Senior Java Developer

About ITRex THE PLACE ITRex - AI pioneers who build systems that actually work in the real world, not just in demos. We're 250+ people spread across the US and Europe, creating solutions for companies like Procter & Gamble and Shutterstock. We keep it simple, build it right, and focus on what works. THE PEOPLE We're the kind of people who don't ignore messages in Slack, who jump in to help when you're stuck on a problem, and who offer solutions instead of blame when things go sideways. We believe in openness, accountability, and having each other's backs. No office politics, no hidden agendas - just people who care about doing good work together and supporting each other to get there. THE ROLE We are looking for a senior Java engineer to join a team in the middle of a serious AI transformation, building a Spring Boot microservices backend on Kubernetes and bringing AI into the whole development process - so we need someone who already works this way, can judge when an AI suggestion helps versus quietly introduces a bug, and wants to help shape that practice for the team, working daily in pair programming and a cross-functional group alongside product, QA and DevOps. The engagement runs to the end of the year, with a high probability of extension Your Responsibilities Design, build and own Spring Boot microservices and the Web APIs around them, from the data model through to what runs in KubernetesTake end-to-end responsibility for the features you ship: schema, service, API contract, tests, pipeline and the behaviour in productionUse AI assistance deliberately across the development cycle - design exploration, implementation, refactoring, tests, review - and stay accountable for everything that gets mergedHelp establish the team's AI-assisted engineering practice: what works, what to avoid, where a human review gate belongs, and how new joiners get up to speed with itPair with other engineers on hard problems and share context instead of hoarding itContribute to architectural decisions on service boundaries, communication patterns and data ownership, and argue your position clearly when you disagreeKeep the build pipeline healthy: GitLab and Jenkins stages, test suites, container builds and Terraform-managed infrastructureReview other people's code with the same care you want applied to your ownWork directly with product, QA and DevOps to turn ambiguous requirements into something shippable, rather than waiting for a fully specified ticketAs a lead, set technical direction on your part of the system and mentor the engineers around you Requirements Our Expectations Core Java: Java 11 and Java 17, the concurrency model, collections, memory behaviour and the language features that actually changed how modern services are writtenSolid, production-grade experience with the Spring Framework and Spring Boot: dependency injection, configuration, Spring Data, Spring Security, REST controllers and the testing supportWeb API development: designing, versioning, documenting and evolving HTTP APIs that other teams depend onMicroservice architecture: service decomposition, inter-service communication, resilience patterns, data ownership, and an honest sense of when a microservice is the wrong answerSQL and relational data modelling with PostgreSQL and MySQL - schema design, indexing, query tuning and migrationsAutomated testing as a habit: JUnit, Mockito, integration tests and the judgement to know what deserves coverageMaven for build and dependency managementDocker, and Kubernetes at the level of someone who deploys onto it and debugs on it - how workloads, services, config, secrets and resource limits fit together. Running the cluster itself is not your jobTerraform and infrastructure as codeCI/CD with GitLab and Jenkins: pipelines you can read, extend and fixPractical experience with AI-assisted software development, and genuine interest in driving that practice forward inside the teamWillingness to work in pair programmingStrong communication skills and a track record in cross-functional teams; you enjoy solving problems together rather than working through tickets aloneEnglish at B2 level or above Nice to have Observability in practice: Grafana dashboards, Kibana and the ELK stack, Sentry for error trackingStructured logging and alerting design - deciding what a service should say about itself and when someone should be woken upPerformance testing and profiling of JVM services under loadExperience introducing AI-assisted workflows to a team: prompt and context practices, review discipline, guardrails for generated codePrior work in a lead or tech-lead capacity on a distributed backend Benefits What We Offer Why people stay First, the foundation: Remote flexibility: Work where and how you work best - we trust you to deliverFair compensation: Competitive salary + benefits that matter (medical, wellness, learning) Then, the growth: Ownership opportunities: See a problem worth solving? Own it. We back smart risks over bureaucratic safetyAI enhancement: We leverage AI to make you faster and stronger - complementing your abilities, not replacing themLearning investment: English classes, professional development, well-being supportCareer progression: Real paths up, not just sideways shuffling Finally, the people: Responsive teammates: No ignored Slacks, no "not my problem" attitudesSupportive culture: When you're stuck, people help. When things break, we fix them togetherHuman connections: Regular meetups, tech talks, and actual relationships beyond work