Backend Developer – Java, Reactive Spring & AWS

About the Job

We are seeking an experienced Senior Backend Developer to design, develop, and enhance the backend services powering our Dynamic Service Options (DSO) platform . The role involves working across two Java-based reactive backend applications:

• Authoring Backend – Responsible for ingesting machine parts and service data from cloud data warehouses, validating and enriching datasets through a service-option engine, and publishing processed datasets.
• Delivery Backend – Consumes published datasets, applies dataset-level authorization, and exposes secure APIs supporting the Dynamic Service Options user experience.

Both platforms leverage Java 17, Spring Boot WebFlux, Project Reactor, PostgreSQL (R2DBC), AWS Lambda, Amazon SQS, ECS Fargate, OpenAPI, Flyway, OpenTelemetry, and CloudFormation .

The ideal candidate is passionate about building highly scalable, event-driven backend systems, follows reactive programming principles, and owns features end-to-end—from API design through deployment and production observability.

Key Responsibilities

Backend Development

• Design, develop, and maintain reactive REST APIs using Spring Boot WebFlux and Project Reactor (Mono/Flux) .
• Build highly scalable, asynchronous backend services without blocking operations.
• Develop secure and reusable APIs following OpenAPI-first principles.
• Implement standardized API contracts, response models, and error handling.

Event-Driven & Cloud Development

• Build and maintain AWS Lambda functions triggered through:
• Amazon SQS FIFO queues
• Amazon EventBridge schedules
• Implement retry mechanisms, dead-letter queues (DLQs), concurrency controls, and idempotent processing.
• Integrate with AWS services including:
• Lambda
• ECS Fargate
• S3
• Secrets Manager
• DynamoDB
• Aurora PostgreSQL
• CloudWatch
• IAM

Database Development

• Design and optimize PostgreSQL schemas.
• Develop reactive data access using Spring Data R2DBC.
• Build complex SQL queries using jOOQ.
• Utilize PostgreSQL capabilities including:
• JSONB
• ltree hierarchies
• Partitioning
• GIN/GIST indexing
• Author and maintain Flyway database migrations.

Integration Development

• Integrate with enterprise platforms including:
• Snowflake
• ServiceNow
• Internal Product Catalog Services
• Entitlement & Identity Services
• Implement secure JWT authentication and long-running asynchronous workflows.

Performance & Reliability

• Optimize backend performance using:
• Caffeine Cache
• Redis
• Parallel reactive execution
• Query tuning
• Ensure high throughput, scalability, and resilience.

Observability & Monitoring

• Implement distributed tracing using:
• OpenTelemetry
• AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT)
• Create custom metrics, structured logs, dashboards, and production monitoring using:
• CloudWatch
• AWS X-Ray
• Grafana

Testing & Quality

• Develop comprehensive unit and integration tests using:
• JUnit 5
• Mockito
• Reactor StepVerifier
• Maintain high code quality through SonarQube.
• Participate in peer code reviews and mentor engineering team members.

CI/CD & DevOps

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions.
• Build Docker images and manage deployments through CloudFormation.
• Package Lambda artifacts and publish container images to Amazon ECR.

Security

• Implement secure backend services using:
• OAuth2 Resource Server
• Role-based authorization
• Least-privilege IAM policies
• AWS Secrets Manager
• Input validation
• Follow OWASP secure coding best practices.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Programming Languages

• Java 17+
• Modern Java features (Records, Streams, Sealed Classes)

Frameworks

• Spring Boot
• Spring WebFlux
• Spring Security
• Project Reactor
• Spring Data R2DBC

Database Technologies

• PostgreSQL
• Aurora PostgreSQL
• R2DBC
• jOOQ
• Flyway

Cloud & Messaging

• AWS Lambda
• Amazon SQS
• EventBridge
• ECS Fargate
• Amazon S3
• Secrets Manager
• CloudWatch
• IAM
• AWS SDK v2

Infrastructure as Code

• CloudFormation
• AWS SAM / CDK / Terraform (preferred)

API Development

• REST APIs
• OpenAPI 3
• Bean Validation
• API Versioning

DevOps & Tools

• Gradle
• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Git
• GitHub Actions
• SonarQube

Testing

• JUnit 5
• Mockito
• Spring Boot Test
• Reactor Test

Engineering Competencies

• Reactive programming
• Distributed systems
• Event-driven architecture
• Microservices
• Asynchronous processing
• Syst…