Job Title: Hands-On Technical Lead (Full-Stack Java / Payroll & HCM Logic)
Job Type: Contract
Work Arrangement: Hybrid - 3 Days in Office
Location: Alpharetta, GA 30005
Industry: Human Capital Management (HCM) / FinTech / Enterprise Software
About the Role
We are looking for a Hands-On Technical Lead to personally build, configure, and secure mission-critical Human Capital Management (HCM) and payroll software. This is an individual-contributor-heavy position designed for someone who thrives on writing code, debugging complex tax logic, and shipping robust full-stack Java solutions daily.
Your leadership impact will be strictly technical: leading by example, writing reference implementations, clearing blockers, and running thorough peer code reviews. Your performance is measured by commits and shipped fixes—not status reports.
Key Responsibilities
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1. Full-Stack Development (Core Focus)>
Design, write, and maintain production code across the full stack—robust Java back-end services and modern UI components (React, Angular, or similar).
Directly implement and maintain complex multi-state payroll calculations, local tax jurisdiction rules, and evolving compliance mandates directly within the application logic.
Build, automate, and maintain tax update pipelines, batch integration jobs, and audit/configuration logging.
Investigate and debug critical production issues, trace complex payroll tax data anomalies, and roll out immediate code-level fixes.
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2. Security & Compliance Engineering>
Actively triage, patch, and remediate application and dependency vulnerabilities in production code.
Programmatically implement and enforce Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and least-privilege logic.
Implement end-to-end data encryption protocols and ensure code-level adherence to GDPR, CCPA, and SOC 2 standards.
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3. Hands-On Technical Leadership>
Set engineering standards by building working reference implementations rather than writing theoretical process documents.
Conduct detailed, high-standard code reviews to preserve architecture integrity and maintainability.
Act as an immediate escalation point to unblock developers on tough technical and architectural hurdles.
Required Qualifications
Experience: 6+ years of professional, hands-on full-stack Java development experience (ideally in enterprise HCM, payroll, or financial platforms).
Domain Knowledge: Functional understanding of payroll tax withholding rules, multi-state tax logic, local jurisdictions, and regulatory compliance implementations.
Core Tech Stack:
Back-End: Java (Spring / Spring Boot, REST APIs, Microservices architecture).
Front-End: Modern JavaScript frameworks (Angular, React, or comparable).
Tooling: CI/CD pipelines, Git, containerization, and automated testing frameworks.
Security & Governance: Direct experience applying code-level security controls—including data encryption at rest/in transit, RBAC, and SOC 2 / GDPR / CCPA compliance patterns.
Mindset: A builder’s mentality. You want to spend 80%+ of your day with your IDE open, writing tests, reviewing PRs, and shipping code.
Highly Preferred Skills