Senior Backend Engineer – Distributed Systems & APIs (Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, AWS)

Position DescriptionWe are seeking a highly experienced Senior Backend Engineer with deep expertise in building large-scale, distributed systems focused on high-throughput APIs, event-driven architectures, and real-time data pipelines. This role will be heavily centered around designing, building, and scaling secure, high-performance APIs and backend services that integrate with internal systems and external platforms.The ideal candidate is a hands-on engineer with a strong Java and Spring Boot foundation, extensive experience with Kafka and message queues, and a proven track record of building systems that handle high volumes of concurrent API traffic and streaming data. You will play a critical role in shaping our backend architecture, owning API standards, building resilient distributed services, and ensuring our platform can reliably process and move large amounts of data across multiple systems.This role is not a generalist backend position — it is specifically focused on distributed backend systems, API design and implementation, event-driven services, queue-based processing, and platform-level scalability, performance, and security.Roles and ResponsibilitiesDistributed Systems & ArchitectureDesign, build, and maintain highly scalable, fault-tolerant distributed backend services using Java and Spring Boot.Architect systems that support high-volume data flow, real-time event processing, and heavy concurrent API usage.Lead backend architectural decisions around service boundaries, data flow, queueing strategy, and system resiliency.Build systems that are observable, debuggable, and production-grade (monitoring, logging, tracing, alerting).Kafka, Queues & Event-Driven ProcessingDesign and implement Kafka-based event pipelines and queue-driven workflows.Build producers, consumers, and streaming services that handle large volumes of events with strong reliability guarantees.Define topic strategies, partitioning models, replay strategies, dead-letter queues, and failure-recovery patterns.Optimize throughput, latency, and system stability under high load.API Design & Platform EngineeringOwn the design and implementation of internal and external APIs.Build secure, well-documented, scalable REST and/or asynchronous APIs.Define API standards, versioning strategies, authentication models, and rate-limiting policies.Ensure APIs are designed for performance, extensibility, and long-term maintainability.Lead complex API integrations with third-party systems, enterprise tools, and data providers.Security, Reliability & PerformanceImplement API security best practices (OAuth2, JWT, role-based access, service-to-service auth, secrets management).Design systems resilient to failures, retries, message duplication, and downstream outages.Build for scale: caching strategies, async processing, back-pressure handling, and horizontal scaling.Proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks and architectural risks.Cloud & Infrastructure CollaborationBuild and deploy services on AWS using modern cloud-native patterns.Work closely with DevOps/infra teams on CI/CD pipelines, containerization, service scaling, and environment strategy.Ensure backend systems are production-ready from day one.Technical LeadershipAct as a backend technical leader, setting engineering standards and architectural direction.Review code and designs with a focus on quality, performance, scalability, and security.Mentor engineers on distributed systems, Kafka, and backend best practices.Contribute to long-term platform roadmap and system evolution.QualificationsCore Technical Requirements6+ years of backend engineering experience, with significant time spent building distributed systems.Expert-level proficiency in Java and Spring Boot in production environments.Strong hands-on experience designing and operating Kafka-based or queue-driven systems.Extensive experience building, scaling, and securing APIs used by both internal services and external customers.Proven experience building systems that handle high volumes of API traffic and data throughput.Strong background in event-driven architecture, asynchronous processing, and microservices.Architecture & Platform SkillsDeep understanding of distributed system fundamentals (consistency, fault tolerance, idempotency, retries, back-pressure, observability).Experience with API security patterns, authentication frameworks, and data protection best practices.Strong knowledge of cloud-native backend architecture on AWS.Experience designing systems for performance, scalability, and reliability from the ground up.Engineering ExcellenceStrong system-design skills and the ability to reason about complex backend workflows.Experience integrating multiple third-party systems and managing complex data flows.High standard for code quality, testing, and operational excellence.Comfortable working in fast-moving, product-driven engineering environments.Nice to HaveExperience with stream processing, workflow engines, or large-scale integration platforms.Familiarity with Kubernetes, containerized environments, and service meshes.Background in building developer platforms, internal tooling, or API-first products.Experience in high-growth startups or scaling SaaS platforms.

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