Backend Software Engineer - Java/Kotlin, AWS & GraphQL

Upwork; Jeeta; Remote; EUR 63,000 - 99,000; Full time

Job summary

Upwork is seeking a backend-focused software engineer to design, build, and operate scalable cloud-native systems. You’ll work primarily with Java or Kotlin, Spring Boot, AWS, MongoDB Atlas, Aurora MySQL, and GraphQL using Netflix DGS.

Responsibilities include delivering backend work focused on compliance, cost savings, observability, and tooling, while designing reliable systems and collaborating across product, data science, and engineering teams.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of backend-focused software development experience.
• Proficiency in Java and/or Kotlin.
• Experience with Spring Boot.
• Proficiency with MongoDB Atlas and Aurora MySQL on AWS.

Responsibilities

• Deliver backend engineering work involving compliance maintenance, cost savings, observability, and tooling.
• Design, build, and maintain scalable, performant software systems.
• Contribute to system architecture and mid-level technical design.
• Validate solutions through data and experimentation where appropriate.
• Write, test, document, deploy, and operate backend services.
• Participate in code reviews and design reviews.
• Collaborate with engineers, product managers, data scientists, designers, and cross-functional partners.
• Clarify requirements with product and engineering partners and translate them into maintainable implementations.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Backend development

English comms

Cloud-native design

Tools

Spring Boot

AWS

MongoDB Atlas

Aurora MySQL

GraphQL

Netflix DGS

Kafka

Job description

We are seeking a backend-focused software engineer to design, build, maintain, and operate scalable cloud-native systems. This role will complete important engineering and product work involving platform maintenance, compliance, cost efficiency, observability, experiment cleanup, and operational tooling. The engineer will work primarily with Java and/or Kotlin, Spring Boot, AWS, MongoDB Atlas, Aurora MySQL, and GraphQL using Netflix DGS.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver backend engineering work involving compliance maintenance, cost savings, observability, experiment cleanup, and operational tooling.
• Design, build, and maintain scalable, performant, and reliable software systems.
• Contribute to system architecture and mid-level technical design.
• Validate solutions through data and experimentation where appropriate.
• Write, test, document, deploy, and operate backend services.
• Participate in code reviews and design reviews.
• Collaborate with software engineers, product managers, data scientists, designers, and other cross-functional partners.
• Clarify requirements with product and engineering partners and translate them into maintainable implementations.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of professional, backend-focused software development experience.
• Proficiency in Java and/or Kotlin.
• Experience with Spring Boot.
• Proficiency with MongoDB Atlas as a modern NoSQL database.
• Proficiency with Aurora MySQL on AWS as a modern relational database.
• Experience building cloud-native distributed systems on AWS.
• Experience building and operating large-scale, high-performance, resilient systems on a major cloud platform.
• Excellent English communication and collaboration skills across teams.
• Enterprise experience strongly preferred.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Event-driven system development using Apache Kafka and/or Amazon SQS.
• AI-assisted coding experience.
• Terraform.
• gRPC and REST API development.

Additional information

Required Tools & Platforms

• Java and/or Kotlin.
• Spring Boot.
• AWS.
• MongoDB Atlas.
• GraphQL and Netflix DGS.

Location, Time & Engagement

• Candidates must be based in LATAM.
• US Central Time coverage is required.
• This is a remote contract engagement at 40 hours per week.
• The anticipated engagement runs through March 31, 2027.
• This is not currently a contract-to-hire opportunity.