Senior Backend Engineer - Java

Real•Newark, CA

1d•$152,000 - $194,000•Remote

About The Position

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will be reporting to the Vice President of Engineering and would be a key member of Real’s R&D team. You will operate in an AI-first environment leveraging tools like Claude Code to translate product ideas into production-ready systems. You will help lead the overall technical vision for all things back-end, implementing features, squashing bugs, and making improvements across our Java Spring Microservices. You would also drive adoption of AI-assisted development practices within the backend engineering team. If you are self-motivated and a tech expert to join a results-oriented team, we encourage you to join us. This role is not just about writing code; it’s about designing scalable systems, validating and owning AI-assisted code, and driving technical excellence across the team.

Requirements

Extensive experience with Java 17+ (migrating toward Java 21), Spring Boot 3.x, JPA/Hibernate 6, and SQL relational databases.
Comfortable writing unit and integration tests and maintaining strong code coverage.
Experience designing event-driven microservices and applying patterns such as Domain-Driven Design (DDD), hexagonal (ports & adapters) architecture, and CQRS.
In-depth knowledge of relational databases, including indices, connection pools, transactions (ACID), and implications of schema designs on performance.
Experience with NoSQL databases, understand their advantages and disadvantages, and know when to prefer one over a relational database.
Opinionated in the direction that backend software development is going and will give recommendations and take the initiative for the long-term health of the project.
Keen eye for where to refactor and when, using standard design principles and patterns, and excited to lead the team on the path to better code.
Welcoming to other engineers, have a collaborative attitude, and excited to both learn and teach new knowledge.
Enjoy working with a remote team that spans many different time zones and locations.
Comfortable in an agile, fast-paced startup environment where you work closely with product to understand how your work will fit into the larger project while acting on limited information.
Hands-on experience with AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex (or similar) in real development workflows.
Familiarity with agentic / CLI-based AI workflows and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations that connect AI tools to internal systems (e.g., GitHub, Datadog, issue tracking, SonarQube).
Experience applying AI to accelerate code review, test generation, and documentation, not just code completion.
Ability to critically evaluate generated code; identify incorrect or suboptimal outputs; refactor AI-generated code for production readiness.
Strong judgment on when to use AI vs manual implementation; trade-offs between speed and correctness; validating and owning AI-assisted code before it ships to production.
BA/BS degree and 8+ years of related experience; or any combination of education and experience, which would provide an equivalent background.
Must have experience in Spring/Spring Boot, Hibernate, and Relational Databases.

Nice To Haves

A real estate background with transferable skills would be an asset.
Demonstrated Project Coordination/Management skills.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with other engineers through pairing sessions, code reviews, and knowledge sharing in our weekly Friday Dev Chats.
Mentor and lead junior engineers in software engineering methodology, design, and best practices.
Work with the product team and feature owners to understand requirements and see them through to execution and deployment.
Help lead the overall technical vision for all things back-end, implementing features, squashing bugs, and making improvements across our Java Spring Microservices.
Drive adoption of AI-assisted development practices within the backend engineering team.
Design scalable systems.
Validate and own AI-assisted code.
Drive technical excellence across the team.