Java/J2EE Technical Lead - Vice President

We are seeking an experienced and highly skilled Java/J2EE Technical Lead at the C13 (Vice President) level to join our Technology organization. The ideal candidate will lead the design, development, and delivery of complex enterprise-grade applications using Java, Spring, Angular, React, Oracle, Kafka, IBM MQ, WebSphere Application Server (WAS), ECS/OpenShift, and Microservices architectures. This role requires a strong engineering mindset, leadership capability, and a passion for building resilient, high-performance financial systems.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Lead end-to-end design, development, and delivery of enterprise Java/J2EE applications.
• Provide technical direction, mentorship, and guidance to a team of 5-10 software engineers.
• Conduct code reviews, enforce coding standards, and champion engineering best practices including TDD and BDD.
• Drive architectural decisions across microservices, API design, and UI layers.

Backend Development

• Design and develop scalable Java (11/17) and Spring Boot / Spring Framework microservices.
• Build RESTful APIs and integrate with enterprise messaging platforms - Apache Kafka and IBM MQ.
• Deploy and manage applications on WebSphere Application Server (WAS) and container platforms (ECS / OpenShift / Kubernetes).
• Develop and optimize complex queries, stored procedures, and schema designs using Oracle Database.

Frontend Development

• Collaborate with UI teams on Angular and React based Single Page Applications (SPAs).
• Ensure seamless API integration between backend microservices and frontend layers.
• Enforce UI coding standards, component reusability, and accessibility compliance.

Microservices & Architecture

• Architect and deliver cloud-native microservices following domain-driven design (DDD) and event-driven architecture patterns.
• Design inter-service communication using synchronous REST and asynchronous messaging (Kafka, IBM MQ).
• Ensure services meet enterprise standards for scalability, resilience, and fault tolerance.
• Lead migration of monolithic applications to microservices architecture where applicable.

Messaging & Integration

• Design and implement Kafka-based event streaming pipelines for real-time data processing.
• Configure and manage IBM MQ queues, topics, channels, and listeners for enterprise messaging.
• Ensure message reliability, ordering, idempotency, and dead-letter handling.

Quality Assurance & Test Automation

• Champion a test-first culture across the engineering team.
• Lead development of unit, integration, and end-to-end test suites using JUnit 5, Mockito, Selenium, and Cucumber.
• Implement and maintain test automation frameworks integrated into CI/CD pipelines.
• Drive code coverage targets (>80%) and quality gate compliance via SonarQube.

DevOps & Delivery

• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Maven/Gradle, and container orchestration tools.
• Deploy microservices on ECS (Elastic Container Service) and/or OpenShift clusters.
• Ensure deployment health through monitoring, alerting, and observability tooling.

Collaboration & Governance

• Partner with Product Owners, Business Analysts, QA leads, and infrastructure teams.
• Participate in architecture review boards and contribute to technology standards.
• Ensure solutions comply with security, risk, and audit requirements.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field (required).
• Master's degree preferred.

Experience

• 10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience.
• 5+ years in a technical lead or senior engineering capacity.
• Proven experience in financial services / banking technology environments preferred.

Technical Skills

Category

Technologies / Skills

Core Languages

Java (11/17), J2EE, SQL, TypeScript, JavaScript

Backend Frameworks

Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Security, Spring Batch, Hibernate, JPA

Frontend Frameworks

Angular (12+), React (17/18), HTML5, CSS3, RxJS, Redux

Messaging & Streaming

Apache Kafka, IBM MQ (MQ Series)

Application Servers

WebSphere Application Server (WAS), Tomcat, JBoss

Databases

Oracle (PL/SQL, RAC), PostgreSQL, Redis

Container & Cloud

ECS (AWS Elastic Container Service), OpenShift, Kubernetes, Docker

Testing & QA

JUnit 5, Mockito, Selenium, Cucumber, REST Assured, SonarQube

Test Automation

CI-integrated test pipelines, BDD frameworks, Performance Testing (JMeter)

CI/CD & DevOps

Jenkins, Maven, Gradle, Git, Nexus/Artifactory

Security

OAuth 2.0, JWT, SSL/TLS, Vault, LDAP

Architecture Patterns

Microservices, Event-Driven, CQRS, API Gateway, Circuit Breaker

Methodologies

Agile/Scrum, SAFe, TDD, BDD, DevSecOps

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience deploying on AWS ECS with Fargate or EC2-backed clusters.
• Experience with IBM MQ administration and advanced configuration (clustering, SSL, HA).
• Familiarity with Kafka Streams, Schema Registry, and Confluent Platform.
• Exposure to Oracle RAC, GoldenGate, or Data Guard for high availability.
• Knowledge of API Gateway patterns (Apigee, AWS API Gateway).
• Experience with Citi internal platforms such as Helix, Lightspeed Enterprise (LSE), or COIN.
• Certifications: Oracle Certified Professional (Java SE), AWS Certified Developer/Solutions Architect, Kafka Certified Developer.

Leadership & Behavioral Competencies

• Strong technical judgment with the ability to make sound architectural decisions under ambiguity.
• Proven ability to lead, coach, and grow engineering talent.
• Excellent verbal and written communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaborative and inclusive team leader with a continuous improvement mindset.
• High accountability and ownership for engineering delivery and quality.
• Passion for emerging technologies and innovation in financial services.

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