JOB DESCRIPTION
Role: Manager / SDE-2
Location: United States
Target Start Date: URGENT
Interview Process: 2 rounds
Java Microservices | AWS | Kafka | Kubernetes | AI-Assisted Modernization
Role Overview
Client is seeking a US-based Manager / Software Development Engineer II (SDE-2) to provide hands-on technical leadership for enterprise-scale Java microservices and modernization programs. This role combines architecture and solution design, critical-path engineering, delivery leadership, client consulting, and team mentorship. The Manager / SDE-2 will work with client stakeholders and globally distributed teams to build secure, resilient, observable, and maintainable platforms on AWS.
Role emphasis: Hands-on engineering leadership, multi-solution architecture, client-facing delivery, and pragmatic use of AI with human validation and accountability.
Your Impact
Own technical outcomes for scalable, resilient, secure, and maintainable Java microservices and distributed systems.
Lead solution design and modernization decisions across multiple services and business capabilities, not only a single module.
Translate business needs into architecture, delivery plans, technical designs, estimates, risks, and measurable acceptance criteria.
Guide engineers through design reviews, critical code contributions, pull request reviews, structured problem solving, and technical coaching.
Use AI-assisted Code2Spec and Spec2Code approaches to accelerate legacy modernization while preserving functional equivalence, security, and engineering quality.
Build client confidence through clear communication, early risk escalation, reliable delivery, and evidence-based recommendations.
Key Responsibilities
Engineering & Architecture Leadership
Lead the end-to-end design, development, testing, deployment, and support of Java-based microservices, REST APIs, and event-driven applications.
Remain hands-on in architecture, design, prototypes, critical code paths, complex debugging, performance tuning, and technical decision-making.
Create and review architecture artifacts, technical design documents, API contracts, sequence and data flows, threat considerations, and implementation approaches.
Drive sound decisions across scalability, availability, resilience, security, observability, maintainability, and cost.
Act as a technical escalation point for complex application, integration, data, cloud, and production issues; lead root-cause analysis and durable remediation.
Client Consulting & Delivery Leadership
Lead discovery sessions, technical workshops, architecture reviews, solution walkthroughs, demos, and modernization planning with client stakeholders.
Explain architecture options, trade-offs, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences.
Partner with product, architecture, quality engineering, security, DevOps, and program leadership to align technology outcomes with business goals.
Provide credible estimates, identify delivery and technical risks early, define mitigation plans, and support predictable sprint and release commitments.
Collaborate across US, nearshore, and offshore teams, helping establish clear ownership, engineering standards, and effective ways of working.
Cloud-Native, Integration & Event Streaming
Design and deliver AWS-hosted solutions using appropriate compute, storage, identity, monitoring, database, messaging, and container services.
Containerize applications with Docker and deploy or support workloads on Kubernetes, including Amazon EKS where applicable.
Design Kafka-based producer and consumer flows, delivery semantics, error handling, replay, idempotency, schema evolution, and operational support.
Guide secure integration with authentication and authorization services, internal and third-party APIs, relational or NoSQL data stores, and enterprise messaging platforms.
Apply cloud-native and microservices patterns while avoiding unnecessary complexity and unmanaged operational risk.
DevSecOps, Quality & Production Readiness
Guide Jenkins-based CI/CD, GitHub branching and pull request workflows, automated quality checks, artifact management, deployment, and release practices.
Enforce meaningful unit, component, contract, integration, regression, and performance testing; use SonarQube quality gates and static analysis responsibly.
Define and validate non-functional requirements for performance, capacity, availability, reliability, security, recovery, and maintainability.
Use Dynatrace and complementary telemetry for dashboards, diagnostics, alerting, production health, and continuous reliability improvement.
Lead production readiness reviews, incident analysis, corrective actions, and technical debt prioritization.
AI-Assisted Legacy Modernization
Use enterprise-approved AI engineering tools, which may include Publicis Sapient Slingshot, Cursor, Amazon Kiro, Claude, or comparable platforms.
Apply Code2Spec practices to derive functional and technical specifications, interfaces, business rules, dependencies, and validation conditions from legacy code.
Apply Spec2Code practices to accelerate target-state Java microservices while maintaining architecture standards, secure coding, testability, and human review.
Design validation methods that compare legacy and migrated behavior through traceability, regression, data reconciliation, boundary checks, exception analysis, and targeted manual review.
Ensure engineers understand generated code and remain accountable for correctness, security, privacy, maintainability, and production outcomes.
Team Leadership & Engineering Culture
Mentor and guide engineers through technical coaching, code reviews, pairing, design feedback, and structured problem-solving.
Delegate effectively while retaining accountability for technical quality, delivery outcomes, and operational readiness.
Promote a culture of ownership, constructive challenge, continuous learning, documentation, inclusion, and blameless improvement.
Contribute to interviewing, technical assessment, onboarding, capability development, and engineering community initiatives.
Required Skills & Experience
Capability | Expected Experience |
Core Engineering | Strong hands-on expertise in modern Java, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, microservices, REST APIs, JPA/Hibernate, Maven or Gradle, distributed systems, concurrency, and design patterns. |
Architecture | Proven ownership of enterprise-scale system and solution design, API and integration design, NFRs, technical documentation, architecture trade-offs, and modernization planning. |
Cloud & Platform | Hands-on AWS experience across compute, storage, IAM, monitoring, databases, messaging, and container platforms; Docker and Kubernetes, preferably Amazon EKS. |
Messaging & Integration | Apache Kafka and event-driven architecture; secure service integration patterns. IBM MQ or MuleSoft experience is beneficial. |
DevOps & SCM | Jenkins CI/CD, GitHub, branching and pull request workflows, build and release automation, containers, and infrastructure-as-code awareness. |
Quality & Security | Automated testing, code reviews, SonarQube, static analysis, secure coding, quality gates, performance considerations, and production readiness. |
Observability | Dynatrace or comparable APM experience, including telemetry, dashboards, diagnostics, actionable alerting, and incident analysis. |
Leadership & Consulting | Demonstrated client-facing technical leadership, solutioning, estimation, risk management, mentoring, and communication across distributed teams. |
Experience | Typically 9+ years of relevant software engineering experience, including substantial hands-on Java microservices delivery and demonstrated technical leadership. Equivalent depth of experience will be considered. |
Preferred Qualifications
AWS Lambda, RDS, DynamoDB, Terraform, Helm, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, or Grafana.
IBM MQ, MuleSoft, Amazon EKS, API gateways, identity platforms, or enterprise integration patterns.
Experience with large-scale digital transformation, cloud migration, platform modernization, or legacy-to-modern application programs.
Experience with AI-enabled SDLC practices, technical proposals, estimation, pre-sales, or technical due diligence.
Domain experience in travel and hospitality, financial services, retail, consumer products, or other enterprise environments.
Professional Attributes
Executive-ready verbal and written communication, with the ability to engage client architects, engineering leaders, product owners, and business stakeholders.
Strong systems thinking, analytical judgment, structured problem solving, ownership, and attention to detail.
Ability to balance hands-on engineering with architecture leadership, people guidance, delivery commitments, and stakeholder expectations.
Comfort operating across US and global time zones and adapting communication to different audiences and delivery contexts.
Willingness to travel to client or Publicis Sapient locations when reasonably required for the role.
Education
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
