Lead / Principal Java Engineer

Job Description

**Role Overview**

We are seeking a highly experienced Lead / Principal Java Engineer to design and build next-generation distributed systems across backend services, edge computing, and AI/ML platforms.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an engineer who can take complex systems from 0 to 1, make architectural decisions, and write production-quality code. The ideal candidate thrives in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment and enjoys working across multiple technical domains.

**Key Responsibilities**

* Design and build end-to-end distributed systems spanning edge detection, ingestion APIs, processing, storage, and downstream services.

* Develop highly scalable backend services using Java and Spring Boot.

* Design and implement APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and data processing pipelines.

* Architect and develop solutions using AWS and edge/CDN computing technologies.

* Build solutions for data normalization, feature pipelines, and ML model serving/integration.

* Design third-party integrations including identity, authentication, token validation, and secure data exchange.

* Make technical decisions around storage, reliability, observability, security, and governance.

* Work closely with data science, product, and engineering teams to move AI/ML capabilities from experimentation into production.

* Lead technical design discussions and communicate architecture decisions across teams.

* Take ownership of greenfield initiatives from concept through implementation and production.

* Use AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot and LLM-based coding assistants to improve engineering productivity.

* Mentor other engineers and provide technical leadership through hands-on development and design.

* 10+ years of experience building production distributed systems.

* Strong expertise in Java and Spring Boot.

* Extensive experience with REST APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and distributed systems.

* Strong AWS experience across compute, storage, networking, and IAM.

* Hands-on experience with edge computing, CDN execution environments, edge workers**,** ++Lambda@Edge++ **++,++** or similar technologies.

* Experience building data platforms or systems supporting ML inference and model serving.

* Strong understanding of system design, scalability, reliability, observability, and security.

* Proven experience taking systems from 0 to 1 in an environment with evolving requirements.

* Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions across teams.

* Demonstrated experience using AI-assisted development tools and LLM-powered engineering workflows.

**Nice to Have**

* JavaScript / TypeScript experience.

* Python experience for data engineering or scripting.

* Databricks or similar data/AI platforms.

* Experience with ML model registries and feature platforms.

* Knowledge of JWT/JWS, PKI, OAuth 2.0, identity, or token verification.

* Experience with distributed tracing, structured logging, and observability platforms.

* Experience building multi-party integrations or network/platform services.

* Open-source contributions.