Software Developer Lead

About the Opportunity

At Dayforce, we are transforming Powerpay, our Canadian payroll and human capital management solution, by modernizing existing applications and building scalable, cloud-native services.

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on Lead Software Developer who combines strong Java technical expertise with leadership, architectural thinking, and a passion for modern engineering practices.

You will play a key role in our modernization journey, working with Java, Spring Boot, microservices, AWS cloud infrastructure, and AI-powered development tools.

This position requires someone who can actively contribute code, make sound technical decisions, mentor developers, and help the team consistently deliver high-quality solutions.

What You'll Get to Do

Lead the design, development, and delivery of scalable backend applications using Java and Spring Boot.

Remain actively involved in hands-on coding, debugging, testing, and technical problem-solving.

Design and implement RESTful APIs, microservices, and integration solutions.

Drive modernization initiatives, transitioning legacy functionality toward cloud-native architectures.

Collaborate with architects, Product Owners, QA engineers, DevOps engineers, and frontend development teams.

Provide technical direction, review designs, and ensure application quality, maintainability, performance, and security.

Mentor and coach developers through code reviews, technical discussions, and knowledge sharing.

Take ownership of complex technical challenges and contribute to sprint planning, estimation, and delivery commitments.

Promote engineering best practices, including automated testing, continuous integration, observability, and secure development.

Champion responsible AI-assisted software development to improve engineering productivity and delivery efficiency.

Skills and Experience We Value

Backend Engineering

Strong hands-on experience with Java, preferably Java 17 or later.

Proven expertise with Spring Boot, Spring Framework, and dependency injection.

Solid understanding of object-oriented programming, SOLID principles, design patterns, and clean architecture.

Experience designing RESTful APIs and distributed microservices.

Strong knowledge of relational databases such as PostgreSQL, DB2, or SQL Server.

Experience writing unit tests, integration tests, and implementing automated quality practices.

Strong debugging, troubleshooting, and performance optimization capabilities.

Experience with multithreading, concurrency, and asynchronous processing.

Cloud and DevOps

Practical experience with AWS or an equivalent cloud platform.

Understanding of cloud-native architectures and distributed application design.

Experience with Docker and containerized applications.

Familiarity with AWS services such as ECS, RDS, S3, SQS, and API Gateway.

Experience working with CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Harness, Jenkins, or GitHub Actions.

Understanding of application monitoring, scalability, security, and resilience.

Technical Leadership

Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and guide development teams.

Strong code review, mentoring, and coaching capabilities.

Ability to assess architectural alternatives and communicate technical trade-offs.

Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.

Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.

Strong communication, collaboration, and ownership mindset.

AI-Assisted Engineering

At Dayforce, we embrace modern AI-powered engineering practices to improve productivity, accelerate innovation, and enhance software quality.

We value candidates who can demonstrate the ability to:

Effectively use AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, or similar tools.

Apply AI to accelerate development, refactoring, debugging, documentation, and automated testing.

Write clear, context-rich prompts and critically evaluate AI-generated solutions.

Validate generated code for correctness, security, performance, and maintainability.

Incorporate AI into development workflows while maintaining strong engineering discipline.

Coach team members in the responsible and effective adoption of AI-assisted development.

What Would Make You Stand Out

Experience building and operating AWS cloud-native applications using ECS/Fargate.

Experience with event-driven architectures and messaging systems.

Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code, such as Terraform.

Experience modernizing legacy enterprise applications.

Experience with highly secure, scalable, business-critical systems.

Experience in payroll, financial services, or human capital management applications.

Demonstrated success improving team productivity through AI-powered development workflows.

What Success Looks Like

You will be a trusted technical leader who remains close to the code, drives sound architectural decisions, raises engineering standards, and mentors developers.

You will contribute directly to the Powerpay modernization journey while ensuring our solutions remain reliable, secure, scalable, and maintainable.