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# Back-End Developer IV

- **Company:** Kentro LLC
- **Location:** United States (Remote available)
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $149,000.0 - $177,000.0
- **Contract:** Contract
- **Skills:** Query Performance, Java (Programming Language), Apache ActiveMQ, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Application Services, Automation of Tests, Microsoft Azure, Big Data, C Sharp (Programming Language), Cloud Engineering, COBOL (Programming Language), Static Program Analysis, Code Review, Information Systems, Databases, Continuous Integration, Data Migration, Data Security, Data Stores, Amazon DynamoDB, Graph Database, Python (Programming Language), Key Management, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Neo4j, NoSQL, Open Source Technology, Oracle (Applications), Software Architecture, RabbitMQ, Migration Manager, Service Development Studio, Software Engineering, Systems Integration, TypeScript, Management of Software Versions, Openapi, Google Cloud, Performance Testing, Istio, Spring-boot, Software Security, AWS Lambda, Backend, Event Driven Architecture, Kubernetes, Infrastructure Automation Frameworks, Information Technology, Low Latency, Production Code, Apache Kafka, Cosmos DB, Graphql, Front End Software Development, Api Design, Software Coding, Restful APIs, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Code Restructuring, Dynatrace, Devsecops, Api Management, Serverless Computing, Microservices
- **Published:** September 29, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.dice.com/job-detail/6247513b-e69e-4704-b6a6-b7a583a7231e

## About the Role

* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline
 * 8-10 years of progressive back-end development experience, including demonstrated technical leadership across multiple teams or a large system
 * Expert-level proficiency in one or more major server-side stacks, with working command of a second (e.g., Java/Spring Boot, .NET/C#, Python, Node.js/TypeScript, Go)
 * Deep experience designing and operating enterprise APIs: REST, API contracts and versioning, gateway and management tooling, and API security patterns
 * Hands-on expertise with messaging and event-driven systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, SQS/SNS, or equivalent), including production experience with delivery semantics and failure modes
 * Proven experience leading complex system integrations across heterogeneous legacy and modern systems
 * Demonstrated experience decomposing monolithic applications into microservices, including the migration strategy - not just greenfield service development
 * Strong database expertise across relational and non-relational stores: data modeling, query performance, transactions, and large-scale data migration
 * Cloud-native back-end experience in a major cloud environment (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform), including containers, orchestration, and managed services
 * Practical DevSecOps experience: CI/CD, infrastructure as code, automated testing, and observability instrumented into services
 * Ability to set standards other teams adopt, and to communicate technical trade-offs to program leadership and government stakeholders
 * Experience implementing observability, resilience, and performance engineering for distributed services, including tracing, metrics, fault handling, and capacity/performance testing
 * Experience implementing shared engineering standards and reference patterns across multiple delivery teams
 * Exceptional communication and executive presence; able to advise senior government and corporate stakeholders and to justify architectural decisions
 * Working proficiency with approved AI-assisted development tools for code analysis, refactoring, test generation, and documentation

Preferred Qualifications:

 * Experience supporting FAA, DOT, or comparable federal civilian modernization programs
 * Experience modernizing mainframe or COBOL-era back ends, or integrating with them during transition
 * Specification-first API development using OpenAPI, including contract-driven design, generated clients and servers, and automated contract testing
 * Production experience designing and operating GraphQL APIs, including schema design, federation, resolver performance, and query cost control
 * Experience building Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers or comparable interfaces that expose enterprise services and data to AI systems and agents
 * Hands-on experience with NoSQL data stores - document databases (MongoDB, DynamoDB, Cosmos DB) and graph databases (Neo4j, Neptune, or equivalent) - including knowing when each is the right choice over a relational store
 * Large-scale database modernization experience (Oracle, SQL Server, or mainframe data stores to cloud-native or open-source targets)
 * Experience with service mesh, distributed tracing, and advanced observability in a microservices estate
 * Familiarity with FAA enterprise architecture, security engineering, and Authority to Operate (ATO) processes
 * Experience applying AI/ML or automated code transformation tooling to back-end legacy modernization
 * Relevant certifications: AWS or Azure Solutions Architect / Developer, Kubernetes (CKA/CKAD), or equivalent
 * Prior experience in a modernization factory, delivery center, or platform engineering organization, * Existing FAA suitability determination or transferable federal background investigation strongly preferred

## Description

* Define and implement server-side engineering patterns within established enterprise architecture and platform standards: runtime platforms, frameworks, service boundaries, data access patterns, and reusable service conventions
 * Establish and maintain back-end implementation patterns - microservices, event-driven, API-first, domain decomposition - and apply the architectural criteria that determine when each is the right call
 * Lead complex system integrations across legacy and modernized systems, including protocol translation, data reconciliation, and cutover sequencing on systems that cannot go down
 * Design portfolio and application service/API layers in alignment with the enterprise API and integration strategy: RESTful and event-based interfaces, API contracts and versioning, gateway integration, authentication and authorization patterns, and developer-facing documentation
 * Architect and implement messaging and streaming infrastructure (Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, or cloud-native equivalents), including delivery guarantees, idempotency, ordering, and failure handling
 * Design the serverless and event-driven processing built around that infrastructure - AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, or equivalent for ingestion, transformation, and event handling - and determine where serverless is the right fit against containerized services on cost, latency, and sustainment grounds
 * Drive decomposition of legacy monoliths into services: define bounded contexts, sequence the strangler-pattern migration, and manage the interim state where old and new run side by side
 * Lead database modernization work on the back end - schema evolution, data migration, dual-write and sync strategies, and the transition off legacy data stores
 * Set and enforce back-end engineering standards: coding standards, service templates, error handling, observability, resilience patterns, and performance budgets
 * Own non-functional outcomes for back-end services: availability, latency, throughput, scalability, and cost efficiency in a cloud environment
 * Integrate security into back-end design - secrets management, encryption in transit and at rest, least-privilege service identity, and controls aligned to FISMA, NIST SP 800-53, and applicable FAA and DOT policy
 * Build and maintain the reusable back-end assets that make a modernization factory model work: service scaffolds, shared libraries, integration accelerators, and reference implementations
 * Provide technical leadership, design review, and code review to back-end engineers across multiple teams; mentor mid-level and senior developers
 * Partner with enterprise architecture, front-end, data, and cybersecurity leads to ensure back-end designs fit the target-state architecture
 * Have the ability to write production code on the highest-complexity components as necessary - this is a hands-on lead role, not a purely advisory one


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