Java Developer - Tools and Productivity Engineer

Selby Jennings; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading US recruitment firm is seeking a Distinguished Engineer for a Java Developer role in California. This director-level position involves designing developer tools and frameworks, mentoring senior engineers, and leading technical strategies for developer experience. Candidates should have over 10 years of experience in software engineering, with expert knowledge in Java and AWS services, and be able to influence technical direction. This position is onsite, working five days a week in Palo Alto.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, delivering complex systems at scale.
• Expert-level Java development skills, including JVM internals and performance tuning.
• Strong AWS experience, including EC2, S3, Lambda, and IAM.
• Strong AWS experience (EC2, S3, Lambda, ECS/EKS, IAM).
• Hands-on CI/CD experience (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CodePipeline) and build tools (Maven, Gradle).
• Scripting skills (Python, Bash); distributed systems and containerization.
• Ability to influence technical direction without formal authority.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop high-performance developer tools and frameworks.
• Lead technical strategy for developer experience initiatives.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to streamline development processes.
• Architect cloud-native solutions leveraging AWS for CI/CD, build orchestration, and dev environments.
• Champion best practices in software engineering including quality, performance, and secure development.
• Mentor senior engineers and stakeholders through technical leadership.

Skills

Java development

AWS services

CI/CD systems

Distributed systems

Problem-solving

Docker Kubernetes

Python Bash

Leadership

Distributed systems

Problem solving

Tools

Jenkins

Docker

Kubernetes

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Java Developer - Tools and Productivity Engineer

This range is provided by Selby Jennings. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

Direct message the job poster from Selby Jennings

About the Role

An elite US Bank is seeking a Distinguished Engineer to join our Developer Tools & Productivity team. This role is critical to enabling engineering excellence across the organization by designing, building, and optimizing tools, frameworks, and platforms that empower thousands of developers. You will be a hands‑on technical leader, driving innovation and best practices in developer experience, build systems, and cloud‑native workflows.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop high‑performance developer tools, frameworks, and automation solutions to improve productivity and code quality.
• Lead technical strategy for developer experience initiatives, ensuring scalability, reliability, and security across the enterprise.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to identify pain points and deliver solutions that streamline development, testing, and deployment.
• Architect cloud‑native solutions leveraging AWS services for CI/CD pipelines, build orchestration, and developer environments.
• Champion best practices in software engineering, including code quality, performance optimization, and secure development.
• Mentor and influence senior engineers and stakeholders through technical leadership and thought partnership.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record of delivering complex systems at scale.
• Expert‑level Java development skills, including deep knowledge of JVM internals, performance tuning, and modern frameworks.
• Strong AWS experience, including services such as EC2, S3, Lambda, ECS/EKS, and IAM.
• Hands‑on experience with CI/CD systems (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CodePipeline) and build tools (e.g., Maven, Gradle).
• Proficiency in automation and scripting (Python, Bash, or similar).
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, microservices architecture, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Exceptional problem‑solving skills and ability to influence technical direction without formal authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with developer productivity platforms or internal developer portals.
• Familiarity with observability tools and performance monitoring.
• Contributions to open-source projects or thought leadership in developer tooling.

This is an onsite position working 5 days per week onsite in the firm’s Jersey City or Palo Alto office. At this time the team is unable to provide visa sponsorship.

Seniority Level

Director

Employment Type

Full‑time

Job Function

Banking