Senior Java Developer - SSE/ATL/TL/STL

Job Description

About SmashTaps

Founded in 2014, SmashTaps is a Great Place to Work® certified Digital Product Studio with a global presence. We specialize in Web and Mobile Application Development for startups, scale-ups, and enterprises, working the Agile way. We deliver high-quality, tailor-made solutions built around each client's unique needs. Our clients span the USA, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK, and Sri Lanka, including some of the world's leading brands across RetailTech, MarTech, AdTech, Middleware, and Enterprise AI.

Beyond client services, we incubate and launch our own startup ventures—drawing on our technical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to build products that make a meaningful impact. Our diverse, passionate team is united by a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning. Our leadership brings over 20 years of industry experience at multinational companies, including Fortune 500s.

About Our Client

Our client is a global leader in AI-driven customer analytics, personalization, and brand collaboration solutions. Operating across major retailers and brands worldwide, they harness big data, real-time analytics, and data science automation to revolutionize data and media monetization, empowering retailers to retain control of their revenue streams.

About the role

This is a senior individual-contributor position focused on designing, building, and scaling the backend services behind our client's product suite. You'll work in a collaborative, innovation-driven environment, using modern cloud-native technologies, microservices, and AI-assisted development tools to ship reliable, secure, high-performance solutions — while helping shape technical direction, architecture, and engineering standards.

What you'll be doing

• Build microservices end to end, from design through to production
• Own development, maintenance, testing strategy, design discussions, and day-to-day operations for containerized API services
• Take features and components through their full lifecycle, from concept to release
• Take part in every stage of agile delivery — design, implementation, and deployment
• Safeguard application performance, uptime, and scalability while keeping code quality and application design to a high standard
• Collaborate with a small, cross-functional team on products and features that drive growth
• Explore and recommend new technologies, tools, and approaches to strengthen the product
• Keep learning new tools, languages, workflows, and ways of working
• Influence product development through meaningful technical decisions on architecture and engineering practice

Must-haves

• 6+ years building backend systems in Java
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field
• Strong command of object-oriented programming and design patterns
• Hands-on expertise with Java and the Spring framework on the server side
• Solid experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud environments
• Proficiency with relational (SQL) databases
• Strong grounding in testing methodologies — unit testing, TDD, and mocking
• Comfortable using GitHub Copilot and other AI-assisted development tools to speed up delivery and raise code quality
• Sharp problem-solving and analytical ability
• A collaborative team player with strong communication skills

Nice-to-haves

• Exposure to Azure or GCP cloud services
• Experience with large-scale SQL/NoSQL databases (e.g. Postgres, SingleStore)
• Familiarity with Agile or Extreme Programming (XP) practices

Why join SmashTaps

🔥 Startup culture

🏠 Hybrid work setup with the ability to work from home

🏖 Flexible work hours

🤝 Small project teams of smart, friendly people who are genuinely fun to work with

🤩 Hired for your skill, not your paper qualifications

🌎 Global exposure - collaborate with our client teams overseas

✨ Work with a modern stack and the latest AI tooling