Java Technical Lead API / AWS / AI

Job ID: H12989 - Java Technical Lead - API / AWS / AI

Must be Hybrid in Hartford, CT, Charlotte, NC or Columbus, OH

PLEASE NOTE: This is a 6 month renewable contract and needs to meet Client full-time conversion policies. Those dependent on a work permit sponsor now or anytime in the future (ie H1B, OPT, CPT, etc) do not meet Client requirements for this opening.

Top 4 Must Haves

• Java Technical Leadership: enterprise backend development, scalable API architecture, code reviews, technical decision-making, and hands-on engineering leadership.
• Technical Design & Data Modeling: simplifying complex legacy architectures/data models and designing extensible, product-agnostic enterprise platforms.
• AWS & Cloud-Native Engineering: API Gateway, IAM/security, CI/CD, Terraform, Kubernetes, observability, and scalable microservices deployment patterns.
• MCP / Agentic AI / AWS Bedrock: hands-on experience designing AI-driven API integrations, MCP tools/clients, secure AI-to-system communication, and the ability to clearly explain AI orchestration patterns and implementation details.

Position Overview

Seeking a hands-on Java Technical Lead to modernize a complex Policy Booklet Generation platform within a policy administration environment.

This role focuses on API architecture, backend modernization, cloud-native engineering, AI/MCP integrations, and production ownership.

Candidates must demonstrate true technical ownership, including architecture leadership, modernization experience, and the ability to explain technical tradeoffs and enterprise integration patterns.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Lead technical design, architecture reviews, code reviews, and hands-on engineering for enterprise backend services.
• Simplify and modernize complex legacy applications and data models into scalable, modular microservices architectures.
• Design extensible, product-agnostic data structures supporting multiple employee benefits products.
• Define scalable REST/OpenAPI standards including versioning, backward compatibility, reusable contracts, and integration governance.
• Drive technical decision-making around scalability, maintainability, resiliency, security, and operational support.

API Engineering & Integration

• Design and develop Java/Spring Boot microservices and enterprise APIs integrated with workflow automation platforms including Pega.
• Define API integration patterns and interface contracts across upstream/downstream systems.
• Implement event-driven integration patterns using Kafka or similar messaging platforms.
• Develop APIs for AWS cloud deployment using API Gateway, Lambda, EKS/ECS, and containerized environments.

AI / MCP / Automation

• Design and implement AI-driven API integration patterns using MCP tools, Agentic AI concepts, and AWS Bedrock or similar GenAI platforms.
• Demonstrate strong understanding of AI orchestration patterns, secure AI-to-system communication, and event-driven AI workflows.
• Build or support reusable AI-integrated API services that enable intelligent workflow automation.

Cloud / DevSecOps / Production Ownership

• Build and maintain CI/CD and DevSecOps pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub, Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Support production readiness, monitoring, troubleshooting, and operational stability of enterprise APIs and backend services.
• Monitor application health using CloudWatch, Prometheus, Grafana, or similar observability tooling.
• Configure and support cloud-native deployments, pods, clusters, scaling, and infrastructure automation.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of Java backend engineering experience.
• 4+ years in a Technical Lead, Lead Engineer, or Solution Architecture capacity.
• Strong experience with Java 11+/17, Spring Boot, REST APIs, Microservices, and scalable API architecture.
• Hands-on AWS cloud engineering experience including API Gateway, IAM, Lambda, EKS/ECS, S3, and RDS.
• Strong experience with DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, Jenkins, GitHub, Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Hands-on experience with MCP tools/clients, Agentic AI concepts, and AWS Bedrock or similar GenAI platforms.
• Experience simplifying legacy architectures and redesigning complex enterprise data models.
• Strong understanding of production support, observability, resiliency, and operational ownership.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical reviews/design discussions.
• Ability to clearly explain architecture decisions, tradeoffs, and modernization strategies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Pega workflow integrations.
• Experience with document generation, templating, content assembly, or Documentum/content-management platforms.
• Insurance or financial services experience strongly preferred.
• Experience with event-driven architectures and Kafka.
• AWS and/or Java certifications preferred.