Lead Software Engineer (Java / AWS)

The AES Group•Chicago, IL

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to provide technical leadership in designing and developing cloud-native backend applications using Java, Spring Boot, and AWS. This is a hands-on engineering role responsible for architecting scalable distributed systems, leading technical decisions, mentoring engineers, and driving best practices across cloud-native application development.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience.
Strong experience building enterprise-scale backend applications.
AWS Cloud Architecture
Java (Advanced) and/or Kotlin
Spring Boot
Microservices Architecture
REST API Development
OpenAPI / Swagger
SQL & Relational Databases
NoSQL Databases (DynamoDB, MongoDB, Cassandra)
Kafka or Event-Driven Messaging
CI/CD Pipelines
Build & Deployment Automation
Distributed Systems
Cloud-Native Development
Observability (Logging, Metrics, Tracing)
Production Support & Performance Tuning

Nice To Haves

3+ years of technical leadership or team lead experience preferred.
Designing highly available distributed systems.
Infrastructure as Code.
Event-driven architecture.
Cloud-native application modernization.
Technical architecture and solution design.
Agile/Scrum development environment.

Responsibilities

Lead the design and development of Java-based cloud-native applications on AWS.
Build scalable microservices using Spring Boot.
Design and implement RESTful APIs and event-driven services.
Architect highly available, fault-tolerant distributed systems.
Develop asynchronous messaging solutions using Kafka or similar technologies.
Design cloud infrastructure leveraging AWS managed services.
Implement Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD best practices.
Lead technical design discussions, architecture reviews, and code reviews.
Improve system observability through logging, metrics, monitoring, and distributed tracing.
Troubleshoot production issues and optimize application performance.
Collaborate with Product Owners, Architects, and cross-functional engineering teams.
Mentor engineers and establish engineering standards and best practices.