Principal Java Engineer (Java & Angular)
A 6-month contract (hybrid, Toronto) modernizing a high-volume legacy Java/Angular student-services application in higher education. The engineer assesses technical debt and security issues, profiles performance, and designs incremental Java 8 and AngularJS-to-Angular upgrade strategies, including monolith decomposition.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Toronto, Canada
- Work setup
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Principal
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- 8+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 8+ years professional Java development incl. 3+ legacy Java modernization projects (upgrades from Java 8 or earlier)
- 2+ production AngularJS-to-Angular migrations incl. hybrid coexistence strategies
- Assessing large codebases (500,000+ lines), modernizing monoliths and extracting services without production disruption
- Expertise in Java, Spring/Spring Boot, JAX-RS, JPA/Hibernate, REST APIs, Maven, Gradle, Angular, AngularJS and legacy frameworks (EJB, JSP, Struts)
- Hands-on Db2 or comparable RDBMS, JDBC/SQL tracing, Java Flight Recorder or similar profilers, thread/heap analysis, SonarQube, vulnerability scanning, performance/load testing
- Knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, automated testing, OWASP secure coding and Azure-hosted Java applications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering or equivalent experience
- Strong written and verbal English communication and collaboration skills
Nice to have
- Familiarity with IBM JSR-352, accessibility standards and student information systems
- Java, Spring or application security certifications
Full description
Application Modernization Specialist (Java & Angular)
Location: Toronto, ON, Hybrid (2-3 days per week; in total 5 days onsite across 2 weeks)
Language: Strong written and verbal English communication skills
Duration: 6-month contract, with possibility of extension
About the Opportunity
We’re looking for an experienced Application Modernization Specialist to support a major technology transformation within the higher education sector. This hands‑on role focuses on assessing and modernizing a complex, high-volume application that supports essential student services, including registration, payments and personal information management.
Working alongside developers, database specialists and infrastructure teams, you’ll investigate legacy Java and Angular applications, identify performance and technical debt challenges, and develop practical modernization solutions. This is an opportunity to combine deep technical expertise with architectural thinking, helping shape a more scalable, secure and maintainable digital experience.
What’s In It for You
- Work on a meaningful modernization initiative impacting a large and diverse student community.
- Collaborate with experienced technical professionals in a knowledge-sharing environment.
- Influence architectural decisions while remaining hands‑on with code, performance diagnostics and proof‑of‑concept development.
- Gain exposure to complex enterprise integrations and future cloud modernization opportunities.
Your Responsibilities
- You'll assess Java 8, Angular and AngularJS codebases, identifying technical debt, security vulnerabilities, dependencies and modernization opportunities.
- You'll investigate application performance using Java profiling, distributed tracing, SQL analysis and repeatable load testing.
- You'll evaluate legacy REST integrations, JAX‑RS/JPA services and Db2 database interactions to identify bottlenecks and coupling.
- You'll design incremental Java and AngularJS upgrade strategies, including monolith decomposition and service extraction.
- You'll develop implementation‑ready technical designs and hands‑on prototypes to validate proposed solutions.
- You'll translate findings into prioritized remediation plans with effort estimates, dependencies and measurable outcomes.
- You'll collaborate with internal development teams through technical workshops, code reviews and knowledge transfer.
Skills and Qualifications
- 8+ years of professional Java development, including at least 3 legacy Java modernization projects involving upgrades from Java 8 or earlier.