Backend Developer (Java/Spring Boot)

Quick Summary
🕛 Hours: Full-time
🌎 Location: Fully remote
🇪🇺 Time Zone: Looking for people in Europe or LATAM
📅 Project Duration: 5 months, project engagement through February 2027
🇬🇧 Language: Professional English required. Spanish is a strong bonus.
🤠 Experience: 3+ years of professional backend development experience, with strong hands-on experience in Java, Spring Boot, and PostgreSQL.
💸 Salary: €3,000 /month gross, B2B contract
About Afternow
We are partners in your digital journey. We bring together strategy, design, and technology to build systems that flex as your future unfolds. Afternow creates the digital systems brilliant companies are built on. Strategy, identity, web and product design, and technology that scales. Every part of the process supports and informs the other, creating an environment that works today and adapts to wherever the business goes next. We work primarily with ambitious, digitally focused organizations navigating change. From startups finding their footing, to scale-ups building momentum, to established enterprises reshaping their digital foundations. Our partnerships are built on clarity, craft, and care. Since 2012, we've grown from our roots on Island Krk, Croatia, to a fully remote team of more than thirty talented people working across the globe. We've partnered with companies including AWS, ThoughtSpot, Progressive, Descartes, ShipBob, Quillbot, Teachable, Crisp, CloudZero, Kinetik, and many more. 🏆 4.6 Glassdoor Rating: Join our team and discover why our people consistently rate us so highly.
The Role
We are looking for a Mid-Level Backend Developer to join our Product Development team and strengthen one of our client project teams through February 2027.
You will work on backend systems for a modern digital product, building APIs, services, database models, integrations, and business logic using Java and Spring Boot.
You will collaborate closely with other backend developers, frontend engineers, QA engineers, DevOps, Technical Product Managers, designers, and client-side stakeholders.
We are looking for someone who already has solid professional experience and can independently deliver backend features while knowing when to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and involve other team members.
This is not a role where you simply close tickets. We value developers who understand the broader context of what they are building, communicate dependencies early, care about code quality, and take responsibility for getting their work properly tested and delivered.
What You'll Do
Backend Development: Write clean, maintainable, testable, and efficient Java code using Spring Boot and modern backend engineering practices.
API Development: Build and maintain REST APIs and backend services that are secure, reliable, and easy for other systems and frontend applications to integrate with.
Database Development: Work with PostgreSQL, Hibernate, database schemas, queries, indexes, migrations, and data models.
Business Logic: Translate product and business requirements into reliable backend functionality.
Microservices: Develop and maintain services within a distributed backend architecture.
Integrations: Implement third-party integrations, internal services, and other backend integrations depending on project requirements.
Data Accuracy: Pay close attention to validation, edge cases, data consistency, and correctness.
Testing: Write and maintain automated tests and work closely with QA engineers to make sure features are properly covered.
Feature Delivery: Take responsibility for assigned backend features from implementation through testing and release.
Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with Frontend, QA, DevOps, product, and design to help complete full product features rather than isolated backend tasks.
Problem-Solving: Raise unclear requirements, technical risks, dependencies, and potential issues early instead of waiting until they become blockers.
What We're Looking For
3+ years of professional backend development experience.
Java: Strong practical knowledge of modern Java development. Experience with Java 21 is preferred.
Spring Boot: Strong hands-on experience building backend applications and services with Spring Boot.
Hibernate / JPA: Practical experience working with ORM-based persistence.
PostgreSQL: Good understanding of relational databases, SQL, data modeling, and query performance.
REST APIs: Experience designing, implementing, testing, and consuming RESTful APIs.
Testing: Experience with automated backend testing and an understanding of why testing is part of development, not something added at the end.

Employment type
Contractor

Work arrangement
Yes