Lead Java Engineer - AI Native

Job description

We are looking for a Lead Java Engineer – AI Native to design and scale enterprise Java systems while pioneering AI-native engineering practices across the SDLC. This role combines deep Java architecture expertise with hands-on experience building agentic pipelines and MCP server ecosystems that connect enterprise systems to LLM-based agents. The role requires 3 days a week working from the office and involves mentoring engineering teams while driving AI adoption at scale. Responsibilities • Design, develop and maintain scalable Java applications using Spring Boot and microservices architecture, owning features end-to-end with a high degree of autonomy • Build and deploy Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that expose Java services, databases or internal tools to LLM-based agents, enabling agents to act on live enterprise data and systems • Architect end-to-end agentic SDLC pipelines including automated specification drafting, AI-driven code generation, intelligent test creation, CI/CD integration and deployment validation orchestrated by AI agents • Integrate agentic pipelines with enterprise tools and platforms such as Jira, Confluence, GitHub, ServiceNow and observability stacks via MCP connectors or REST/event-driven APIs • Apply AI coding assistants and frontier LLMs across the full development lifecycle daily and critically evaluate AI outputs for correctness, security and edge cases before committing • Bring an AI-first mindset to automate repetitive engineering tasks, measure outcomes rather than activity and identify AI-leverage opportunities within the delivery area • Contribute to the team's shared library of prompt templates, reusable agent patterns and MCP connectors • Conduct code and architecture reviews and mentor Junior and Mid-level engineers in Java best practices and AI-native engineering methods • Maintain strong automated test coverage across unit, integration, contract and AI-generated tests along with healthy CI/CD pipeline practices • Track frontier developments such as new model releases, emerging agent frameworks and new MCP connectors and bring relevant changes back to the team within weeks Requirements • 8–12 years of professional Java development experience with clear ownership of complex production systems • Expertise in Spring Boot, Spring Cloud and Spring Data along with Spring Security and microservices design patterns • Understanding of distributed systems, event-driven architecture and domain-driven design (DDD) plus CQRS/ES • Proficiency in cloud-native engineering on AWS, GCP or Azure including IaC, serverless patterns and managed services • Background in leading technical teams across architecture governance, coding standards and mentoring • Daily hands-on proficiency in AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor and Claude Code and frontier LLMs including Claude, GPT-4o and Gemini, with capability to coach a team of 8-15 engineers in AI-native practices • Hands-on expertise in designing, building and deploying MCP server ecosystems at project or account scale including security controls, versioning and observability • Capability to architect and operate end-to-end agentic SDLC pipelines integrated with enterprise tools via MCP and APIs in production environments • Skills in evaluating and selecting AI agent orchestration frameworks such as LangGraph, CrewAI and AutoGen or Spring AI Agents for production use with documented rationale and trade-offs • Showcase of improving a team's AI maturity supported by adoption metrics or productivity evidence • Demonstrated learning agility at team scale with evidence of driving meaningful changes to engineering practices in the last 12 months due to evolving frontier models and tools • English proficiency at Upper-Intermediate level or above (B2+) Nice to have • Experience with RAG pipelines, LLM fine-tuning or LLM evaluation frameworks such as RAGAS and DeepEval applied to software engineering contexts • Familiarity with structured agentic SDLC methodologies including specification-driven AI development and specification hardening or equivalent governed delivery protocols • Experience with Managed Services or AIOps delivery models such as autonomous monitoring, AI-assisted incident response and intelligent operations pipelines • Skills in function calling and tool-use design across multiple frontier models to build reliable governed tool-use chains • Contributions to internal AI maturity assessments, team certification programmes or AI engineering playbooks