Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer and client asked for more candidates with LEAD experience:

Remote

I'm looking for someone with strong technical expertise in Java, SQL, Spring Boot, and React, along with hands-on experience using Claude. Ideally, this person should also demonstrate strong leadership qualities and the ability to guide and mentor engineering teams in the right direction.

Assessment required

• Assessment: "CO - Principal Engineer - Client" (Java 30%, Spring Boot 30%, SQL 20%, React 20%)

Job Description

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES ?

Lead the design and delivery of scalable microservices using Java and Spring Boot, ensuring clean separation of concerns and resilience. ? Design and optimize MS SQL schemas, stored procedures, and queries to support high-throughput transactional workloads. ? Architect and maintain Kafka-based event-streaming pipelines for real-time data processing and decoupled service communication. ? Collaborate with UX and product teams to build responsive, accessible front-end interfaces integrated with back-end APIs. ? Conduct code reviews, define coding standards, and drive adoption of engineering best practices across the team. ? Mentor and coach 4–8 engineers; run 1:1s, support career growth, and resolve technical blockers. ? Partner with product managers and architects to translate business requirements into technical roadmaps. ? Champion observability, security, and CI/CD practices across the platform. ? Actively contribute to hiring — screen candidates, run technical interviews, and help build the team.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE ? 10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience with a track record of delivering production systems at scale. ? Deep expertise in Java (11+) and the Spring ecosystem — Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring Data. ? Strong MS SQL skills — indexing strategies, execution plans, normalization, and T-SQL development. ? Proven experience building and operating Kafka pipelines in a distributed microservices environment. ? Solid front-end proficiency in at least one modern framework (React, Angular, or Vue) with an eye for usability. ?

Demonstrated leadership

led a team of engineers, owned delivery milestones, and influenced architectural decisions. ? Comfortable in Agile/Scrum environments; experience facilitating sprint ceremonies. ? Strong communication skills — able to explain complex decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. ? Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) is a strong plus. LEADERSHIP & SOFT SKILLS ? Inspires a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement within the team. ? Approaches conflict with empathy; builds consensus while being willing to make tough calls. ? Proactively identifies risks and escalates with solutions, not just problems. ? Acts as a bridge between engineering and the wider business — translating strategy into execution.