Java Developer, Mumbai

THE TEAM'S PROJECT: The team is retiring a legacy application and rebuilding it from zero— migrating all functionality into a modern architecture across 30+ microservices Principal engineers have already designed the architecture — this person is being hired to implement it and drive it forwardDomain knowledge is complex— this person must proactively learn it on their own using Confluence pages, architecture diagrams, and the people around them This is not a passive execution role — the manager is building a team of drivers who identify gaps, own them, and resolve them without being askedURGENCY— THIS MANAGER NEEDS SOMEONE WHO CAN HIT THE GROUND RUNNING: No slow starts: the only acceptable learning curve is client's domain — everything else (Java, Spring Boot, GCP, Pub/Sub, Cassandra) they must already own deeply Anyone with light or surface-level exposure to the required stack willnot be considered.DAY TO DAY: Pick up sprint stories and implement microservices— must understand where each story fits within the broader architecture, not just complete the ticket Proactively build domain knowledge independently — Confluence pages, architecture diagrams, asking the right people the right questionsAttend daily standups and key meetings in the evenings (India 8–8:30pm) — roughly 1 hour/day early on, dropping to 15–30 min once ramped Must understand the 'why' behind their work — when implementing a story, they should be asking why it's being built this way, what purpose it serves in the broader system, and driving those answers themselves rather than waiting to be told. This is how the manager gauges whether someone truly understands the domain vs. just executing tasksSKILLS NEEDED: THIS PERSON NEEDS TO BE AN ACTIVE BACKEND JAVA DEVELOPER WITH A DRIVER MENTALITY— NOT JUST AN EXECUTOR Driver Mentality — Must show ownership and proactiveness in how they talk about their work. If they sound passive in your pre-screen, do not submit Fluent English — Daily standups, sprint planning, knowledge transfer sessions — must communicate clearly and confidentlyJava— Expert level. Currently running Java 21 on this team Spring Boot / Spring Framework GCP Pub/Sub — Central messaging layer for their 30+ microservices, hands-on experience required Cassandra Critical Thinking — Must question the 'why' and drive answers, not just execute Quarkus— Used for API development on this team, prior experience is a strong differentiator AI / ML Engineering — Must have built something custom (an agent, a context engineering pipeline, an ML-integrated feature) — candidates who have done this will stand out against competition