Senior Java AI Developer

Join a leading financial services institution, where innovation meets impact, and every line of code contributes to a secure and intelligent future for clients. This organization is at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge technology to deliver exceptional service and robust financial solutions. Partnering with Aquent Talent, we are seeking visionary talent to drive forward our mission, making a tangible impact on the creation of intelligent, reliable systems that significantly enhance client experiences and expand business capabilities.

About the Opportunity

Are you ready to be at the forefront of transforming how intelligent systems are built and delivered? This is a pivotal role where your expertise will directly shape AI-focused workflows across the entire System Development Life Cycle. You will be instrumental in bridging advanced Java engineering, cutting-edge event-driven architectures, and robust cloud-native platforms with the transformative power of Generative AI-assisted delivery. If you're passionate about pioneering the future of AI in enterprise software and eager to make a profound impact, this opportunity offers an unparalleled chance to innovate, lead, and leave your mark on the next generation of financial technology.

What You'll Do

• Lead the design and development of highly scalable, resilient, observable, and performant Java-based, cloud-native, event-driven applications that power critical financial services.
• Build and modernize services utilizing core Java technologies, Spring Boot, advanced messaging platforms, REST APIs, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, container platforms, and sophisticated distributed system patterns.
• Collaborate closely with architects, fellow developers, product owners, and cross-functional teams to translate complex business requirements into high-quality, impactful technical solutions.
• Leverage Generative AI-assisted development tools to dramatically accelerate implementation, refactoring, unit testing, documentation, troubleshooting, modernization analysis, and overall engineering workflow improvements.
• Establish and champion responsible AI-assisted development practices, including the creation of reusable prompts, custom instructions, rigorous review expectations, robust validation standards, and team-level adoption patterns.
• Drive engineering quality through comprehensive code reviews, automated testing strategies, robust observability frameworks, resiliency validation, performance tuning, and best-in-class production readiness practices.
• Mentor and guide engineers on Java engineering standards, distributed architecture principles, cloud-native design, event streaming, and advanced AI-augmented System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) practices.
• Contribute significantly to modernization initiatives, transitioning legacy capabilities toward distributed Java services, event-driven platforms, and cloud-native operating models, enhancing efficiency and agility.

Must-Have Qualifications

Core Technical Expertise

• Demonstrated experience leading the design and implementation of highly scalable, resilient, and event-driven applications using Java, Spring Boot, messaging platforms, and cloud-native architectures.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems, stream processing, performance optimization, resiliency patterns, observability patterns, and high-availability application design.
• Experience designing and implementing RESTful services, microservices, asynchronous message flows, and integration patterns for high-volume enterprise platforms.
• Working experience with messaging platforms, observability tools, JSON/XML, caching mechanisms, performance analysis, profiling, and production troubleshooting.
• Experience being a technical lead for a team and/or project, including solution design, establishing engineering standards, leading code review practices, and taking ownership of technical delivery.

AI-Enabled Engineering Expertise

• Demonstrated hands-on experience using Generative AI coding assistants across various SDLC workflows, including implementation, refactoring, unit testing, regression support, code reviews, scripting, automation, troubleshooting, and documentation, while maintaining full ownership for correctness, quality, and engineering validation.
• Practical familiarity with AI-assisted coding tools in Integrated Development Environments (IDE) or Command Line Interface (CLI)-based workflows, with the ability to apply AI assistance to reduce context switching and accelerate delivery beyond mere code generation.
• Working knowledge of agentic workflows, spec-driven development, custom instructions, and prompt engineering, with the ability to establish team-level practices for effective AI-assisted development.
• Ability to apply AI-assisted approaches responsibly for code generation, test generation, technical documentation, root cause analysis support, modernization analysis, and development workflow optimization.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience developing scalable, high-performance Java, cloud-based, and web services applications that support high-volume transactions in highly available environments.
• 6+ years of experience building and deploying cloud-native applications using modern cloud platforms (e.g., containerization technologies, orchestration platforms, microservices, and CI/CD practices).
• Experience with cloud platforms and deployment environments.
• 2+ years of experience working with databases such as relational and NoSQL platforms.
• 2+ years prior experience in IT transformation and system modernization initiatives from legacy platforms to distributed Java, cloud-native, and event-driven architectures.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with AI/ML implementation, AI-assisted engineering practices, or production deployment of AI-enabled solutions.
• Hands-on experience or practical exposure to Large Language Models or comparable enterprise AI platforms.
• Knowledge of Agile methodology and experience in an Agile working environment.
• Experience with Agile project management tools.
• Domain / Industry: Understands complex financial system capabilities and operations, with preferred experience in the financial services industry.
• Communication: Communicates clearly and effectively, with proven ability to guide and collaborate with engineers in a team-oriented environment.
• Execution Focus: Brings a collaborative mindset and bias for action, effectively partnering with developers, architects, product owners, and adjacent teams to drive outcomes.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Master's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related degree, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience in Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Quality Assurance (QA) automation, and a strong quality engineering mindset and behaviors.
• Experience with Spring Cloud, Spring Security, reactive programming, API gateways, service mesh, or comparable Java ecosystem capabilities.
• Experience with performance engineering, reliability testing, resiliency testing, and operational readiness practices for high-volume distributed platforms.
• Proficient in creating architecture diagrams, design documentation, functional and technical specifications, automated test process documentation, runbooks, and production/test environment documentation.
• Familiarity with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, AI orchestration patterns, agent-based workflows, or enterprise AI platform integration is a plus.

About Aquent Talent

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world's biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits!

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.

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