Senior Backend Engineer: Java, Microservices & Kafka Leader

ApplyMint; Overland Park (KS); Hybrid; USD 114,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental & Vision

401(k) plan

Tuition reimbursement

Generous PTO

Volunteer time

BRGs

Job summary

Empower is seeking a Lead Software Engineer in the United States to design, develop, and deliver scalable enterprise applications using Java 11+, Spring, and microservices. You will drive real-time streaming solutions with Kafka, mentor engineers, and shape the technical direction.

This role requires strong leadership, SOLID architecture, TDD/BDD, and collaboration across teams to ensure high availability, security, and performance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in CS/Engineering or related field.
• 7+ years of professional software development, including 2+ years in a lead/mentorship role.
• Strong expertise in Java 11+ and Spring ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of microservices-based architectures using Spring and Spring Boot.
• Architect and build real-time streaming applications using Apache Kafka.
• Define technical strategy and oversee the full software development lifecycle, from requirements to deployment.
• Mentor and guide engineers, conducting design and code reviews to ensure high standards.
• Champion TDD and BDD practices, ensuring code quality and maintainability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver secure, reliable, and scalable software.
• Drive adoption of best practices in system design, testing, DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Optimize performance of applications and resolve complex technical issues.
• Ensure systems are built for high availability, scalability, and maintainability.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and align technical initiatives with business goals.

Skills

Java (11+)

Spring Boot

RESTful services

Kafka real-time streaming

Microservices

TDD/BDD

SQL/NoSQL databases

Hibernate/JPA

Git & CI/CD

AWS / Cloud

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Apache Kafka

Spring

Hibernate/JPA

Docker

Kubernetes

MySQL/PostgreSQL

MongoDB/Cassandra

Git

REST

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Empower is seeking a Lead Software Engineer in the United States to design, develop, and deliver scalable enterprise applications using Java 11+, Spring, and microservices. You will drive real-time streaming solutions with Kafka, mentor engineers, and shape the technical direction.

This role requires strong leadership, SOLID architecture, TDD/BDD, and collaboration across teams to ensure high availability, security, and performance.