Senior Software Development Engineer III - Backend
First seen by Alion on Aug 19, 2026.
About the Role:
We are looking for an SDE 3 / Senior Backend Engineer with 6+ years of backend engineering experience and strong expertise in Java, Spring Boot, microservices, system design, and AI-assisted software development. A key part of this role is owning and improving an Agentic SDLC using AI coding agents across design, implementation, code review, testing, debugging, and production monitoring.
Backend Engineering Responsibilities:
- Design, build, and own scalable backend services using Java, Spring Boot, and microservices.
- Own server-side architecture, business logic, data models, APIs, and integrations.
- Drive HLD and LLD for new services and major system refactors.
- Ensure production systems meet requirements for scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability.
Agentic SDLC Responsibilities:
- Drive the adoption of AI agents across the software development lifecycle.
- Apply agentic tooling to design, implementation, code reviews, testing, debugging, and production monitoring.
- Build reusable workflows, custom agents/subagents, and repository-level context/instruction frameworks.
- Develop MCP integrations with internal systems such as Jira, BigQuery, observability platforms, and documentation.
- Establish standards for reviewing and validating AI-generated code.
- Measure and improve engineering workflows using metrics such as cycle time, review turnaround, test coverage, and escaped defects.
- Enable engineers to effectively adopt AI-assisted development while maintaining appropriate security, licensing, and data-handling guardrails.
Technical Leadership:
- Provide technical direction across teams.
- Lead architecture and cross-functional design discussions.
- Mentor senior and mid-level engineers.
- Make informed build/buy/delegate decisions for engineering and AI tooling.
Requirements:
- 6+ years of backend engineering experience, including 2+ years in a lead/tech lead capacity.
- Strong hands-on expertise in Java, Spring Boot, Hibernate/JPA, and microservices.
- Strong experience with HLD, LLD, system design, and production-scale backend systems.
- Proven experience designing, developing, deploying, and owning microservices in production.
- Hands-on Agentic SDLC experience within the last 12 months, with AI agents being a significant part of your engineering workflow.
- Experience with tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Devin, Copilot Workspace/Agent Mode, Aider, or equivalent.
- Experience applying AI agents to at least 3 areas of the SDLC: system/design, implementation, code review, test generation, and production debugging/monitoring.
- Strong understanding of where AI agents can fail, including context limitations, hallucinated APIs, incorrect tests, and review fatigue.
- Strong fundamentals in Git, CI/CD, automated testing, and software development lifecycle.
- Ability to work effectively across multiple teams and influence technical decisions.
Tech Stack:
- Java, Spring Boot, Hibernate/JPA, Microservices, AI/LLM, Agentic SDLC.
Skills
Java, Spring Boot, Microservices Architecture, System Design, Hibernate, JPA, Backend Architecture, SDLC