Senior Software Engineer - Product Development

JOB DETAILS:

* Job Title: Lead I - Software Engineering-Kotlin, Java, Spring Boot, Aws

* Industry: Global digital transformation solutions provide

* Salary: Best in Industry

* Experience: 5 -7 years

* Location: Trivandrum, Thiruvananthapuram

Role Proficiency:

Act creatively to develop applications and select appropriate technical options optimizing application development maintenance and performance by employing design patterns and reusing proven solutions account for others' developmental activities

Skill Examples:

1. Explain and communicate the design / development to the customer
2. Perform and evaluate test results against product specifications
3. Break down complex problems into logical components
4. Develop user interfaces business software components
5. Use data models
6. Estimate time and effort required for developing / debugging features / components
7. Perform and evaluate test in the customer or target environment
8. Make quick decisions on technical/project related challenges
9. Manage a Team mentor and handle people related issues in team
10.  Maintain high motivation levels and positive dynamics in the team.
11.  Interface with other teams’ designers and other parallel practices
12.  Set goals for self and team. Provide feedback to team members
13.  Create and articulate impactful technical presentations
14.  Follow high level of business etiquette in emails and other business communication
15.  Drive conference calls with customers addressing customer questions
16.   Proactively ask for and offer help
17.  Ability to work under pressure determine dependencies risks facilitate planning; handling multiple tasks.
18.  Build confidence with customers by meeting the deliverables on time with quality.
19.  Estimate time and effort resources required for developing / debugging features / components
20.  Make on appropriate utilization of Software / Hardware’s.
21.  Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities

Knowledge Examples:

•     Appropriate software programs / modules

1. Functional and technical designing
2. Programming languages – proficient in multiple skill clusters
3. DBMS
4. Operating Systems and software platforms
5. Software Development Life Cycle
6. Agile – Scrum or Kanban Methods
7. Integrated development environment (IDE)
8. Rapid application development (RAD)
9. Modelling technology and languages
10. Interface definition languages (IDL)
11. Knowledge of customer domain and deep understanding of sub domain where problem is solved

Additional Comments:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Backend Engineer with strong expertise in Kotlin and Java to join our dynamic engineering team.

The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of backend frameworks, cloud technologies, and scalable microservices architectures, with a passion for clean code, resilience, and system observability.

You will play a critical role in designing, developing, and maintaining core backend services that power our high-availability e-commerce and promotion platforms.

Key Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain backend services using Kotlin (JVM, Coroutines, Serialization) and Java.

Build robust microservices with Spring Boot and related Spring ecosystem components (Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring Kafka, Spring Data).

Implement efficient serialization/deserialization using Jackson and Kotlin Serialization. Develop, maintain, and execute automated tests using JUnit 5, Mockk, and ArchUnit to ensure code quality.

Work with Kafka Streams (Avro), Oracle SQL (JDBC, JPA), DynamoDB, and Redis for data storage and caching needs. Deploy and manage services in AWS environment leveraging DynamoDB, Lambdas, and IAM.

Implement CI/CD pipelines with GitLab CI to automate build, test, and deployment processes.

Containerize applications using Docker and integrate monitoring using Datadog for tracing, metrics, and dashboards.

Define and maintain infrastructure as code using Terraform for services including GitLab, Datadog, Kafka, and Optimizely.

Develop and maintain RESTful APIs with OpenAPI (Swagger) and JSON API standards.

Apply resilience patterns using Resilience4j to build fault-tolerant systems.

Adhere to architectural and design principles such as Domain-Driven Design (DDD), Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), and Contract Testing (Pact).

Collaborate with cross-functional teams in an Agile Scrum environment to deliver high-quality features.

Utilize feature flagging tools like Optimizely to enable controlled rollouts.

