Senior Backend Software Engineer with Kotlin

NTT America, Inc.; City of Rome (NY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Health Insurance

Sponsored certifications and trainings

Coaching sessions and Coaching School

Flexible work options: Remote/Hybrid/3

Job summary

NTT DATA Romania seeks a Senior Backend Software Engineer to design, build, and operate Kotlin-based backends and REST APIs for a decisioning and ML-driven internal platform. You will own end-to-end backend scope—from discovery to deployment—while coordinating with data scientists and frontend teams.

You’ll manage PostgreSQL data models, leverage Kafka and Spark for streaming, and define cloud infrastructure with Terraform.

Qualifications

• 6/8+ years of experience in software engineering.
• Experience delivering production APIs and distributed services.
• Experience with cloud-native applications using containers and Terraform.
• Proven ability to own backend work and trade-offs between delivery, maintainability, reliability, and performance.
• Client-facing engineering delivery experience in demanding environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, maintain, and operate backend services and REST APIs using Kotlin and Ktor
• Own backend-led work from discovery through deployment
• Model and manage data in PostgreSQL, including schema design and migrations
• Use Terraform to define and provision cloud infrastructure
• Build event-driven and batch data-processing workflows
• Collaborate with data scientists and adjacent teams for reliable integrations
• Improve service resilience, logging, metrics, tracing, and observability
• Use various testing methodologies (unit, property-based, integration, contract, BDD, E2E)
• Contribute to technical design, code reviews, and documentation
• Design stable interfaces and integration contracts for frontend/data teams
• Engage with client stakeholders and delivery partners on evolving requirements

Skills

Kotlin

Ktor

Java

APIs design

Distributed systems

Cloud-native development

Asynchronous programming

Testing expertise

Education

BSc/MSc in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kafka

Spark

PostgreSQL

Terraform

Docker

GitLab CI/CD

OpenTelemetry

Job description

Who we are

We are looking for a Senior Backend Software Engineer to design, build, and operate backend services for an internal platform that leverages decisioning and machine learning to deliver personalised customer experiences. This senior individual contributor role focuses on Kotlin, APIs, PostgreSQL, cloud technologies, streaming, and distributed data processing, delivering backend capabilities end-to-end while collaborating closely with frontend and data teams.

The role drives key technical outcomes, contributes to architecture and engineering standards, mentors engineers, and works within the guidance of the Technical Lead. As a client-facing consultant, you will provide clear communication, sound technical judgement, and pragmatic solutions in complex delivery environments.

Technology stack:

• Backend: Kotlin and Ktor
• Data and messaging: PostgreSQL, Kafka, and Spark
• Frontend: API contract testing, schema evolution, service compatibility, or consumer-driven contract approaches
• Cloud and delivery: AWS, GCP, Docker, Terraform, and GitLab CI/CD
• Quality and operations: Kotest, property-based testing, Cucumber, Playwright, and observability tooling

What you'll be doing

• Design, build, maintain, and operate backend services and REST APIs using Kotlin and Ktor
• Own backend-led work from discovery and domain design through implementation, automated testing, deployment, observability, production support, and iteration
• Model and manage data in PostgreSQL, including schema design, queries, performance tuning, and database migrations
• Use Terraform to define, provision, and manage cloud infrastructure as code
• Build event-driven and batch data-processing workflows
• Collaborate with data scientists and adjacent teams on reliable integrations with internal services, data platforms, and machine-learning systems
• Improve service resilience, security, logging, metrics, tracing, and operational tooling
• Use unit, property-based, integration, contract, behaviour-driven, and end-to-end testing where appropriate
• Contribute to technical design, code reviews, documentation, and the maintainability of a large codebase
• Design stable interfaces and integration contracts that enable frontend, data, and downstream teams to deliver end-to-end capabilities
• Work directly with client stakeholders and delivery partners as requirements evolve, explaining technical trade-offs and adapting backend scope without compromising reliability, maintainability, or operational quality

What you'll bring along

• BSc/MSc in Computer Science or related field
• 6/8+ years of experience in software engineering
• Strong backend development experience with Kotlin and Ktor, Java, or another modern JVM language
• Experience designing, delivering, and maintaining production APIs and distributed services
• Strong relational database and SQL capability, including data modelling, schema evolution, and query or performance considerations
• Experience with asynchronous programming, concurrency, event streaming, or resilient integration patterns
• Experience developing and operating cloud-native applications using containers, managed services, identity, networking, observability, and infrastructure-as-code such as Terraform
• Evidence of automated testing and responsibility for software quality
• Evidence of independently owning substantial backend work and making sound trade-offs between delivery, maintainability, reliability, and performance
• Designing stable service interfaces and integration contracts for use by frontend, data, or downstream systems
• Experience contributing to design decisions, code reviews, technical documentation, troubleshooting, and the development of other engineers
• Evidence of client-facing engineering delivery in demanding or ambiguous environments, including explaining technical trade-offs, responding to changing requirements, and setting realistic expectations Nice to have:
• Kafka, Avro, NoSQL stores, event-driven architecture, or high-volume data processing
• GCP services, cloud migration, infrastructure portability, and operational-parity validation
• Spark, Scala, Python-based data pipelines, or integration with machine-learning systems
• API contract testing, schema evolution, service compatibility, or consumer-driven contract approaches
• GitLab CI/CD, OpenTelemetry, property-based testing, or behaviour-driven development
• Experimentation platforms, rules engines, recommendation systems, or customer decisioning

What’s in it for you

• New beginnings can be a challenge. We promise a smooth integration and a supportive mentor
• Pick your working style: choose from Remote, Hybrid or Office work opportunities
• Early bird or night owl? Our projects have different working hours to suit your needs
• Nobody is born an expert. Sharpen your tech skills with our sponsored certifications, trainings and top e-learning platforms
• We want you to stay healthy! Enjoy our Private Health Insurance - it's custom-made for you
• A clear mind is a healthy mind. Attend individual coaching sessions or go one step further by joining our accredited Coaching School
• Make the most of our epic parties or themed events - they're lovingly designed for our people and their families

NTT DATA Romania is an equal opportunity employer and considers all applicants regardless to race, color, religion, citizenship, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, physical or mental disability, veteran or marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment for all employees.

Make this the place you grow

Your unique talent is what matters. NTT DATA Romania is an equal opportunity employer and considers all applicants regardless to race, color, religion, citizenship, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, physical or mental disability, veteran or marital status, or any other characteristic.

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