Job Specifications
Cullerton Group has a new opportunity for an IT Software Engineer 5 (Lead Software Engineer). The work will be done in a hybrid model, requiring 3 days per week onsite at the Chicago, IL office. This is a long-term 12-month position that can lead to permanent employment with our client. Compensation is up to $100/hr + full benefits (vision, dental, health insurance, 401k, and holiday pay).
Job Summary
Cullerton Group is seeking a senior-level Lead Software Engineer to provide deep technical leadership in the design and implementation of Java-based, cloud-native systems on AWS. This role will define service architecture, data flows, and integration patterns to meet strict scalability, availability, and security requirements. The engineer will lead development of microservices, event-driven systems, and distributed backend platforms while establishing best practices for CI/CD, observability, resiliency, and cloud infrastructure standards. This is a highly hands-on leadership role within a collaborative Agile environment.
Key Responsibilities
• Design and implement scalable, cloud-native backend services using Java (or Kotlin) and Spring Boot
• Define and guide microservices architecture, event-driven processing, and distributed system patterns
• Lead architectural decisions around AWS services, infrastructure-as-code, resiliency, and fault tolerance
• Establish CI/CD automation, observability standards, and production support best practices
• Mentor engineers, conduct code reviews, and drive technical excellence across teams
Required Qualifications
• No degree required; strong practical experience is essential
• 10+ years of professional software development experience
• 3+ years of experience leading technical teams or serving as a technical lead
• Strong AWS expertise designing highly available distributed systems
• Advanced Java (and/or Kotlin) experience in production environments
• Experience with Spring Boot, RESTful API design, and OpenAPI/Swagger
• Experience with SQL and relational databases (data modeling and performance tuning)
• Experience with NoSQL databases (DynamoDB, MongoDB, Cassandra, etc.)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and build/deploy automation
• Experience with event-driven systems and asynchronous messaging (e.g., Kafka)
• Experience with observability tools (logging, metrics, tracing) and production troubleshooting
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience defining enterprise-wide cloud architecture standards
• Strong background in distributed systems design and performance optimization
• Experience mentoring geographically distributed teams
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
Why This Role?
This position offers an opportunity to lead backend architecture and cloud-native platform development supporting large-scale industrial digital systems. You will influence technical direction, mentor engineering teams, and design highly available distributed systems in AWS. Cullerton Group provides a professional environment with strong growth potential and a long-term partnership supporting a global leader in heavy machinery and manufacturing.