Java Technical Development Lead

CGI•Chicago, IL

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are looking for a seasoned Technical Development Lead to anchor a client-facing engagement with a major retail pharmacy client in Chicago. This is a hands-on technical leadership role responsible for driving the design, build, and delivery of full-stack solutions across the client's platform — spanning Azure cloud-hosted services, in-store server components, and end-user web frontends. You will lead an offshore pod of developers and QA engineers against a feature backlog and serve as the day-to-day technical face of the engagement to the client's Business, Product, IT, QE, and Architecture stakeholders. The engagement scope is broad: development is not limited to Azure cloud backends. Depending on the feature, the team will build Java/Spring Boot services running in the Azure cloud or on store server infrastructure, TypeScript/Angular frontend components, and integrations against either Oracle or Azure SQL Server. The client's emerging private cloud may also factor into target deployment topologies, and Azure DevOps is used as the standard CI/CD and work-management platform across all of these surfaces. At CGI, you'll join a global technology and consulting leader where your expertise directly impacts mission-critical retail pharmacy platforms, with the stability and scale of an established firm combined with the entrepreneurial ownership mindset CGI is known for. This is a hybrid role which requires someone local to Chicago, willing to be on-site up to 4 days per week.

Requirements

Minimum 10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a technical lead capacity leading distributed/offshore development pods.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
Proven track record delivering Java/Spring Boot services and Angular/TypeScript frontends to production on Azure.
Demonstrated experience with Spring Integration framework (Java DSL), REST integrations, Oracle and/or Azure SQL, and Azure DevOps pipelines.
Exemplary written and verbal communication skills suitable for a client-facing role.
Technical depth in core Java — solid working knowledge of Java 11, including modern language features, concurrency, collections, streams, and JVM fundamentals.
Technical depth in Spring Boot — production experience designing and building microservices and integration applications using Spring Boot.
Technical depth in Spring Integration framework (Java DSL) — hands-on experience with the Spring Integration project configured via its Java DSL: building EIP-based flows using channels, gateways, transformers, routers, splitters/aggregators, and error-handling channels. (This is the Spring Integration project specifically, not generic Spring integration work.)
Some knowledge of Angular & TypeScript — building and maintaining production Angular applications: components, services, RxJS, routing, forms, and integration with backend REST APIs.
Synchronous integration via REST — designing and consuming REST APIs (JSON), including authentication, error handling, retries, and contract design.
Oracle DB — working with Oracle from Java/Spring, including stored procedures, PL/SQL interaction, and performance considerations.
Azure SQL Server — schema design, query tuning, and integration from Java applications. (Features will use either Oracle or Azure SQL depending on the system of record.)
In-memory caching — practical use of in-memory caches (e.g., Caffeine, Redis, or equivalent) including cache strategy, eviction, and consistency considerations
Azure DevOps — day-to-day use of Azure DevOps for source control, CI/CD pipelines, and work-item management. Used across all surfaces of the engagement.
Exemplary verbal and written communication
Proven leadership of distributed teams — able to present designs, defend decisions, and summarize status to senior client stakeholders; demonstrated track record leading offshore developers and testers across time zones.

Nice To Haves

Synchronous integration via SOAP — building and consuming SOAP services, working with WSDLs, XML schemas, and SOAP fault handling.
Asynchronous messaging via Azure Service Bus — producing and consuming messages via queues/topics, with patterns for idempotency, dead-lettering, and retry.
Azure Cosmos DB — modeling, querying, and integrating Cosmos DB into Spring-based applications.
Flyway for database version management — migration design, environment promotion, and rollback strategies.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) — containerizing Spring Boot applications and deploying/operating workloads on AKS.
Prior experience in regulated domains is strongly preferred - retail pharmacy, healthcare, banking, financial, etc.
Prior client-facing engagement experience and familiarity with onsite consulting delivery models.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end design, development, and delivery of full-stack components — Java/Spring Boot services (cloud and store server) and TypeScript/Angular frontends — for a feature backlog defined with the client.
Own technical decisions for the pod — review designs, set coding standards, conduct code reviews, and ensure non-functional requirements (performance, resilience, security, observability) are met across backend and frontend.
Translate features from the client backlog into clear technical work items; estimate, sequence, and assign work across the offshore pod of developers and testers.
Serve as the primary technical point of contact for the client's Business, Product, and IT leadership; partner with the client's Technical Architects to align solutions with the broader enterprise architecture across cloud, store server, and private cloud target states.
Remain hands-on — write production-grade code for complex or high-risk components and unblock the team on technical issues across Java/Spring Boot and Angular/ TypeScript.
Work closely with Quality Engineering to define test strategy, coverage expectations, and entry/exit criteria for releases.
Lead the offshore pod of developers and testers — set direction, mentor team members, and grow technical depth across the pod on both backend and frontend stacks.
Establish and enforce engineering practices: branching strategy, pull-request reviews, automated testing, CI/CD discipline in Azure DevOps, and release hygiene.
Drive build/deploy quality so that all delivered code is releasable to target environments — Azure cloud, store servers, and where applicable the new private cloud — with minimal rework.
Run or co-run agile ceremonies (backlog refinement, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives) in coordination with the client's delivery cadence; communicate progress, risks, dependencies, and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences

Benefits

Competitive compensation including profit participation program
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits
Basic life and accidental death & dismemberment insurance
Matching contributions through 401(k) plan, and CGI share purchase plan
Flexibility and paid accrued vacation leave, ranging from 10 to 20 days per year, based on job level, years of relevant prior experience, and years of service
10 paid holidays per year
At least 80 consecutive hours of paid sick/safe leave (except where applicable state/local law requires more)
Paid parental leave, ranging from 20 to 70 consecutive business days based on circumstances of leave and applicable laws
Bereavement leave, ranging from 1 to 7 days per year based on relationship.
Paid jury duty leave, up to time summoned
Learning opportunities and tuition assistance
Wellness and Well-being programs