Lead Java Backend Engineer - Vice President

Citi; Chennai; On-site; INR 4,200,000 - 6,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Citi in Chennai invites a Lead API & Microservice Integration Engineer to architect the API-first backbone, connecting enterprise systems, data sources, and cloud services with AI automation platforms. You will design robust, secure microservices, drive API governance, and collaborate across teams.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in backend integration, Java Spring, API design, and cloud-native patterns, with strong leadership and compliance know-how for a global bank.

Qualifications

• An overall 10+ years of experience in backend integration and API development.
• Deep hands-on with Java Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and reactive microservices.
• Experience with API governance, contract-first design, and OpenAPI.
• Proficiency in enterprise integration (Kafka/IBM MQ, Camel) and event-driven patterns.
• Security and compliance knowledge (OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, Vault) and regulatory awareness.
• Data persistence: SQL/NoSQL and search exposure (Elasticsearch).
• Cloud-native, OpenShift/Kubernetes, Helm, and CI/CD with DevSecOps.
• Strong leadership, architecture reviews, and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Define and enforce the API-first strategy for the organization and gateway governance.
• Lead design and delivery of production-grade Java Spring Boot microservices with reactive patterns.
• Coordinate integration with enterprise systems and real-time data streaming via Kafka/IBM MQ.
• Expose LLM inference endpoints and RAG pipelines as enterprise-ready Spring Boot services.
• Collaborate with UI to define and version API contracts for Angular front-end.
• Implement security by design across microservices (mTLS, OAuth2/JWT, Vault).
• Build observability with OpenTelemetry, logging, and metrics; lead performance testing.
• Work with DevOps to define Helm/Kubernetes manifests for zero-downtime deployments.

Skills

Java (10+ years)

Spring Boot

Spring Cloud

Spring WebFlux

API Design

OpenAPI/REST

OAuth2/OIDC

JWT

Kafka

IBM MQ

Security & Compliance

OpenTelemetry

Prometheus/Grafana

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Helm

Jenkins

Terraform/Tiller

PostgreSQL

Oracle/Spring Data JPA

NoSQL (MongoDB/Redis)

Elasticsearch

Gatling/k6

Reactive programming

Architectural reviews

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Master's degree preferred

Tools

OpenShift

Kubernetes

Docker

Helm

Jenkins

Tekton

Harness

Kafka

IBM MQ

Spring Boot

Spring Cloud

OAuth2/OIDC

JWT

Vault

OpenTelemetry

Grafana/Prometheus

gRPC/Protobuf

REST/OpenAPI

Job description

Excited to grow your career?

We value our talented employees, and whenever possible strive to help one of our associates grow professionally before recruiting new talent to our open positions. If you think the open position you see is right for you,

Our people make all the difference in our success.

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

As a bank with a brain and a soul, Citi creates economic value that is systemically responsible and in our clients’ best interests. As a financial institution that touches every region of the world and every sector that shapes your daily life, our Enterprise Operations & Technology teams are charged with a mission that rivals any large tech company. Our technology solutions are the foundations of everything we do from keeping the bank safe, managing global resources, and providing the technical tools our workers need to be successful to designing our digital architecture and ensuring our platforms provide a first-class customer experience. We reimagine client and partner experiences to deliver excellence through secure, reliable, and efficient services.

Our commitment to diversity includes a workforce that represents the clients we serve from all walks of life, backgrounds, and origins. We foster an environment where the best people want to work. We value and demand respect for others, promote individuals based on merit, and ensure opportunities for personal development are widely available to all. Ideal candidates are innovators with well-rounded backgrounds who bring their authentic selves to work and complement our culture of delivering results with pride. If you are a problem solver who seeks passion in your work, come join us. We'll enable growth and progress together.