Mandatory Skills & Technologies Languages:

Kotlin (JVM, Coroutines, Serialization),

Java Frameworks: Spring Boot (Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring Kafka, Spring Data)

Serialization: Jackson, Kotlin Serialization

Testing: JUnit 5, Mockk, ArchUnit

Data: Kafka (Avro) Streams Oracle SQL (JDBC, JPA) DynamoDB (NoSQL) Redis (Caching)

Cloud: AWS (DynamoDB, Lambda, IAM)

CI/CD: GitLab CI Containers: Docker

Monitoring & Observability: Datadog (Tracing, Metrics, Dashboards, Monitors)

Infrastructure as Code: Terraform (GitLab, Datadog, Kafka, Optimizely)

API: OpenAPI (Swagger), REST API, JSON API

Resilience: Resilience4j

Architecture & Practices: Domain-Driven Design (DDD) Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) Contract Testing (Pact) Feature Flags (Optimizely)

Platforms: E-Commerce Platform (CommerceTools), Promotion Engine (Talon.One)

Methodologies: Scrum, Agile

Skills: Kotlin, Java, Spring Boot, Aws

Must-Haves

Kotlin (JVM, Coroutines, Serialization), Java, Spring Boot (Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring Kafka, Spring Data), AWS (DynamoDB, Lambda, IAM), Microservices Architecture

******

Notice period - 0 to 15 days only

Job stability is mandatory

Location: Trivandrum

Virtual Weekend Interview on 7th Feb 2026 - Saturday

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Sector: Technology, Information & Media

Company Size: 500 - 1,000 Employees

Employment: Full-Time, Permanent

Experience: 10 - 14 Years (Engineering Leadership)

Level: Engineering Manager / Group EM

ABOUT THIS MANDATE :

Recruiting Bond has been exclusively retained by one of India's most prominent and well-established digital platform organisations operating at the intersection of Technology, Information, and Media to identify and place an exceptional Engineering Manager who can lead engineering teams through an enterprise-wide AI adoption and digital transformation agenda.

This is a high-impact, hands-on leadership role at the nexus of people, product, and technology. The organisation is executing one of the most ambitious AI transformation programmes in its sector and this Engineering Manager will be a core driver of that change. You will lead multiple squads, own engineering delivery end-to-end, embed AI tooling and practices into the team's DNA, and shape the engineering culture of tomorrow.

We are seeking leaders who code when it matters, who build systems and teams with equal conviction, and who view AI not as a trend but as a fundamental shift in how great software is built.

THE OPPORTUNITY AT A GLANCE :

AI-First Engineering Culture :

• Own AI adoption across your squads - from LLM tooling integration to automation-first delivery workflows. Make AI a default, not an afterthought.

Hands-On Engineering Leadership :

• Stay close to the code. Lead architecture reviews, unblock engineers, and set the technical bar - not just the management agenda.

People & Org Builder :

• Grow engineers into leaders. Build squads of 615 across functions. Drive hiring, career frameworks, and a culture of psychological safety.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES :

1. Hands-On Technical Engagement :

• Remain deeply embedded in the technical work participate in design reviews, architecture decisions, and critical code reviews
• Set and uphold the engineering quality bar : performance benchmarks, security standards, test coverage, and release quality
• Provide technical direction on backend platform strategy, API design, service decomposition, and data architecture
• Identify and resolve systemic technical debt and architectural risks across team-owned services
• Unblock engineers by diving into complex problems debugging, pair programming, and system analysis when it matters
• Own key technical decisions in collaboration with Tech Leads and Principal Engineers; balance pragmatism with long-term sustainability

2. AI Adoption, Integration & Transformation (2026 Mandate) :

• Define and execute the team's AI adoption roadmap - from developer tooling to product-facing AI features
• Champion the integration of GenAI tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT) across the full engineering workflow coding, testing, documentation, incident response
• Embed LLM-powered capabilities into the product : recommendation engines, intelligent search, conversational interfaces, content generation, and predictive systems
• Lead evaluation and adoption of AI-assisted SDLC practices : automated code review, AI-generated test suites, intelligent observability, and anomaly detection
• Partner with Data Science and ML Platform teams to productionise ML models with robust MLOps pipelines
• Build team literacy in prompt engineering, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), and AI agent frameworks
• Create an experimentation culture : run structured AI pilots, measure productivity impact, and scale what works
• Stay ahead of the AI tooling landscape and advise senior leadership on strategic AI investments and engineering implications

3. People Leadership & Team Development :

• Lead, manage, and grow squads of 6 - 15 engineers across seniority levels (L2 through L6 / Junior through Staff)
• Conduct structured 1 : 1s, career growth conversations, and development planning with every direct report
• Design and execute personalised AI upskilling programmes ensure every engineer develops practical AI fluency by end of 2026
• Build and maintain a high-performance team culture : clarity of ownership, accountability, fast feedback loops, and psychological safety
• Drive performance management fairly and rigorously recognise top performers, manage underperformance constructively
• Lead technical hiring end-to-end : define job requirements, conduct bar-raising interviews, and make data-driven hire decisions
• Contribute to engineering career frameworks and level definitions in partnership with the VP / Director of Engineering

