Principal Java Backend Engineer

We are looking for a Principal Java Backend Engineer to lead the design and delivery of scalable, integration-heavy backend systems. This role requires a hands-on technical leader who can unblock teams, influence stakeholders, and collaborate directly with client engineering teams to drive solutions. You will operate at a Principal Engineer level, balancing architecture leadership with hands-on development.

Requirements We are looking for a highly experienced Principal Backend Engineer to join our Domain Services portfolio. This is a high-impact role within an established, integration-heavy enterprise environment. The successful candidate will step into a complex delivery landscape and help strengthen technical direction, improve engineering standards, and drive better ways of working through technical credibility and influence. This is not a greenfield role ? it requires someone comfortable navigating ambiguity, improving existing systems, and leading change without formal authority.

Technical Leadership

• Lead architecture and design of domain services and integration-heavy systems
• Act as a technical escalation point to unblock teams and resolve complex challenges
• Drive best practices in microservices, event-driven architecture, and API design
• Ensure systems are scalable, resilient, and cloud-native
• Improve engineering standards, quality practices, and technical direction across teams

Hands-On Engineering

• Develop backend services using Java (11+), Spring Boot
• Build and maintain event-driven systems using Kafka
• Design and implement REST APIs (GraphQL experience is a plus)
• Work with MongoDB for high-volume, distributed workloads
• Contribute directly to code, reviews, and production issue resolution

Architecture & Integration

• Design secure, integration-focused workflows across systems
• Apply domain-driven design principles
• Improve performance, scalability, and observability
• Work within integration-heavy enterprise systems

Cloud & Engineering Practices

• Experience working with Microsoft Azure (preferred)
• CI/CD and DevOps-aware engineering mindset
• Strong testing discipline (JUnit, Mockito)
• Gradle or modern build systems

Leadership & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Influence architectural decisions across teams
• Partner with client stakeholders to unblock delivery challenges
• Provide mentorship and technical guidance to engineers
• Drive improvement through credibility rather than authority
• Comfortable working in established, multi-team enterprise environments

Required Experience

• 13+ years in backend engineering
• Deep expertise in Java & distributed systems
• Strong experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka)
• Experience improving legacy systems and integration-heavy platforms
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across teams

Nice to Have

• Micronaut framework experience
• Retail or enterprise-scale domain exposure
• Multi-cloud exposure (Azure/AWS)

Benefits We Offer

• Competitive salary
• Annual bonus, subject to company performance
• Access to Udemy online training and opportunities to learn and grow within the role

About Mindera At Mindera we use technology to build products we are proud of, with people we love. Software Engineering Applications, including Web and Mobile, are at the core of what we do at Mindera. We partner with our clients, to understand their product and deliver high performance, resilient and scalable software systems that create an impact in their users and businesses across the world. You get to work with a bunch of great people, where the whole team owns the project together. Our culture reflects our lean and self-organisation attitude. We encourage our colleagues to take risks, make decisions, work in a collaborative way and talk to everyone to enhance communication. We are proud of our work and we love to learn all and everything while navigating through an Agile, Lean and collaborative environment. Follow our Linkedln page - https://tinyurl.com/minderaindia Check ot our Blog: http://mindera.com/ and our Handbook: http://bit.ly/MinderaHandbook Our offices are located: Aveiro, Portugal | Porto, Portugal | Leicester, UK | San Diego, USA | San Francisco, USA | Chennai, India | Bengaluru, India