Development Engineer

Horizontal Talent; East Bethel (MN); On-site; USD 45,000 - 92,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Retirement plan

Job summary

Horizontal Talent is seeking a senior backend engineer to shape scalable Kotlin-based services powering high-performance digital advertising platforms.

You will design, implement, and maintain distributed systems, collaborate across teams, and mentor engineers while driving reliability and automation across the development lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Hands-on Kotlin backend development experience.
• Experience designing and building distributed microservices.
• Strong debugging, testing, and code-review skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and support scalable backend services using Kotlin and modern microservices architecture.
• Contribute to technical architecture decisions, design reviews, code reviews, testing, and debugging efforts.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and tools through proof-of-concept work with attention to performance, scalability, maintainability, and long-term value.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners to create clear system designs, process flows, and implementation plans.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to engineers while promoting best practices across the development lifecycle.
• Strengthen system reliability, resiliency, and disaster recovery planning.
• Support data quality standards across ingestion, processing, storage, and operational workflows.
• Advocate for automation, continuous improvement, and strong engineering practices.

Skills

Kotlin

Java/J2EE

RESTful API

Spring Boot

Distributed systems

Monorepo

Cassandra

MongoDB

PostgreSQL

Elasticsearch

Kafka

JUnit

Mockito

Logstash

Kibana

Grafana

CI/CD

DevOps

Communication

Mentorship

Tools

Kotlin

Java/J2EE

Spring Boot

Kafka

Cassandra

MongoDB

PostgreSQL

Elasticsearch

Jenkins / CI-CD

Logging/Monitoring

Job description

Step into a senior engineering role where you’ll help shape scalable backend platforms that support high-performance digital advertising solutions. This opportunity is ideal for a hands-on technologist who enjoys solving complex problems, driving technical excellence, and partnering across teams to build resilient systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and support scalable backend services using Kotlin and modern microservices architecture
• Contribute to technical architecture decisions, design reviews, code reviews, testing, and debugging efforts
• Evaluate emerging technologies and tools through proof-of-concept work with attention to performance, scalability, maintainability, and long-term value
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners to create clear system designs, process flows, and implementation plans
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to engineers while promoting best practices across the development lifecycle
• Strengthen system reliability, resiliency, and disaster recovery planning
• Support data quality standards across ingestion, processing, storage, and operational workflows
• Advocate for automation, continuous improvement, and strong engineering practices

Skills

• Strong hands-on production experience developing in Kotlin
• Experience with Java/J2EE and RESTful API development
• Background building and deploying microservices with Spring Boot
• Solid understanding of distributed systems and scalable backend architecture
• Experience working in a monorepo development environment
• Familiarity with databases such as Cassandra, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or Elasticsearch
• Experience with Kafka or similar messaging and event streaming platforms
• Working knowledge of testing frameworks such as JUnit and Mockito
• Experience with observability and monitoring tools such as Logstash, Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Grafana
• Comfort with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and automated deployments
• Strong communication, collaboration, and technical presentation skills

Preferred Skills

• Experience in AdTech environments, including DSPs, SSPs, or ad servers
• Python development experience
• Knowledge of workflow orchestration or data pipeline tools such as Oozie
• Experience designing solutions that align with digital advertising and business goals

Horizontal is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where diverse perspectives are valued, respected, and empowered to contribute. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply and be part of a collaborative environment built on equity, belonging, and opportunity.

By applying for this position, you acknowledge and agree that Horizontal Talent may contact you regarding your application using automated technology, including phone calls, SMS/text messages, or email, which may be delivered by our virtual AI recruiter, Alex.

Applications will be accepted for 4 weeks. For those that join the team, we offer competitive compensation and benefits including medical, dental, vision, and retirement. The pay range for this role is $33 - $67 per hour based on qualifications and experience.