4. Engineering Delivery & Execution Excellence :

• Own end-to-end delivery for multiple product squads from planning and scoping through production release and post-launch stability
• Implement and refine agile delivery frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, Shape Up) calibrated to squad needs and product cadence
• Drive predictable delivery : maintain healthy sprint velocity, manage WIP limits, and ensure dependency resolution across teams.
• Establish and own engineering KPIs : DORA metrics (deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, change failure rate), uptime SLOs, and velocity trends
• Lead incident management : build blameless post-mortem culture, own RCA processes, and drive systemic reliability improvements
• Balance technical debt repayment with feature velocity negotiate prioritisation transparently with Product leadership

5. Strategic Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence :

• Serve as the primary engineering partner for Product, Design, Data, and Business stakeholders translate ambiguity into executable engineering plans
• Participate in quarterly roadmap planning, capacity forecasting, and OKR definition for engineering teams
• Represent engineering in leadership forums articulate technical constraints, risks, and opportunities in business terms
• Contribute to org-wide engineering strategy : platform investments, build-vs-buy decisions, and shared infrastructure priorities
• Build relationships across geographies (Mumbai HQ + distributed teams) to maintain alignment and delivery cohesion
• Act as a culture carrier and ambassador for engineering excellence, innovation, and responsible AI use

AI TRANSFORMATION LEADERSHIP 2026 EXPECTATIONS :

In 2026, Engineering Managers at this organisation are expected to be active architects of AI transformation not passive observers. The following outlines the specific AI leadership expectations for this role :

AI Developer Productivity

• Drive measurable uplift in developer velocity through AI tooling adoption. Target : 30%+ reduction in code review cycle time and 40%+ increase in test coverage automation by Q3 2026.

LLM & GenAI Product Features

• Own delivery of GenAI-powered product capabilities : intelligent content, semantic search, personalisation, and conversational UX in production, at scale.

AI-Augmented Observability

• Implement AI-driven monitoring and anomaly detection pipelines. Reduce MTTR by leveraging predictive alerting, intelligent runbooks, and auto-remediation scripts.

Team AI Fluency :

• Build mandatory AI literacy across all engineering levels.
• Every engineer understands prompt engineering basics, AI ethics guardrails, and responsible AI deployment practices.

Responsible AI Governance :

• Partner with Security, Legal, and Data Privacy to ensure all AI deployments meet compliance standards, bias mitigation requirements, and explainability benchmarks.

TECHNOLOGY STACK & DOMAIN FAMILIARITY REQUIRED :

• Languages: Java/ Go/ Python/ Node.js /PHP /Rust (must be hands-on in at least 2)
• Cloud: AWS / GCP / Azure (multi-cloud exposure strongly preferred)
• AI & GenAI: OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini APIs /LangChain /LlamaIndex / RAG / Vector DBs / GitHub
• Copilot: Cursor /Hugging Face
• Containers: Docker /Kubernetes /Helm /Service Mesh (Istio / Linkerd)
• Databases: PostgreSQL /MongoDB / Redis / Cassandra / Elasticsearch / Pinecone (Vector DB)
• Messaging: Apache Kafka /RabbitMQ /AWS SQS/SNS /Google Pub/Sub
• MLOps & DataOps: MLflow /Kubeflow / SageMaker / Vertex AI /Airflow /dbt
• Observability: Datadog /Prometheus /Grafana /OpenTelemetry / Jaeger /ELK Stack
• CI/CD & IaC: GitHub Actions ArgoCD / Jenkins / Terraform /Ansible /Backstage (IDP)

QUALIFICATIONS & CANDIDATE PROFILE :

Education :

• B.E. / B.Tech or M.E. / M.Tech from a Tier-I or Tier-II Institution - CS, IS, ECE, AI/ML streams strongly preferred
• Demonstrated engineering depth and leadership impact may complement institution pedigree

Experience :

• 10 to 14 years of progressive engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a formal Engineering Manager or equivalent people-leadership role
• Proven track record of managing and scaling engineering teams (615+ engineers) in a fast-growing SaaS or digital product environment
• Hands-on backend engineering background must be able to read, write, and critique production code
• Direct experience driving AI/ML feature delivery or AI tooling adoption within engineering organisations
• Exposure across start-up, mid-size, and large-scale product organisations, preferred adaptability is a core requirement
• Strong CS fundamentals: distributed systems, algorithms, system design, and software architecture
• Demonstrated career stability minimum of 2 years of average tenure per organisation.

