QUESS SINGAPORE
Principal Backend Development Engineer (Contract Role)
Contract principal backend engineer in Singapore owning architecture, design, and development of enterprise-scale Java microservices. Day to day: building high-concurrency, high-availability services, leading design and code reviews, resolving production issues, improving CI/CD (Docker, Jenkins) and mentoring engineers.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Singapore, Singapore
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Principal
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- 10+ years
- Category
- Backend
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, IT or related discipline
- 10+ years professional software development experience with substantial hands-on backend engineering
- Strong practical Java experience building enterprise-scale backend applications
- Experience with microservice architecture, service integration, API design and distributed application principles
- Experience designing/operating systems with demanding concurrency, throughput, availability, scalability and reliability requirements
- Strong understanding of software architecture, performance, data integrity, fault handling and maintainable system design
- Experience leading technical design decisions, code and design reviews, and owning complex deliverables
- Practical experience with automated testing and software delivery, including Docker, Jenkins and CI/CD pipelines
- Experience diagnosing production issues, managing releases and improving live-system stability
- Ability to communicate technical trade-offs and collaborate across engineering and business functions
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and raise team technical standards
Nice to have
- Experience integrating AI-assisted development tools into engineering workflows with human review and quality controls
- Experience designing enterprise workflows with complex business rules, reconciliation, data migration or high-volume order/inventory processing
- Experience establishing engineering standards, improving productivity or leading cross-functional technical initiatives
Full description
Key responsibilities
- Own the architecture, design, development, testing and ongoing improvement of core backend services and enterprise applications, primarily using Java.
- Design and evolve modular microservice architectures and service interfaces that support scalability, maintainability and reliable integration.
- Engineer high-concurrency, high-availability backend systems, identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks across application and service layers.
- Design robust business workflows and data-processing components, with careful attention to data integrity, consistency, traceability and recovery.
- Set technical direction through architecture reviews, design discussions, code reviews and clear engineering standards.
- Lead complex production investigations, coordinate root-cause analysis and implement preventive improvements to system stability and operational reliability.
- Strengthen software delivery practices through automated testing, continuous integration and deployment, release controls and development tooling.
- Work closely with product, QA, infrastructure and other engineering stakeholders to translate requirements into maintainable technical solutions.
- Coach and mentor engineers, support technical capability development and promote sound engineering practices across the team.
- Evaluate and responsibly adopt engineering tools, including AI-assisted development tools, where they improve implementation, debugging, test validation and technical documentation.
Essential requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or a closely related discipline.
- At least 10 years of professional software development experience, including substantial hands-on backend engineering experience.
- Strong, practical Java development experience and a track record of designing, building and maintaining enterprise-scale backend applications.
- Demonstrated experience with microservice architecture, service integration, API design and distributed application principles.
- Experience designing or operating systems with demanding concurrency, throughput, availability, scalability and reliability requirements.
- Strong understanding of software architecture, application performance, data integrity, fault handling and maintainable system design.
- Experience leading technical design decisions, conducting code and design reviews, and taking ownership of complex engineering deliverables.
- Practical experience with automated testing and software delivery practices, including Docker, Jenkins and CI/CD pipelines.
- Experience diagnosing production issues, managing releases and improving the stability and quality of live systems.
- Ability to communicate technical trade-offs clearly and collaborate effectively across engineering and business functions.