Engineering Lead - (Java & API Automation)

Talent; City of Brisbane; On-site; AUD 185,000 - 203,000; Full time

Job summary

Talent is seeking an Engineering Lead to guide a nine-person team in building an AI-enabled automated patching and remediation platform for a large enterprise of 250+ Java/Spring Boot API services.

You will drive AI-first practices, oversee automation, testing, and CI/CD, and mentor engineers across architecture, SRE, testing and delivery. This contract role spans six months with high extension potential.

Qualifications

• Strong Engineering Lead/Technical Lead experience in complex enterprise environments.
• Deep hands-on Java and Spring Boot expertise.
• Strong microservices, REST API and integration experience.
• Experience with Kubernetes and cloud-based microservice environments.
• Practical experience using AI coding assistants throughout the software engineering lifecycle.
• Strong understanding of automated testing, CI/CD, DevOps and observability.
• Experience with event streaming and real-time integration.
• Strong technical design capability and experience establishing engineering standards.
• Experience with Renovate, automated dependency management or vulnerability remediation would be highly regarded.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to lead onshore and offshore engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of nine engineers delivering an automated API patching factory.
• Drive AI-first engineering practices across development, testing, code review and documentation.
• Scale automated patching and remediation across 250+ microservice APIs.
• Build reusable regression testing and automated quality frameworks.
• Automate Spring Boot dependency and security patching using Renovate.
• Lead remaining Spring Boot 3 to Spring Boot 4 migrations.
• Establish engineering standards across development, testing, security and CI/CD.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership across Java, Spring Boot, APIs, AI and automation.
• Mentor engineers and collaborate with architecture, SRE, testing and delivery teams.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Microservices

REST APIs

Kubernetes

AI coding assistants

CI/CD

DevOps

Observability

Automation

Event streaming

Real-time integration

Renovate

Tools

Kubernetes

Renovate

CI/CD tooling

Job description

An exciting opportunity is available for an experienced Engineering Lead to lead a team of nine engineers delivering an AI-enabled automated patching and remediation capability across a large enterprise microservices environment.

You’ll lead the initial pilot before scaling the solution across 250+ Java/Spring Boot APIs, combining hands-on engineering leadership with AI-assisted development, automated testing, vulnerability remediation and modern DevOps practices.

This is an excellent opportunity for a technically strong Engineering Lead who wants to work at the intersection of AI, Java/Spring Boot, API engineering and automation.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead a team of nine engineers delivering an automated API patching factory.
• Drive AI-first engineering practices across development, testing, code review and documentation.
• Scale automated patching and remediation across 250+ microservice APIs.
• Build reusable regression testing and automated quality frameworks.
• Automate Spring Boot dependency and security patching using Renovate.
• Lead remaining Spring Boot 3 to Spring Boot 4 migrations.
• Establish engineering standards across development, testing, security and CI/CD.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership across Java, Spring Boot, APIs, AI and automation.
• Mentor engineers and work closely with architecture, SRE, testing and delivery teams.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong Engineering Lead / Technical Lead experience in complex enterprise environments.
• Deep hands-on Java and Spring Boot expertise.
• Strong microservices, REST API and integration experience.
• Experience with Kubernetes and cloud-based microservice environments.
• Practical experience using AI coding assistants throughout the software engineering lifecycle.
• Strong understanding of automated testing, CI/CD, DevOps and observability.
• Experience with event streaming and real-time integration.
• Strong technical design capability and experience establishing engineering standards.
• Experience with Renovate, automated dependency management or vulnerability remediation would be highly regarded.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to lead both onshore and offshore engineering teams.
• Contract: 6 months
• Rate: $1000 – $1100 per day including super – (strong possibility for contract extension)
• Environment: Large-scale enterprise integration and microservices environment
• Scope: Lead a team of nine engineers across an estate of 250+ APIs
• Lead a highly visible AI-first engineering and automation initiative.
• Take technical ownership of a large-scale 250+ API ecosystem.
• Work hands-on with Java, Spring Boot, AI-assisted engineering and automation.
• Lead and mentor an experienced engineering team.
• Drive modern engineering standards across testing, security, CI/CD and API development.
• Work on a program with tangible outcomes across security remediation, automation, and software quality.

Why Apply?

This is an opportunity to take ownership of a technically challenging initiative focused on automating the security, maintenance and quality of a large enterprise API environment.

If you’re a hands-on Engineering Lead with strong Java/Spring Boot foundations who is genuinely using AI and automation to improve software engineering at scale,