The Ideal Engineering Manager in 2026 :

• Leads with context, not control, empowers engineers while maintaining accountability and quality
• Is fluent in both people language and technical language, switches registers naturally with engineers and executives alike
• Sees AI as a force multiplier for the team, not a threat. Actively experiments with and advocates for AI tooling
• Measures success by team outcomes, not personal output. Takes pride in what the team ships, not what they build alone
• Creates feedback loops obsessively between product and engineering, between seniors and juniors, between metrics and decisions
• Has strong opinions, loosely held, brings conviction to discussions but updates on evidence
• Invests in engineering excellence as seriously as delivery velocity knows that quality and speed are not opposites

WHY THIS ROLE STANDS APART :

AI Transformation at Scale :

• Lead one of the most significant AI adoption programmes in India's digital media sector.
• Our decisions will shape how hundreds of engineers work in 2026 and beyond.

Hands-On & Strategic Balance :

• A rare EM role that actively encourages technical depth.
• Stay close to the code while owning the people agenda - the best of both worlds.

Established Platform, Real Scale :

• 5001,000 engineers, proven product-market fit, and the org maturity to execute.
• This is not a greenfield startup gamble it is a serious company with serious ambition.

Clear Leadership Growth Path :

• A visible, direct path toward Director / VP of Engineering.
• Senior leadership is invested in growing its next generation of technology executives.

Description 

Our Software Architects are the strategic thinkers and technical leaders. They design, validate, and guide the delivery of enterprise-grade systems that balance innovation, performance, scalability, and cost efficiency. 

 Software Architects work at the intersection of business strategy and technical execution. They collaborate across engineering, product, and design teams to define architecture blueprints, select technologies, and ensure systems evolve in alignment with customer goals. Architects are hands-on, often prototyping solutions and coaching teams, while also trusted to influence executives on technical direction. Here’s what you should know if you want to be a Software Architect at 

Requirements 

The ideal person 

● Proven track record in architecting and delivering large-scale, distributed software systems. 

● Expertise in modern architectural patterns: microservices, event-driven systems, composable commerce, headless architectures. 

● Ability to translate business strategy into actionable technical roadmaps and system designs. 

● Strong leadership skills: guiding engineering teams, mentoring individuals, and setting technical standards. 

● Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, from engineers to C level. 

● Commitment to designing systems that are secure, performant, and cost-efficient.

Desirable Skills 

● Deep experience with multiple programming languages and frameworks (e.g., ● JavaScript/TypeScript, Node.js, React, Java, .NET, Python). 

● Strong knowledge of cloud-native architectures (AWS, GCP, Azure) and containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes). 

● Experience with data platforms, integration patterns, and API-first design (REST, GraphQL, gRPC). 

● Familiarity with CI/CD, DevOps, and Infrastructure-as-Code practices. ● Understanding of security standards, compliance (GDPR, SOC2), and enterprise IT constraints. 

● Ability to design for scalability across global markets and multi-tenant environments. ● Strong knowledge of design systems and front-end frameworks, ensuring alignment between presentation and infrastructure. 

● Experience leading architectural reviews, trade-off analysis, and decision records. ● Ability to mentor teams and establish communities of practice around architecture. ● Awareness of emerging technologies (AI, serverless, edge computing) and their practical application. 

On any given day you might 

● Define architecture blueprints and technical roadmaps for enterprise projects. ● Partner with product owners and business stakeholders to align architecture with strategic goals. 

● Make key technology selection decisions, balancing innovation with long-term maintainability. 

● Review system designs, ensuring alignment with principles of security, scalability, and performance. 

● Support engineering teams with hands-on prototyping and technical problem solving. ● Facilitate architectural reviews and communicate trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences. 

● Collaborate with designers to ensure UI/UX and architecture integrate seamlessly. ● Influence enterprise customers, helping them modernise platforms and adopt composable, headless, or cloud-native approaches. 

● Establish coding standards, architectural patterns, and governance processes. ● Share thought leadership internally and externally, positioning Co. as a trusted Advisor.

You bring 

● 7+ years of software development and architecture experience. 

● Expertise in designing cloud-native, distributed systems. 

