Lead Software Engineer

JPS Tech Solutions; Illinois; On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Caterpillar is seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to provide technical leadership in designing and developing cloud-native backend applications using Java, Spring Boot, and AWS.

This hands-on role will architect scalable distributed systems, lead technical decisions, mentor engineers, and drive best practices across cloud-native application development.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of technical leadership or team lead experience preferred.
• Strong experience building enterprise-scale backend applications.
• No degree required.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of Java-based cloud-native applications on AWS.
• Build scalable microservices using Spring Boot.
• Design and implement RESTful APIs and event-driven services.
• Architect highly available, fault-tolerant distributed systems.
• Develop asynchronous messaging solutions using Kafka or similar technologies.
• Design cloud infrastructure leveraging AWS managed services.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD best practices.
• Lead technical design discussions, architecture reviews, and code reviews.
• Improve system observability through logging, metrics, monitoring, and distributed tracing.
• Troubleshoot production issues and optimize application performance.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, Architects, and cross-functional engineering teams.
• Mentor engineers and establish engineering standards and best practices.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Spring Boot

AWS Cloud Architecture

Microservices

REST API Development

OpenAPI / Swagger

SQL & Relational Databases

NoSQL Databases

Kafka

CI/CD Pipelines

Build & Deployment Automation

Distributed Systems

Observability

Production Support & Performance Tying

Job description

Caterpillar is seeking an experiencedLead Software Engineerto provide technical leadership in designing and developing cloud-native backend applications usingJava, Spring Boot, and AWS. This is a hands-on engineering role responsible for architecting scalable distributed systems, leading technical decisions, mentoring engineers, and driving best practices across cloud-native application development.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development ofJava-based cloud-native applicationson AWS.
• Build scalablemicroservicesusingSpring Boot.
• Design and implementRESTful APIsand event-driven services.
• Architect highly available, fault-tolerant distributed systems.
• Develop asynchronous messaging solutions usingKafkaor similar technologies.
• Design cloud infrastructure leveraging AWS managed services.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD best practices.
• Lead technical design discussions, architecture reviews, and code reviews.
• Improve system observability through logging, metrics, monitoring, and distributed tracing.
• Troubleshoot production issues and optimize application performance.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, Architects, and cross-functional engineering teams.
• Mentor engineers and establish engineering standards and best practices.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of technical leadership or team lead experience preferred.
• Strong experience building enterprise-scale backend applications.
• No degree required.

Required Technical Skills

• AWS Cloud Architecture
• Java (Advanced) and/or Kotlin
• Spring Boot
• Microservices Architecture
• REST API Development
• OpenAPI / Swagger
• SQL & Relational Databases
• NoSQL Databases (DynamoDB, MongoDB, Cassandra)
• Kafka or Event-Driven Messaging
• CI/CD Pipelines
• Build & Deployment Automation
• Distributed Systems
• Cloud-Native Development
• Observability (Logging, Metrics, Tracing)
• Production Support & Performance Tuning

Preferred Experience

• Designing highly available distributed systems.
• Infrastructure as Code.
• Event-driven architecture.
• Cloud-native application modernization.
• Technical architecture and solution design.
• Agile/Scrum development environment.