Senior Backend Engineer (Kotlin, Kafka)

Title: Senior Backend Engineer (Kotlin, Kafka)
Location: Remote (U.S.-Based)
Job Type: W2 Contract (6 Months)
Compensation: $67.66 - $90.22/hr W2 (not open for C2C)
Industry: Retail


Key Skills: Kotlin, Kafka, RESTful APIs, Postgres, NoSQL databases 

About the Role
Our client, a leading national retailer focused on creating innovative and scalable technology solutions that support millions of customers, is seeking a Developer to join a high-impact pricing technology team. This team is responsible for processing and publishing pricing updates across a large retail ecosystem through modern REST APIs and event-driven platforms.

In this role, you will contribute to a major platform modernization initiative while supporting critical production systems that power accurate and timely pricing updates. This is a senior-level individual contributor opportunity ideal for someone who can quickly become productive within an established environment, work independently, and collaborate effectively with distributed engineering teams.
This position is primarily remote, with preference given to local candidates. Candidates must be available during Central Time business hours.

• Develop and maintain enterprise-grade backend applications using Java and Kotlin.
• Design, build, and support high-volume REST APIs.
• Develop and enhance Kafka-based event-driven services, including consumer and producer implementations.
• Contribute to a large platform modernization initiative focused on scalability, performance, and throughput improvements.
• Work within existing enterprise applications and quickly become productive with minimal onboarding.
• Collaborate with engineering teams located across the United States and India.
• Troubleshoot, test, and deploy production-ready software solutions.
• Support relational and distributed database technologies, including Oracle Exadata, PostgreSQL, and Cassandra.
• Participate in Agile development processes and technical discussions.
• Deliver high-quality code and technical solutions with minimal supervision.

• Senior-level experience developing enterprise applications using Java.
• Professional experience with Kotlin or the ability to quickly become productive in Kotlin.
• Senior-level experience building and supporting RESTful APIs.
• Senior-level experience working with Apache Kafka, including producer and consumer implementations.
• Strong experience developing distributed backend systems and services.
• Experience with Oracle Exadata, PostgreSQL, and Cassandra databases.
• Ability to quickly understand existing systems and contribute with minimal guidance.
• Experience supporting and enhancing large-scale enterprise applications.
• Strong troubleshooting, testing, and software delivery capabilities.
• Excellent collaboration, communication, and teamwork skills.
• Ability to work effectively with distributed teams in an Agile environment.
• Availability to work during Minneapolis/Central Time business hours.

• Experience with modular monorepo architectures.
• Experience working within framework-light or framework-free Java applications.
• Experience with RocksDB.
• Experience supporting high-throughput, event-driven distributed systems.
• Retail, pricing, eCommerce, or merchandising technology experience.
• Experience contributing to large-scale platform modernization initiatives.

Equal Opportunity Statement
As an equal opportunity employer, Dahl Consulting welcomes candidates of all backgrounds and experiences to apply. If this position sounds like the right opportunity for you, we encourage you to take the next step and connect with us. We look forward to meeting you!

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