Lead Java Engineer - AI Native

EPAM Systems; Chennai District; Hybrid; INR 2,500,000 - 4,000,000; Full time

Job summary

EPAM Systems seeks a Lead Java Engineer – AI Native to design and scale enterprise Java systems while pioneering AI-native engineering practices across the SDLC. You will mentor teams, drive AI adoption at scale, and deliver agentic pipelines connecting enterprise data to LLM-based agents.

You will work 3 days a week from the office, guiding architecture, implementing Spring Boot microservices, and leading code reviews for high-quality AI-enabled software.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of professional Java development with ownership of complex production systems.
• Expertise in Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Data; strong Spring Security; microservices design patterns.
• Understanding of distributed systems, event-driven architecture and DDD plus CQRS/ES.
• Proficiency in cloud-native engineering on AWS, GCP or Azure including IaC and managed services.
• Experience leading technical teams, governance, mentoring and driving AI adoption.
• Daily hands-on in AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor and Claude Code; familiarity with frontier LLMs.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain scalable Java applications using Spring Boot and microservices, owning features end-to-end.
• Build MCP servers exposing Java services to LLM-based agents and integrate with live enterprise data.
• Architect end-to-end agentic SDLC pipelines with AI-driven code and test generation, CI/CD, and deployment validation.
• Integrate agentic pipelines with Jira, Confluence, GitHub, ServiceNow and observability stacks via MCP connectors or APIs.
• Apply AI coding assistants and frontier LLMs across the development lifecycle and evaluate outputs for correctness and security.
• Automate repetitive engineering tasks, measure outcomes, and identify AI-leverage opportunities.
• Contribute to reusable prompt templates, agent patterns and MCP connectors; mentor junior engineers.
• Conduct code and architecture reviews and instill Java best practices and AI-native methods.
• Maintain strong automated test coverage across unit, integration, contract and AI-generated tests and healthy CI/CD.
• Track frontier model releases and agent frameworks; bring updates back to the team promptly.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Spring Cloud

Spring Data

Spring Security

Microservices

Distributed systems

Event-driven architecture

DDD

CQRS/ES

AWS/GCP/Azure

AI coding assistants

Mentoring

Architecture governance

English communication

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Cursor

Claude Code

Claude

GPT-4o

Gemini

LangGraph

CrewAI

AutoGen

Spring AI Agents

MCP connectors

Jira

Confluence

GitHub

ServiceNow

Job description

We are looking for a Lead Java Engineer – AI Native to design and scale enterprise Java systems while pioneering AI-native engineering practices across the SDLC. This role combines deep Java architecture expertise with hands‑on experience building agentic pipelines and MCP server ecosystems that connect enterprise systems to LLM-based agents. The role requires 3 days a week working from the office and involves mentoring engineering teams while driving AI adoption at scale.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain scalable Java applications using Spring Boot and microservices architecture, owning features end-to-end with a high degree of autonomy
• Build and deploy Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that expose Java services, databases or internal tools to LLM-based agents, enabling agents to act on live enterprise data and systems
• Architect end-to-end agentic SDLC pipelines including automated specification drafting, AI-driven code generation, intelligent test creation, CI/CD integration and deployment validation orchestrated by AI agents
• Integrate agentic pipelines with enterprise tools and platforms such as Jira, Confluence, GitHub, ServiceNow and observability stacks via MCP connectors or REST/event-driven APIs
• Apply AI coding assistants and frontier LLMs across the full development lifecycle daily and critically evaluate AI outputs for correctness, security and edge cases before committing
• Bring an AI-first mindset to automate repetitive engineering tasks, measure outcomes rather than activity and identify AI-leverage opportunities within the delivery area
• Contribute to the team's shared library of prompt templates, reusable agent patterns and MCP connectors
• Conduct code and architecture reviews and mentor Junior and Mid-level engineers in Java best practices and AI-native engineering methods
• Maintain strong automated test coverage across unit, integration, contract and AI-generated tests along with healthy CI/CD pipeline practices
• Track frontier developments such as new model releases, emerging agent frameworks and new MCP connectors and bring relevant changes back to the team within weeks

Requirements

• 8–12 years of professional Java development experience with clear ownership of complex production systems
• Expertise in Spring Boot, Spring Cloud and Spring Data along with Spring Security and microservices design patterns
• Understanding of distributed systems, event-driven architecture and domain-driven design (DDD) plus CQRS/ES
• Proficiency in cloud-native engineering on AWS, GCP or Azure including IaC, serverless patterns and managed services
• Background in leading technical teams across architecture governance, coding standards and mentoring
• Daily hands‑on proficiency in AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor and Claude Code and frontier LLMs including Claude, GPT-4o and Gemini, with capability to coach a team of 8‑15 engineers in AI-native practices
• Hands‑on expertise in designing, building and deploying MCP server ecosystems at project or account scale including security controls, versioning and observability
• Capability to architect and operate end‑to‑end agentic SDLC pipelines integrated with enterprise tools via MCP and APIs in production environments
• Skills in evaluating and selecting AI agent orchestration frameworks such as LangGraph, CrewAI and AutoGen or Spring AI Agents for production use with documented rationale and trade‑offs
• Showcase of improving a team's AI maturity supported by adoption metrics or productivity evidence
• Demonstrated learning agility at team scale with evidence of driving meaningful changes to engineering practices in the last 12 months due to evolving frontier models and tools
• English proficiency at Upper‑Intermediate level or above (B2+)

Nice to have

• Experience with RAG pipelines, LLM fine‑tuning or LLM evaluation frameworks such as RAGAS and DeepEval applied to software engineering contexts
• Familiarity with structured agentic SDLC methodologies including specification‑driven AI development and specification hardening or equivalent governed delivery protocols
• Experience with Managed Services or AIOps delivery models such as autonomous monitoring, AI‑assisted incident response and intelligent operations pipelines
• Skills in function calling and tool‑use design across multiple frontier models to build reliable governed tool‑use chains
• Contributions to internal AI maturity assessments, team certification programmes or AI engineering playbooks