Software Engineer - Java

About The Company
New Relic is a leading global technology company dedicated to transforming the way businesses monitor, analyze, and optimize their digital systems. Our innovative platform provides comprehensive observability solutions that enable organizations to gain real-time insights into their complex applications and infrastructure. With a focus on fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment, we empower our employees to drive technological advancements in an AI-first world. Our commitment to excellence and innovation positions us at the forefront of the industry, serving a diverse range of clients worldwide. As we expand our global footprint, we continue to invest in cutting-edge technologies and talented professionals who share our passion for shaping the future of observability.
About The Role
We are seeking a highly skilled Lead Software Engineer specializing in Java to join our dynamic team within New Relic's Data Platform. This pivotal role involves overseeing the management of data ingestion into NRDB, our purpose-built telemetry datastore designed to handle metrics, events, logs, and traces at an immense scale. As a Lead, you will be responsible for setting the technical direction of your team, making critical architecture and design decisions, and leading the development of high-throughput distributed systems. Your leadership will guide the team through complex problem-solving, ensuring the reliability and efficiency of our data pipeline. Additionally, you will work closely with product managers and partner teams to translate strategic roadmaps into actionable technical plans, while also mentoring engineers to foster professional growth. This role offers an exciting opportunity to work on systems processing millions of messages per second and petabytes of data, contributing significantly to the company's mission of delivering unparalleled observability solutions.
Qualifications
7–10 years of professional software engineering experience
At least 2+ years of experience leading or acting as a technical lead for a team or major project
Deep proficiency in Java or a comparable object-oriented programming language
Experience managing stateful distributed services in production environments
Strong background in architecture and design reviews for complex systems
Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure and CI/CD tools such as Argo CD or similar
Proficiency with event-driven architectures, including Kafka or equivalent technologies
Experience with container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes
Knowledge of data modeling and query optimization against relational databases at scale
Proven mentoring skills and ability to provide constructive technical feedback
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of articulating technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
Responsibilities
Define and weigh tradeoffs between performance, maintainability, and operational costs when designing architecture for ingest systems
Scope, estimate, and lead the delivery of complex projects from design through to production release
Evaluate and adopt new tools, patterns, and technologies, including LLM-assisted development practices where appropriate
Contribute directly to production code, maintaining a hands-on approach with the engineering team
Mentor and develop engineers through code reviews, technical feedback, and career guidance
Communicate technical risks, tradeoffs, and solutions effectively to stakeholders
Ensure operational health of systems, including CI/CD pipelines, observability, and incident response processes
Identify gaps in tools, documentation, or team coverage and implement solutions to address them
Lead efforts in incident management, troubleshooting, and system improvements to enhance reliability and performance
Benefits
Comprehensive healthcare plans including medical, dental, and vision coverage
Parental leave and family planning support
Mental health and well-being programs
401(k) retirement plan with company match
Flexible time-off policies and paid holidays
Volunteer time-off to support community engagement
Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning
Collaborative and inclusive work environment that values diversity
Equal Opportunity
New Relic is committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace. We believe that a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences enhances our ability to innovate and serve our customers effectively. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, neurodiversity, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We are dedicated to creating an environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to bring their authentic selves to work.

Work arrangement
Yes