit, VisualVM, and JVM tuning knowledge.
Version control: Git workflows (feature branches, pull requests, rebasing, code review practices).
Knowledge of design patterns, domain-driven design (DDD) concepts, and event-driven design.
Familiarity with serverless architectures and managed cloud services where relevant.

Soft Skills

Strong verbal and written communication: articulate design choices, document systems, and present technical work to stakeholders.
Collaboration and teamwork: work effectively with cross-functional teams including product, QA, UX, and operations.
Problem-solving mindset: break down complex problems, propose multiple solutions, and weigh trade-offs logically.
Ownership and accountability: take responsibility for features from design through production and support.
Mentorship and coaching: guide junior engineers, review code constructively, and foster an inclusive learning culture.
Time management and prioritization: balance multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and escalate blockers when needed.
Adaptability and continuous learning: keep up with evolving Java ecosystem and cloud-native patterns.
Customer focus: understand user impact and prioritize reliability, performance, and user experience.
Attention to detail: ensure correct implementation, robust error handling, and comprehensive testing.
Negotiation and stakeholder management: align on timelines and scope while maintaining technical integrity.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
Professional certifications such as Oracle Certified Professional: Java SE, AWS Certified Developer, or similar are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Software Engineering
Information Systems
Electrical Engineering (with relevant software experience)
Applied Mathematics or related quantitative disciplines

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2 - 8 years of professional software development experience, with at least 2 years focused on Java backend development.

Preferred: 5+ years of hands-on Java development in production systems, demonstrable experience building microservices, deploying to cloud environments (AWS/GCP/Azure), and owning services end-to-end from design to production support.