Senior Backend Developer

About the role

This is an eight-month, full-time, day-shift, project-based engagement from 12 October 2026 to 30 June 2027. You must be available to start on 12 October 2026. Work is hybrid: two days per week onsite at an office in Makati City, with the remaining days remote. You will support mobile product delivery for a major Philippine bank. Depending on performance and the client's needs, strong contributors may be considered for absorption by the client organization. As a Senior Backend Developer, you will design, develop, and maintain secure, scalable Java services using Spring Boot that power mobile and related digital products. You will deliver reliable REST APIs, integrations, and data layers that iOS and Android applications depend on, and you will contribute to architecture, engineering standards, code quality, and mentoring within a Java-centric backend stack.

What you'll do

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain production Java services and APIs using Spring Boot and related Spring projects
• Design and implement secure, reliable, and well-documented RESTful APIs for mobile, web, and third-party consumers
• Apply sound service design with Spring Boot, including layering, dependency injection, configuration, and modular boundaries where they fit
• Implement persistence with Spring Data JPA or equivalent patterns, and design schemas, queries, indexes, and transactions for integrity and performance
• Use Spring Security and related patterns for authentication, authorization, and protection of sensitive banking and customer data
• Find and resolve performance bottlenecks in Java services, and design systems that can handle growing transaction volume and concurrent use
• Apply Redis and other caching patterns where they improve latency, throughput, and resilience
• Build and maintain integrations with internal systems, payment services, identity providers, and external APIs
• Develop unit, integration, and API tests with JUnit and common Spring testing tools so services meet reliability, security, and quality standards
• Participate in production support and incident resolution using logs, monitoring, tracing, and metrics
• Conduct and join code reviews for Java and Spring Boot code against standards, architecture, security, and maintainability
• Document APIs, architecture, integrations, data models, deployment, and operational procedures
• Work with DevOps and platform teammates on deployment to AWS or Microsoft Azure, and on Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift, including build, testing, monitoring, and release processes
• Provide technical guidance on Java and Spring Boot, contribute to architecture decisions, mentor engineers, and help set engineering standards
• Work with product managers, mobile engineers, QA, DevOps, cybersecurity, architects, and business stakeholders
• Evaluate libraries, frameworks, and patterns in the Java and Spring ecosystem and recommend pragmatic improvements

What you'll bring

• Availability to start full-time on 12 October 2026, work day-shift hours, and attend onsite work in Makati City two days per week through 30 June 2027
• 5 or more years of professional backend development, with significant production experience building and supporting Java applications and APIs
• Strong proficiency in Java and practical, hands-on experience delivering services with Spring Boot
• Experience with core Spring projects such as Spring Web, Spring Data JPA, Spring Security, and Spring validation
• Strong experience designing RESTful APIs, including versioning, authentication, authorization, error handling, pagination, and API lifecycle practices
• Strong understanding of object-oriented design, clean code, SOLID principles, design patterns, and engineering best practices in Java
• Experience with scalable backend architectures, including modular monoliths, service-oriented designs, or microservices where appropriate
• Strong knowledge of relational databases, especially PostgreSQL and Oracle, including schema design, indexing, query optimization, transactions, and data integrity
• Experience with NoSQL data stores and Redis for caching, session, or other performance-sensitive backend patterns
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, asynchronous processing, messaging, concurrency, fault tolerance, and reliability
• Experience with message brokers and event-driven patterns such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent technologies
• Strong understanding of OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, JWT, and role-based access control in API and service design
• Experience protecting personally identifiable information, financial information, credentials, tokens, and other sensitive data
• Experience with AWS or Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure, and with deploying and operating containerized workloads on Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift
• Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, Git workflows, code quality tools, and deployment automation for Java services
• Familiarity with centralized logging, metrics, distributed tracing, application performance monitoring, and alerting
• Strong understanding of Agile or Scrum delivery, code reviews, and production release management
• Ability to troubleshoot complex production issues in Java services and explain technical concepts clearly
• Demonstrated ability to guide developers, join architecture discussions, and influence engineering decisions

Nice to have

• 10 or more years of professional backend development, with significant production experience building and supporting Java and Spring Boot systems
• Experience with Node.js using Express or NestJS, including APIs or services that complement a Java and Spring Boot stack
• Experience with Kotlin on the JVM or other JVM languages alongside Java
• Experience with additional NoSQL platforms such as MongoDB or DynamoDB beyond Redis caching use cases
• Experience designing backend platforms for high transaction volumes, large user bases, or mission-critical enterprise applications
• Experience in banking, financial services, payments, fintech, insurance, or other regulated industries
• Experience with payments, account management, transaction processing, financial data, or reconciliation
• Experience with secure SDLC practices, vulnerability management, penetration-test remediation, audit requirements, or compliance-driven environments
• Experience designing for high availability, disaster recovery, fault tolerance, graceful degradation, and business continuity
• Strong experience with cloud-native services, containers, serverless technologies, infrastructure as code, and cloud security
• Proven experience operating microservices or distributed systems in production, including event-driven systems
• Experience with API gateways, API management, service meshes, rate limiting, and traffic management
• Experience with load testing, capacity planning, profiling, and scalability analysis
• Experience implementing logging, metrics, tracing, dashboards, alerting, and production monitoring
• Experience as a technical lead, including mentoring, architecture reviews, and engineering standards
• Experience owning backend services from requirements through development, deployment, incidents, and improvement
• Experience supporting mobile and web applications, enterprise systems, payment providers, and identity platforms
• Experience designing backends for Android and iOS, including mobile authentication, push notifications, device and session management, and mobile API performance
• Experience establishing API standards, architecture documentation, and technical governance