Senior Java Software Engineer and Technical Lead
Samaha Consulting · Johannesburg, Gauteng
Overview
Samaha Consulting is looking for a seasoned Java engineer to lead technical governance on an enterprise microservices and API platform in Johannesburg. You will guide engineering teams, review complex code, and shape architecture for scalable, secure Java solutions. This is a temporary full time role for someone with deep Spring Boot and integration experience who enjoys mentoring and setting engineering standards.
About the role
This role places you at the centre of technical leadership for an enterprise Java microservices and API integration platform. You will provide engineering direction and governance while working closely with architecture, security, DevOps, quality assurance, and business stakeholders.
Day to day you can expect to review and approve pull requests across multiple repositories, guide the design of Spring Boot and reactive microservices, and ensure solutions follow approved API architecture patterns. You will also lead Java and Spring lifecycle planning, drive secure coding practices, and improve GitHub rulesets, quality gates, and CI/CD automation.
Part of the role involves mentoring senior and developing engineers through workshops, code walkthroughs, and implementation reviews. You will also support production readiness, investigate critical technical escalations, and help prevent duplicate APIs and backend integrations by promoting reusable components.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline. Postgraduate qualifications are advantageous.
- 8 to 10+ years of professional software engineering and application development experience.
- Minimum 5+ years of hands on Java and Spring engineering experience.
- 3 to 5+ years working as a Senior Engineer, Lead Engineer, or Technical Lead in an enterprise environment.
- Proven experience reviewing and approving complex code changes across multiple engineering teams.
- Strong experience with enterprise APIs, distributed systems, microservices, and integration platforms.
- Advanced Java and modern JDK capabilities.
- Java Spring Boot and Spring WebFlux or Reactive Programming.
- Maven, Parent POMs, and dependency management.
- REST API development, JSON, YAML, and OpenAPI or Swagger.
- Microservices architecture and distributed systems.
- Git and GitHub including pull requests, branch protection, rulesets, and CODEOWNERS.
- CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and quality gates.
- Docker, Kubernetes, and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
- JUnit, Mockito, MockMvc, and WebTestClient.
- Secure coding, OAuth 2.0, TLS/mTLS, and OWASP API Security.
- Logging, tracing, metrics, and performance analysis.
- Cloud native configuration and secrets management.
- Advantageous: Apigee or Apigee X, Argo CD and GitOps, Azure Key Vault, Grafana, SonarQube, GitHub Advanced Security, Dependabot, Fortify, ServiceNow change management, TM Forum Open APIs, and telecommunications API domains.
Responsibilities
- Provide senior Java technical leadership across enterprise API platforms and engineering teams.
- Design, review, and guide the development of enterprise grade Java and Spring Boot microservices including reactive services.
- Ensure solutions adhere to approved API architecture patterns, engineering standards, and technical governance frameworks.
- Guide implementation of aggregators, system layers, connectors, common libraries, and configuration repositories.
- Review and approve pull requests across multiple repositories for code quality, security, performance, and maintainability.
- Assess code changes for correctness, readability, test coverage, exception handling, dependency risks, and architectural alignment.
- Govern Java, microservices, API, repository, testing, logging, error handling, and release standards.
- Ensure contract first and specification first API development including OpenAPI and Swagger reviews.
- Validate REST API principles, naming conventions, versioning standards, and backward compatibility.
- Drive architecture stewardship, reusable components, and prevention of duplicate APIs and backend integrations.
- Provide technical ownership and governance of shared Java libraries, common models, logging frameworks, security utilities, and error handling components.
- Lead Java and Spring lifecycle planning including JDK upgrades, dependency management, parent POM evolution, and migration activities.
- Implement and enforce secure coding practices, OWASP API security controls, authentication, authorisation, and secrets management.
- Drive remediation of SonarQube, dependency, container, and code security findings.
- Establish and improve GitHub rulesets, CODEOWNERS, branch protection, quality gates, and automated compliance controls.
- Integrate automated testing, security scanning, and policy enforcement into CI/CD pipelines.
- Lead complex troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and remediation across applications, integrations, pipelines, and runtime environments.
- Provide technical guidance, mentoring, and knowledge transfer to senior and developing engineers.
- Conduct technical workshops, code walkthroughs, implementation reviews, and remediation sessions.
- Collaborate with architecture, security, quality assurance, DevOps, platform engineering, and business stakeholders.
- Maintain technical documentation, reusable engineering patterns, and knowledge sharing practices.
- Support production readiness, release investigations, and critical technical escalations.
Job details
- Organisation
- Samaha Consulting
- Location
- Johannesburg, Gauteng
- Job type
- Temporary
- Experience level
- Lead (8+ years)
- Education
- Bachelor
- Category
- IT & Software Development
- Application Method
- Apply manually
Success Guide
This is a strong opportunity if you have spent years working with Java and Spring in enterprise settings and want to step deeper into technical leadership. When you apply, tailor your CV to highlight the scale of the systems you have worked on, the size of the teams you have guided, and specific examples of code reviews, architecture decisions, or governance you have led.
Be ready to talk about how you have handled pull request reviews across multiple repositories, how you have enforced secure coding practices, and how you have mentored other engineers. A practical example of a time you improved a CI/CD pipeline or reduced technical debt will go a long way. Also be prepared to discuss your experience with Azure Kubernetes Service and any API gateway tools like Apigee if you have that on your CV.
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