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Cozen Technology Solutions Inc

Lead Java Developer

Hybrid

Chicago, United states

Senior

Freelance

03-03-2026

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Skills

Communication Leadership Java Kotlin SQL NoSQL MongoDB Cassandra CI/CD Architecture Databases AWS Agile Spring Analytical Thinking Spring Boot Kafka Microservices

Job Specifications

Position’s Contributions to Work Group:

The Lead Software Engineer will provide deep technical leadership for the design and implementation of Java‑based, cloud‑native systems on AWS, defining service architecture, data flows, and integration patterns to meet strict scalability, availability, and security requirements. This role will drive architectural decisions across microservices, event‑driven, and asynchronous processing patterns, ensuring clear service ownership and well‑defined contracts.
The position will lead development of core backend services using modern Java frameworks and AWS‑native patterns, including RESTful and event‑based APIs, message‑driven processing, and distributed data management. The Lead Engineer will guide adoption of AWS services such as managed compute, messaging, storage, and databases, and will define standards for infrastructure‑as‑code, resiliency, fault tolerance, and graceful degradation.
In addition, this role will establish technical best practices for CI/CD automation, observability, logging, metrics, and tracing to support reliable operation of distributed systems in production. By proactively identifying architectural bottlenecks, scalability constraints, and technical debt, the Lead Software Engineer will directly improve system performance, reliability, and long‑term maintainability while enabling the work group to scale features and throughput efficiently.

Education & Experience Required:

NO Degree required
Must have 10+ years’ experience as a PM
At least 3+ years’ experience in leading a team is preferred.

Required Technical Skills

(Required)

Strong AWS expertise, including designing and operating cloud‑native, highly available distributed systems
Advanced Java and/or Kotlin in production environments
Spring Boot for building microservices and REST APIs (e.g., Spring Web/MVC, dependency injection, configuration, actuator/health checks)
Microservices architecture and distributed systems patterns (service boundaries, resiliency, fault tolerance)
RESTful API design & implementation, including documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger)
SQL + relational databases (data modeling, query tuning, performance)
NoSQL / non‑relational data stores (e.g., DynamoDB/MongoDB/Cassandra)
CI/CD and build/deploy automation (pipelines, quality gates, repeatable releases)
Data streaming / asynchronous messaging (event‑driven patterns; e.g., Kafka)
Observability & production troubleshooting (logging/metrics/tracing, incident investigation)

Soft Skills

(Required)

Strong technical communication skills, able to clearly explain complex designs and trade‑offs to engineers, product owners, and managers
Collaborative mindset with the ability to work effectively across teams on shared architectures and dependencies
Technical leadership and ownership, driving decisions and follow‑through on complex engineering problems
Problem‑solving and analytical thinking, especially in debugging, production support, and performance issues
Ability to balance technical depth with delivery, making pragmatic decisions aligned with business priorities
Comfortable participating in Agile ceremonies and technical discussions while remaining primarily hands‑on

Typical task breakdown:

Hands‑on development (Java / AWS): ~45–55%
Designing and implementing backend services, cloud‑native components, and core platform functionality.
Production support & bug fixes: ~15–20%
Investigating and resolving defects, performance issues, and production incidents; implementing fixes and improvements to ensure system stability and reliability.
Code reviews & technical design: ~15–20%
Reviewing pull requests, leading technical design discussions, and defining architecture and implementation standards.
Technical collaboration & cross‑team alignment: ~5–10%
Participating in architecture reviews, integration discussions, and coordination with other engineering teams.
Agile & required technical ceremonies: ~5–10%
Sprint planning, backlog refinement, stand‑ups, retrospectives, and necessary technical or operational calls.

Regards

Durga

durga@cozentech.com

About the Company

Redefining Legacy Systems Through Digital Transformation--Advancing IT Excellence Worldwide At Cozen Technology Solutions, we are a dynamic, trusted IT services provider, revolutionizing technology and innovation. Our mission is simple yet powerful: to deliver reliable, affordable, and transformative digital IT solutions that optimize operations, enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and strengthen core business needs across industries. Why Choose Cozen Technology Solutions? With decades of expertise and deep industry insight, w... Know more