Lead Software Engineer - Java, Microservices, MuleSoft & API Development (Remote)

About the Role

The Lead Software Engineer provides technical leadership for the design, development, integration, testing, deployment, and support of enterprise-scale software solutions, APIs, and cloud-native platforms. This role leads engineering teams through the delivery of complex business solutions while driving architecture strategy, engineering excellence, operational resilience, and modernization efforts. The Lead Software Engineer partners with Architects, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Value Stream Managers, and business stakeholders to define solution roadmaps, establish technical direction, and deliver scalable, secure, and highly available applications. The role serves as a hands-on technical leader responsible for software architecture, microservices development, API platform engineering, system integration, cloud adoption, DevSecOps practices, and mentoring software engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead teams of software engineers in the design, development, implementation, and support of enterprise applications and integration platforms.
• Provide hands-on leadership for architecture, technical design, coding, code reviews, automated testing, and deployment activities.
• Serve as the technical authority and subject matter expert for assigned applications, APIs, and integration platforms.
• Design and deliver highly scalable, secure systems supporting large enterprise user populations.
• Ensure adherence to enterprise architecture standards, security policies, DevSecOps practices, and software engineering best practices.
• Develop and maintain architecture documentation, interface specifications, and technical design artifacts.
• Lead software modernization and cloud-transformation initiatives.
• Define application, integration, and microservices architecture for strategic enterprise initiatives.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, frameworks, and platforms to improve performance, scalability, reliability, and developer productivity.
• Identify technical gaps, system dependencies, and architectural risks while implementing mitigation strategies.
• Lead technology evaluations and recommendations for new solutions and software platforms.
• Participate in architecture reviews, roadmap discussions, and technology governance activities.
• Extend and enhance open-source frameworks and reusable shared services where needed.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, business stakeholders, project managers, and architects to define business requirements and technical solutions.
• Translate business objectives into scalable software architectures and implementation plans.
• Support project estimation, capacity planning, dependency management, and technical cost analysis.
• Lead technical discussions with stakeholders and influence strategic technology decisions.
• Assist in feature estimation, delivery planning, and prioritization efforts.
• Improve application performance, reliability, availability, and observability.
• Lead root cause analysis and resolution of complex production issues.
• Design automation strategies to improve deployment consistency and operational efficiency.
• Champion CI/CD, continuous testing, infrastructure automation, and secure software delivery practices.
• Establish monitoring, logging, alerting, and performance management standards across platforms.
• Mentor, coach, and develop software engineers and technical leads.
• Conduct architecture reviews, code reviews, and technical design reviews.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, quality, and continuous learning.
• Guide engineering teams in Agile delivery methodologies and engineering best practices.
• Provide constructive feedback and leadership across cross-functional teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology or Computer Science OR in lieu of a Bachelor's degree, an additional 4 years of relevant work experience is required in addition to the required work experience.
• 8 years of software design and development, software test and evaluation, software requirements management.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software design and development, software testing and evaluation, and software requirements management.
• Proven experience leading design and delivery of enterprise-scale software systems.
• Experience providing technical leadership across multiple development teams.
• Experience working in Agile software delivery environments.
• Java 11/17+, Spring Framework, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud.
• Spring MVC, Spring Integration, Spring Batch.
• RESTful API and SOAP service development.
• Open API / Swagger specifications.
• Domain-Driven Design (DDD).
• Multi-threading, concurrency, and parallel processing.
• MuleSoft Anypoint Platform.
• DataWeave transformations.
• API Gateway platforms including Microsoft API Management (APIM), Apigee or similar.
• OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and API security patterns.
• Enterprise integration patterns and service orchestration.
• Microsoft Azure and/or AWS.
• Kubernetes, AKS, Docker, and Service Mesh technologies.
• Cloud-native architecture and deployment strategies.
• Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server.
• MongoDB, Cassandra, and NoSQL databases.
• Apache Kafka and Confluent Platform.
• Event-driven architecture and messaging solutions.
• CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar tools.
• Maven, SonarQube, Artifactory.
• Postman, Newman, Rest Assured, TestNG, and Cucumber.
• Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD).
• Splunk, ELK Stack, Kibana, Azure Monitor.
• Application performance monitoring and operational observability platforms.

Skills

• Expert ability to work closely with Architects, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and business stakeholders to deliver business value and strategic outcomes.
• Expert ability to decompose business and technical requirements into scalable solutions, project tasks, and implementation plans.
• Expert knowledge of technical risk management, solution design, and engineering best practices.
• Strong experience evaluating and implementing software and infrastructure technologies.
• Advanced knowledge of cloud platforms including Azure and AWS.
• Advanced knowledge of relational and NoSQL database technologies.
• Advanced understanding of Agile methodologies, CI/CD pipelines, and DevSecOps practices.
• Strong expertise with software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes.
• Expert ability to integrate complex enterprise systems and services.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences.

Pay

The salary range for this position is $115,128 - $228,657. This range considers factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, internal peer equity, and market and business considerations. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range.

Benefits

In addition to your compensation, CareFirst offers a comprehensive benefits package, various incentive programs/plans, and 401k contribution programs/plans (all benefits/incentives are subject to eligibility requirements).