Position Overview

Citi is looking for a Lead API & Microservice Integration Engineer to serve as the Java Spring Boot subject matter expert and integration architect within the AI Automation Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, part of Consumer Operations Technology. In this senior individual contributor role, you will design and deliver the API-first backbone that connects Citi's enterprise systems, data sources, and cloud-native services to our AI automation platforms. Working alongside a Lead AI/GenAI Engineer and Senior UI/Angular Engineer, you will ensure every intelligent solution is powered by robust, secure, and high-performance microservices built to the standards of a global financial institution.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and enforce the API-first strategy for the FDE organization, establishing OpenAPI/Swagger contract-first development practices, API versioning standards, and API gateway governance (routing, rate limiting, authentication) across all environments.
• Lead hands-on design and delivery of production-grade Java Spring Boot microservices - implementing resilient service patterns (Resilience4j circuit breakers, retry, bulkheads) and reactive services via Spring WebFlux for AI pipeline integrations.
• Lead integration efforts with Citi enterprise systems including financial data platforms, identity/auth services (OAuth2/OIDC, SAML), and third-party providers; implement event-driven integration via Apache Kafka or IBM MQ for real-time data streaming to AI pipelines.
• Partner with the Lead AI/GenAI Engineer to expose LLM inference, RAG pipeline, and agentic workflow endpoints as hardened, enterprise-ready Spring Boot services; collaborate with the UI Engineer to define and version all API contracts powering the Angular front-end.
• Implement security-by-design across all microservices: mTLS, OAuth2/JWT authorization, secrets management (Vault), and field-level encryption - ensuring compliance with Citi API governance, OWASP Top 10, SOX, and GDPR requirements.
• Build full observabilities for all services - distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry), structured logging (Splunk/ELK), and metrics/alerting (Prometheus, Grafana) - and lead performance engineering via load testing (Gatling, k6) against defined SLAs.
• Collaborate with DevOps and platform teams to build CI/CD pipelines and define Helm charts/Kubernetes manifests for zero-downtime deployments across OpenShift containerized platforms.

Required Skills & Qualifications

An overall 10+ years of experience in the following areas:

• Core Backend: Expert-level Java (10+) with deep hands-on experience in Spring Boot, Spring Cloud (Gateway, Config, Feign), Spring Security, Spring Data, and Spring WebFlux for reactive microservices.
• API Design: Mastery of Gen AI API development (FastAPI, Flask) and REST (OpenAPI 3.x), gRPC/Protocol Buffers, and GraphQL; proven API governance experience including contract-first design, developer documentation, and API lifecycle management.
• Enterprise Integration: Hands-on with Apache Kafka (Kafka Streams, schema registry) or IBM MQ, Apache Camel/Spring Integration, and enterprise integration patterns (routing, transformation, aggregation).
• Security & Compliance: In-depth knowledge of OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, mTLS, API key lifecycle management, and HashiCorp Vault; understanding of financial regulatory compliance (SOX, GDPR, MiFID II) and its API implications.
• Data & Persistence: Proficiency with relational databases (PostgreSQL, Oracle via Spring Data JPA/Hibernate), NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis), and exposure to vector/search technologies (Elasticsearch) for AI use cases.
• Containerization & Cloud: Strong experience with Docker, OpenShift, Kubernetes including Helm chart authoring, and CI/CD pipelines (Harness, Tekton, Jenkins) with integrated DevSecOps practices.
• Observability: Production experience with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or ELK for monitoring, alerting, and incident response.
• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to set backend integration technical direction, conduct architectural reviews, and collaborate effectively with AI engineers, front-end engineers, enterprise architects, and business stakeholders.

Beneficial Skills & Qualifications

• Experience developing APIs for Generative AI applications using frameworks such as FastAPI or Flask, with familiarity in exposing LLM inference or RAG pipeline endpoints.
• Exposure to advanced architectural patterns including hexagonal architecture, CQRS, and event sourcing in cloud-native environments.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Experience advising or mentoring mid-level engineers and contributing to architectural review processes across cross-functional engineering teams.

Education

• Bachelor's degree/University degree or equivalent experience
• Master's degree preferred

This job description provides a high-level review of the types of work performed. Other job-related duties may be assigned as required.

Job Family Group

Technology

Job Family

Applications Development

Time Type

Full time

Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

Other Relevant Skills

For complementary skills, please see above.

Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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