Associate Director Staff Engineer (GraphQL, Java, Kotlin, Nodejs)

1. Architecture Design & Domain-Aligned Solutions
2. Define and evolve scalable, resilient architectures for communication platforms supporting customer engagement (voice, messaging, digital channels)
3. Design solutions aligned to industry-specific requirements:
4. Financial Services: security, compliance, auditability
5. Communications: real-time processing, high availability
6. MarTech: personalization, event-driven engagement
7. Ensure alignment with enterprise target-state architecture and platform strategy
8. Hands-on Engineering ( 50%)
9. Design and implement backend services, APIs, and integration layers
10. Build and deploy applications using containerized environments and Kubernetes orchestration
11. Develop production-grade code, prototypes, and reference implementations
12. API, Data & Integration Architecture
13. Architect API-first ecosystems, including GraphQL and RESTful services
14. Design event-driven and streaming architectures to support real-time communication and marketing workflows
15. Integrate with enterprise platforms such as:
16. CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce)
17. Contact center / CPaaS platforms
18. Marketing automation and customer data platforms
19. Cross-functional Leadership & Influence
20. Collaborate with engineering, product, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure solution alignment and execution
21. Act as a thought partner, introducing innovative approaches and improving system design quality
22. Influence decisions across teams without formal authority
23. Standards, Governance & Continuous Improvement
24. Establish and enforce architecture standards, reusable patterns, and engineering guardrails
25. Drive simplification, scalability, and reduction of technical debt
26. Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend pragmatic adoption aligned to business value

Technical Skills

• Strong expertise in backend architecture and distributed systems design
• Hands-on experience with:
• Kubernetes and containerization (Docker, orchestration patterns)
• GraphQL and modern API architectures (REST, event-driven systems)
• Microservices and cloud-native platforms
• Observability: Distributed tracing (X-Ray/OpenTelemetry), structured logging, metrics/alerting pipelines.
• Messaging & Orchestration: SQS/EventBridge or equivalents (Pub/Sub, Service Bus); DLQs; workflow engines.
• CI/CD: Automated pipelines with tools including Github Actions, Jenkins or equivalent experience
• Experience building or supporting real-time or high-throughput systems
• Proficiency in backend technologies (e.g., Java, Kotlin, Node.js, Go, or similar)
• Bachelor’s Degree in Information systems, Computer Science or a related field.

Domain Experience (Preferred)

Candidates should have experience in one or more of the following

• Financial Services
• Secure, compliant systems (PII, PCI, regulatory constraints)
• Transactional platforms (payments, lending, servicing)
• Communications / MarTech / Contact Center
• Low-latency, high-availability distributed systems
• Personalization engines, campaign orchestration
• Voice, messaging, IVR, or omnichannel engagement platforms

Architecture & Engineering Capabilities

• Ability to operate across strategic architecture and hands-on implementation
• Strong grounding in:
• scalability, resiliency, and performance engineering
• API lifecycle and governance
• system integration and orchestration patterns
• Experience aligning solutions to enterprise target-state architecture

Personal Attributes

• Self-starter: Proactively drives outcomes with minimal oversight
• Thought provocateur: Challenges existing paradigms and elevates architectural thinking
• Collaborative: Builds alignment across engineering, product, and architecture teams
• Pragmatic: Balances long-term vision with near-term delivery needs
• Influential communicator: Clearly conveys complex technical concepts to varied stakeholders