Principal Java Developer

We are seeking an experienced Principal Java Developer with 12-15 years of hands-on experience in designing, developing, and delivering enterprise-scale applications. The ideal candidate will provide technical leadership, drive architecture decisions, mentor engineering teams, and build highly scalable, secure, and resilient distributed systems.
Responsibilities:
Lead the design and development of large-scale Java-based enterprise applications.
Define application architecture, technical standards, and best practices.
Design and implement microservices, REST APIs, and cloud-native solutions.
Collaborate with product managers, architects, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into technical solutions.
Drive system scalability, performance optimisation, reliability, and security initiatives.
Review code, conduct design reviews, and ensure adherence to coding standards.
Mentor and guide development teams on Java, system design, and software engineering practices.
Lead technical discussions and provide solutions for complex business problems.
Ensure CI/CD implementation, automated testing, and DevOps best practices.
Participate in production support, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis for critical issues.
Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies to improve development efficiency and system performance.
Requirements:
Strong expertise in Java 8/11/17+.
Advanced knowledge of Spring Boot, Spring MVC, and Spring Security.
Experience with Microservices Architecture.
Strong understanding of RESTful APIs and API Gateway concepts.
Expertise in Hibernate/JPA.
Cloud and DevOps:
Hands-on experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
Experience with Docker and Kubernetes.
CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, and Azure DevOps.
Infrastructure and deployment automation knowledge.
Databases:
Strong experience with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
Experience with NoSQL databases such as MongoDB, Cassandra, or DynamoDB.
Database performance tuning and optimisation.
Distributed Systems:
Experience with Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or other messaging platforms.
Knowledge of event-driven architecture and asynchronous processing.
Strong understanding of scalability, fault tolerance, and high availability.
Software Engineering:
Strong knowledge of Design Patterns, SOLID Principles, and OOP.
Experience with System Design and Solution Architecture
Expertise in Agile/Scrum methodologies
Test-driven development (TDD) and unit testing frameworks (JUnit, Mockito).
Preferred Skills:
Experience with AI/ML integrations, LLM APIs, or GenAI applications.
Experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations.
Exposure to observability tools such as Splunk, ELK, Grafana, Dynatrace, or Prometheus.
Experience in FinTech, Retail, E-commerce, or Banking domains.
Leadership Expectations:
Lead multiple development teams and technical initiatives.
Mentor senior developers and architects.
Drive architecture governance and technology strategy.
Influence engineering best practices across the organisation.
Communicate effectively with executive stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
Nice-to-Have Skills:
GenAI, LLMs, RAG, Vector Databases.
MCP (Model Context Protocol).
Python for AI integrations.
Terraform or Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
OpenShift and container orchestration platforms.

Experience
12-16 yrs