Our vision for the future is based on the idea that transforming financial lives starts by giving our people the freedom to transform their own. We have a flexible work environment, and fluid career paths. We not only encourage but celebrate internal mobility. We also recognize the importance of purpose, well-being, and work-life balance. Within Empower and our communities, we work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, and our associates dedicate thousands of hours to volunteering for causes that matter most to them.

Chart your own path and grow your career while helping more customers achieve financial freedom. Empower Yourself.

Software Engineer – Java / Full Stack

About the Role

We are looking for a Software Engineer – Java / Full Stack with 2–5 years of experience to design, develop, enhance, and modernize enterprise applications within the Retirement and Financial Services domain.

The role is primarily focused on Java 21, Spring Boot, Microservices, Kafka, REST APIs, Oracle, AWS, and cloud-native application development.

The ideal candidate has strong Java backend development fundamentals, experience building enterprise applications, an understanding of distributed and event-driven systems, and an interest in modernizing applications using cloud-native technologies.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain scalable backend applications using Java, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud Stream, and Spring Batch.

• Build and maintain microservices and REST APIs following established engineering standards and best practices.

• Develop and support event-driven applications using Apache Kafka and AWS MSK.

• Contribute to the modernization of legacy applications into modern, scalable, and cloud-native architectures.

• Design, develop, and optimize database queries, schemas, and application data-access components.

• Develop, deploy, and support applications running on AWS.

• Implement resilient application patterns including retries, error handling, idempotency, dead-letter processing, and fault tolerance.

• Contribute to and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and GitLab Runner.

• Troubleshoot application, database, integration, and production performance issues.

• Participate in technical design discussions, code reviews, testing, and engineering best practices.

• Collaborate with developers, product owners, QA engineers, architects, and other cross-functional teams in an Agile environment.

• Create and maintain technical documentation for application components, APIs, integrations, and operational processes.

Required Technical Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or an equivalent combination of training and experience.

• 2–5 years of software engineering or application development experience with enterprise-scale applications.

• Strong hands-on programming experience with Java, preferably including modern Java versions and features.

• Experience developing applications using Spring Boot and related Spring technologies.

• Experience building and consuming REST APIs and microservices.

• Working experience with Apache Kafka, AWS MSK, Confluent Cloud, AWS Kinesis, or similar event-streaming technologies.

• Understanding of event-driven architectures, asynchronous processing, and distributed systems.

• Experience working with relational databases such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, or MySQL, including SQL development and query optimization.

• Working knowledge of AWS and cloud-native application development.

• Familiarity with streaming frameworks or libraries such as Kafka Streams, Spring Cloud Stream, Flink, or Spark Structured Streaming.

• Familiarity with CDC and integration technologies such as Debezium, Kafka Connect, Oracle Redo, PostgreSQL WAL, or MySQL binlog.

• Understanding of data modeling, ETL/ELT processes, and data integration patterns.

• Familiarity with schema management and data contracts using technologies such as Schema Registry, including basic understanding of schema evolution and compatibility.

• Working knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD automation.

• Experience with source control and development tools such as Git, GitLab, Maven/Gradle, Jenkins, and IDEs.

• Understanding of software engineering fundamentals including object-oriented design, design patterns, unit testing, integration testing, and clean coding practices.

• Strong problem-solving, debugging, analytical, and communication skills.

• Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.

Additional / Preferred Skills

• Experience with Spring Batch for batch processing and scheduled workloads.

• Experience with Spring Cloud Stream for event-driven microservices.

• Exposure to modern data platforms, cloud warehouses, or lakehouse technologies such as Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Snowflake, or BigQuery.

• Understanding of resilient application patterns including dead-letter queues, automated reprocessing, circuit breakers, retries, and deterministic idempotency keys.

• Familiarity with Domain-Driven Design (DDD), Event Sourcing, and CQRS concepts.

• Experience working with event contracts and schema lifecycle management, including backward and forward compatibility.

• Exposure to observability and monitoring tools for troubleshooting distributed applications and production issues.

• Exposure to AI-assisted development or AI agents for areas such as pipeline failure remediation, schema-drift handling, or structured-data extraction is a plus.

• Experience working within the Financial Services, Retirement, Banking, or other regulated enterprise domains is preferred.

What We’re Looking For

The successful candidate should be a hands-on engineer who can independently deliver well-defined application components while collaborating effectively with senior engineers and architects on larger technical initiatives.

Candidates should demonstrate strong software engineering fundamentals, willingness to learn new technologies, and the ability to troubleshoot and solve technical problems across application, integration, database, and cloud environments.

We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity.  All individuals, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, religion, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable state or local law.