Java Backend & Microservices Applications Development Manager, Vice President

About the role

Citi seeks an experienced and visionary Java Backend Development Lead to spearhead the design, development, and deployment of AI-powered platforms. The role involves leading a team of backend engineers, architecting scalable backend services, integrating AI/ML models, overseeing full lifecycle development, ensuring code quality, collaborating with product and stakeholders, and driving innovation.

Location: Irving, Texas, United States.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and mentor a team of backend developers in a fast-paced, Agile environment; foster collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Architect and design robust, scalable, high-performance backend services and APIs using Java, Spring Boot, and microservices principles; ensure security, reliability, and readiness for future growth.
• Collaborate with data scientists and ML engineers to integrate and deploy AI/ML models into production; design APIs and data pipelines for real-time inferencing and model retraining.
• Oversee the full software development lifecycle: requirements gathering, technical design, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
• Champion and enforce best practices for code quality, unit/integration testing, and CI/CD; conduct code reviews and provide feedback.
• Work closely with product managers, stakeholders, and other engineering teams to define technical requirements, set priorities, and ensure timely feature delivery.
• Stay current with emerging trends in backend development, AI, and ML; drive innovation by prototyping new ideas and evaluating new tools.

Requirements

• 6+ years of professional experience in backend software development with strong command of Java.
• 3+ years of experience in a technical leadership or lead developer role, with a proven track record of delivering complex projects.
• Extensive experience with the Spring Framework, particularly Spring Boot, for building microservices.
• Solid understanding of microservices architecture, containerization (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Proficient in designing and building RESTful APIs and event-driven systems.
• Strong experience with relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra).
• Experience with message brokers such as Apache Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• Strong understanding of software development principles, design patterns, and Agile methodologies.