● Proven success in leading technical decisions across multi-team programmes. ● Strong cross-functional collaboration and customer-facing skills. 

● Advanced understanding of system integration, security, and performance optimisation. 

● Familiarity with enterprise-scale delivery: migration projects, composable commerce, API ecosystems. 

● Advanced English, able to communicate at both executive and engineering levels. ● (Bonus) Experience contributing to open-source, publishing architectural thought pieces, or speaking at conferences.

• Proven experience in any high-level programming languages like Java (Preferably)
• Strong knowledge of data structure, algorithms and coding
• Experience with any Messaging technologies like Kafka or Rab-bitMQ, etc.
• Proven experience in database technologies like NoSQL
• Hands-on experience with Spring, Spring Security, Spring boot, and Hibernate framework.
• Working knowledge of developing Restful Micro services.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving skills.
• Attend team meetings to discuss projects, brainstorm ideas, and put forward solutions to any issues.
• Ability to understand the Platform/domain of the business in detail & Ability to multi-task.
• Good communication and organizational skill

• Work on large-scale, custom distributed software systems using Java, Scala,
• MongoDB, JavaScript (AngularJS, ReactJS), and the likes
• We work almost exclusively on customer site providing a mix of delivery and consulting
• services, so you'll be flexible about travel
• Employ Agile development including task estimation, test automation, deployment automation, and Continuous Integration to improve overall execution speed and product quality
• Work in a dynamic, collaborative, transparent, non-hierarchical, and ego-free culture where your talent is valued over a designation or title
• Spread the word about best practices in software development inside and outside the Equal Experts community like Expert Talks

• 6 + years of Hands-on development and delivery experience with Java, Scala, and the likes
• Passion for software engineering and craftsman-like coding prowess
• Great OO skills, including strong design patterns knowledge
• Experience working with Agile, TDD, Lean, and/or Continuous Delivery approaches and best practices, such as Extreme Programming (XP)
• Enthusiastic to work collaboratively with people and sharing your ideas to solve real business problems

Responsibilities:

• Develop features and modules independently based on the overall product architecture provided.
• Research and find solutions to challenging new problems; align with technology needs of the future.
• Fully grasp the product concept and think through challenging customer variations and use cases.
• Proactively seek to identify issues and resolve them at the stages of design, deployment and QA.
• Maintain quality and ensure responsiveness of applications.
• Demonstrate a strong sense of milestone-based performance and adherence to overall development timelines.

Requirements:

Experience - 2 to 5 years experience in Java Tech stack

• Strong hands-on experience in Java, Spring Boot, microservices and Rest API.
• Good understanding of general data privacy and information security.
• Exposure to cloud securities for SAAS application development would be an added advantage.
• A good understanding of all facets of building and delivering data-centric products is desirable.
• Knowledge of code versioning tools.

• Hands-on Java Engineers, with experience building consumer-facing or enterprise applications using Java stack – Spring, Hibernate, MySQL
• Strong problem solving and analytical skills
• Strong understanding of Object-Oriented Programming concepts and Design patterns.

Do You Know? (Skills good to have)

• Exposure to building service-oriented distributed systems
• In building systems that process big data in a distributed environment, either in real-time streaming or offline batching.
• In messaging systems like Kafka, RabbitMQ, kinesis, etc.
• In real-time computation tools like Storm / Spark or Hadoop-based tools.
• In Data warehousing technologies like Redshift, BigQuery, etc.

• Build an algorithm for artist to detect if their music was violating copy right infringement laws

• Successfully won Techcrunch Disrupt

• Optimized an algorithm that holds the current world record for Weisman Scores

• Independently own one or more multiple modules, which includes: requirement analysis, design, development, maintenance & support
• Write extensive, efficient code to address complex modules and that handles interaction between multiple components. 
• Rapidly iterate to add new functionalities and solves complex problems with simple and intuitive solutions
• Produce architecture with clean interfaces, that are efficient and scalable
• Participate and contribute to architectural discussions
• Perform design and code reviews
• Perform technical feasibility and trade off studies & guides others to perform these studies
• Solve production issues. Investigate and provide solutions to minimize the business impact due to outage
• Continuously improve performance metrics of modules you own.
• Actively mentor and develop junior developers in all software development practices
• Participate in the hiring process (referrals, interviews, attending recruiting events or writing blogs)
• Onboard and mentors new team members, helps shape the culture of the team