Software Engineer Lead - Contractor

Apply

Position Title: Software Engineer Lead
Position Location: 5 days onsite
Pittsburgh PA
Strongsville, OH

Position Duration: 6 months

Roles/Responsibilities:
• Multiple years of experience in software development with strong focus on Java / J2EE technologies.
• Proven experience in programming microservices-based applications, Kafka, Kstreams and Flink.
• Strong knowledge of Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Hibernate, REST APIs.
• Hands-on experience writing queries with Oracle and MSSQL Databases.
• Good understanding of containerization technologies like OCP, Docker, Kubernetes
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git, Jenkins, and automated testing tools.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to lead technical teams.
• Provides technical guidance and support to colleagues and solution development.
• Preferred Skills:
o??Certifications in Kafka, Java technologies.
o??Experience with event-driven architecture, messaging systems like Kafka or RabbitMQ.
o??Exposure to SAFE Agile/Scrum methodologies
• Understanding of Kafka architecture (brokers, partitions, topics, producers, consumers) (High level) o??Experience with Kafka Producers and Consumers using the Kafka Java client
o??Knowledge of Kafka topic configurations (retention, replication, partitioning) (High level)
o??Understanding of the Kafka Streams
• Distributed Processing Concepts (Just a high level)
o??Familiarity with event-driven architecture
o??Knowledge of exactly-once processing vs at-least-once processing
o??Understanding of stream-table duality (Kafka Streams vs. KTables)
o??Schema Management
o??Experience with Avro, Protobuf, or JSON for structured messages
• Integration with External Systems
o??Connecting Kafka Streams with databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra)
o??Using Kafka Connect for external data integration
o??Knowledge of REST APIs and how to expose data from Kafka Streams
• DevOps and Deployment*
o??Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes for containerized deployment
o??Using CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI)
o??Logging and tracing using ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) or OpenTelemetry (High level understanding)
• Testing Kafka Streams Applications
o??Writing unit tests with Mockito and JUnit
o??Using TestContainers for integration testing with Kafka
o??Validating Kafka Streams topologies using TopologyTestDriver
• API developers:
o??Experience building REST APIs using Spring Boot
o??Experience with Spring Data/Spring Data JPA for connecting to and reading from databases via APIs
o??Experience writing unit tests using JUnit/Spock
o??Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins
o??Familiarity with SQL/NoSQL databases

• Nice-to-have Skills:
o??Monitoring and Optimization
o??Understanding of Kafka Streams metrics (through JMX, Grafana, Prometheus)
o??Profiling performance and tuning configurations (buffer sizes, commit intervals)
o??Handling out-of-order events and rebalancing issues
o??Knowledge of Apache Flink or KSQLDB for alternative stream processing
o??Knowledge of Docker, OpenShift
o??Experience with tools like Dynatrace for troubleshooting ----------

MUST HAVE SKILLS:
• Kafka – Expert level (see roles/responsibilities for in depth skill description)
• Java / J2EE technologies – Expert Level
• Apache basics
• Strong knowledge of Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Hibernate, REST APIs.
Experience building REST APIs using Spring Boot
• Experience with Spring Data/Spring Data JPA for connecting to and reading from databases via APIs • Experience writing unit tests using JUnit/Spock
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins • Familiarity with SQL/NoSQL databases ----------

FLEX SKILLS: • Knowledge of REST APIs • DevOps and Deployment* • Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes for containerized deployment • Using CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI) • Knowledge of Apache Flink or KSQLDB for alternative stream processing • Knowledge of Docker, OpenShift

Please apply to the job posting if you have the relevant skills and experience and our team will get in touch with you.

Ref: #404-IT Pittsburgh

Type: Contract

Experience: 0

Category: Information Technology

Contractor Work Model: Onsite

Brand: System One

Shift: On-Site

Job ID: 347121

Date Posted: 03/03/2026

Shortcut: https://jobs.systemone.com/QKQ0nd