Tech Lead Java Backend / Full Stack / AWS (with Python Exposure) @ Columbus, OH / Wilmington, DE

Tech Lead   Java Backend / Full Stack / AWS (with Python Exposure)
 Location: Columbus, OH / Wilmington, DE
Employment Type: Full-Time Contract (FTC)
Experience Required: 15+ Years
 
Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Tech Lead to drive architecture, delivery, and engineering leadership across Java backend development, full-stack applications, AWS cloud services, and event-driven systems. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in Java, Microservices, AWS, Kafka, Data Pipelines, and working knowledge of Python for automation and data workflows.

This role requires leading a team of approximately 8 engineers while ensuring the delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performance cloud-native solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of Java-based backend services and full-stack applications.

• Architect and implement event-driven solutions using Kafka and AWS messaging services.

• Design, build, and optimize data ingestion, transformation, and pipeline workflows.

• Develop and maintain microservices leveraging AWS Lambda, ECS/Fargate, API Gateway, SQS, SNS, and EventBridge.

• Ensure cloud architecture follows best practices for scalability, security, and reliability.

• Manage AWS services including S3, DynamoDB, VPC, IAM, and CloudWatch.

• Integrate Generative AI capabilities using AWS Bedrock.

• Utilize Python for automation, scripting, orchestration, and data processing tasks.

• Provide technical leadership, code reviews, mentoring, and architectural guidance.

• Collaborate with Product, DevOps, and Architecture teams to align technical solutions with business objectives.

• Drive engineering excellence through CI/CD, testing, observability, and performance optimization.

Required Skills & Experience

Core Engineering

• Expert-level experience in Java backend development.

• Strong experience with Spring Boot, Microservices, and REST APIs.

• Full-stack development experience using React, Angular, Vue.js, or similar frameworks.

• Strong understanding of distributed systems and cloud-native architectures.

Event Streaming & Data Engineering

• Hands-on experience with Kafka, including:

  • Topics and partitions

  • Consumer groups

  • Schema evolution

  • Event-driven architecture

• Experience with data pipelines, ETL processes, and streaming/batch data processing.

AWS Cloud Expertise

Compute & Serverless

• AWS Lambda

• ECS / Fargate

Storage & Databases

• Amazon S3

• DynamoDB

Integration & Messaging

• API Gateway

• SQS

• SNS

• EventBridge

Security & Networking

• VPC

• IAM

Monitoring & Observability

• CloudWatch

AI/ML

• AWS Bedrock

Python

• Working knowledge of Python for:

  • Automation

  • Scripting

  • Data processing

  • Workflow orchestration

Leadership & Delivery

• Experience leading engineering teams of 6 10 developers.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

• Ability to make architectural decisions and balance technical trade-offs.

• Proven track record delivering complex cloud-native enterprise applications.

• Experience managing project delivery, timelines, and technical risks.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• CI/CD expertise using GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or AWS CodePipeline.

• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation).

• Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Security, observability, and monitoring tooling.

• Experience with AI/ML or Large Language Model (LLM) integrations.