Principal eCommerce Engineer (no C2C) #981834

Principal eCommerce Engineer - Backend Java Permanent or contract to hire NO SUBCONTRACTORS OR THIRD-PARTY FIRMS, PLEASE. W2 EMPLOYEES ONLY We seek a lead or Principal-level backend engineer who has some experience in the eCommerce applications for a well-established firm in Addison, IL. This role will become a permanent position after a short initial contract phase. Only those seeking full-time/permanent employment should apply. RESPONSIBILITIES: OWN THE BACKEND ARCHITECTURAL AFTIFACTS: - Define and maintain the architecture for cloud-native, scalable and resilient microservices. - Ensure seamless interoperability across platforms and services, including commerce, CMS, ERP, PIM, and marketing systems. - Establish architectural best practices for modularization, API design and service-to-service communication (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, event-driven architectures). DRIVE IMPLEMENTATION-LEVEL ARCHITECTURE: - Design, secure, scalable and high-performance backend services leveraging Node.js, TypeScript, and other modern backend technologies. Advocate for serverless, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud-native best practices. - Contribute to and maintain Architecture Decision Records (ADR) for microservices and cloud-based systems. OWN BACKEND ENGINEERING POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND STANDARDS: - Establish CI/CD best practices with automated testing, linting, and deployment strategies for microservices. - Drive adoption of API-first, event-driven architectures and domain-driven design (DDD). - Define and enforce backend tooling standards (frameworks, ORMs, performance profiling, logging). OWN PLATFORM & BACKEND OPERATIONAL PRACTICES: - Lead disaster recovery and high-availability strategies for microservices. - Define logging, tracing, and observability best practices using tools like OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, and Grafana. - Drive automated testing strategies (unit, integration, contract, and end-to-end testing). - Define metrics and dashboards to track backend performance (SLAs, SLOs, SLIs, Golden Signals). CHAMPION BEST-IN-CLASS BACKEND STRATEGIES: - Work cross-functionality with frontend, DevOps, and data teams to optimize APIs, databases, and caching strategies. - Collaborate with other Principal Engineers to define and evangelize backend engineering best practices across the organization. - Mentor and provide technical guidance to backend engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation. SKILLS: - 15+ years of industry experience, with a strong focus on scalable backend systems, cloud technologies, and microservices development. - Extensive experience in building and scaling backend systems for eCommerce and large-scale distributed applications. Exposure to headless commerce, marketplaces (Mirakl), and API-driven commerce solutions. - Expert knowledge of backend technologies and their trade-offs, including Node.js, TypeScript, Python, and Go. Familiarity with modern frameworks such as NextJS, Fastify, Express, and Hapi.js. - Strong experience with databases and caching solutions, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB, and ElasticSearch. - Deep understanding of microservices architecture, including event-driven design, API gateways, service mesh (Istio, Linkerd), and inter-service communication patterns. - Advocate for high-quality engineering practices, with hands-on experience in unit, integration, and contract testing using tools like Jest, Mocha, Chai, Cypress, Pact, and Postman. - Proficiency in cloud platforms (Azure preferred, AWS, Google Cloud) and cloud-native methodologies, including serverless computing (AWS Lambda, Azure Functions), Kubernetes (K8s, K3s), and containerization. - Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructures as code (Terraform, Pulumi), and deployment automation. - Understanding of REST, GraphQL, and event-driven architectures using Kafka, NATS, RabbitMQ, and AWS EventBridge. - Expertise in observability, distributed tracing, and APM tools like OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, and Dynatrace. - Strong understanding of authentication and authorization best practices, including OAuth2, OpenID Connect, JWT, API key management, and Zero Trust security models. - Experience in performance optimization of backend services, database queries, caching strategies, and load balancing. - Knowledge of diagramming and collaboration tools (e.g., Miro, Diagrams.net, FigJam, Mermaid.js). - Strong communication and leadership skills, capable of mentoring engineers and collaborating across teams.