Java Backend Software Engineer III - Cassandra / Kubernetes

At JPMorganChase, your engineering work powers the digital experiences that millions of customers depend on every day. As part of our Consumer & Community Banking technology team in Chicago, you will design and build scalable backend systems using modern technologies including Java, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, and Kafka — while growing your career alongside some of the best engineers in the industry. This is your opportunity to make a meaningful impact at global scale while working in a collaborative, innovation-driven environment.

As a Software Engineer III at JPMorganChase within Consumer & Community Banking, Digital Communication, you serve as a seasoned member of an agile team to design and deliver trusted, market-leading technology products in a secure, stable, and scalable way. You are responsible for carrying out critical technology solutions across multiple technical areas within various business functions in support of the firm's business objectives. In this role, you will build and maintain high-throughput Java and Spring Boot backend services, leveraging Kafka for event-driven communication and Kubernetes for container orchestration, while managing data across distributed and relational platforms including Cassandra, CockroachDB, Oracle, and PostgreSQL. You will bring technical depth and a collaborative mindset to a team that values engineering excellence, operational rigor, and continuous improvement.

Job responsibilities

• Executes software solutions, design, development, and technical troubleshooting with ability to think beyond routine or conventional approaches to build solutions or break down technical problems
• Creates secure and high-quality production code and maintains algorithms that run synchronously with appropriate systems, with a focus on Java and Spring Boot backend services
• Leverages enterprise-authorized AI coding assist tools within the work environment to improve code quality, delivery speed, and productivity across complex deliverables (e.g., code generation/refactoring, unit test creation, documentation), while validating outputs through peer review, automated testing, and secure coding standards; contributes learnings and reusable patterns to improve broader team effectiveness
• Applies knowledge of tools within the Software Development Life Cycle toolchain, including enterprise-authorized AI-assisted development and automation capabilities, to improve the value realized by automation
• Produces architecture and design artifacts for complex applications while being accountable for ensuring design constraints are met by software code development
• Designs and implements event-driven microservices using Kafka to support real-time digital communication workflows at enterprise scale
• Manages and optimizes data access patterns across distributed databases (Cassandra, CockroachDB) and relational databases (Oracle, PostgreSQL) to ensure performance, reliability, and data integrity
• Gathers, analyzes, synthesizes, and develops visualizations and reporting from large, diverse data sets in service of continuous improvement of software applications and systems
• Proactively identifies hidden problems and patterns in data and uses these insights to drive improvements to coding hygiene and system architecture
• Deploys and manages containerized backend services on Kubernetes, ensuring high availability, scalability, and operational resilience in production environments

Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Formal training or certification on software engineering concepts and 3+ years applied experience
• Hands-on practical experience in system design, application development, testing, and operational stability
• Experience in developing, debugging, and maintaining code in a large corporate environment using Java and Spring Boot as primary backend development technologies
• Hands-on experience with event-driven architecture and messaging platforms, including Kafka, for building real-time, high-throughput backend systems
• Experience deploying and managing containerized applications using Kubernetes in a production environment
• Hands-on experience working with distributed databases such as Cassandra or CockroachDB and relational databases such as Oracle and PostgreSQL, including query optimization and schema design
• Hands-on experience using enterprise-authorized AI-assisted software development tools within the work environment (e.g., for coding, test creation, troubleshooting, or documentation) with demonstrated ability to critically evaluate, validate, and refine AI-generated outputs for correctness, performance, and security
• Understanding of responsible AI use in engineering workflows, including data sensitivity considerations, secure handling of inputs/outputs, and adherence to resiliency and security expectations; ability to guide peers on safe and effective usage within team practices
• Overall knowledge of the Software Development Life Cycle
• Solid understanding of agile methodologies such as CI/CD, Application Resiliency, and Security

Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Experience designing and building backend services for digital communication platforms such as messaging, notifications, or customer engagement systems
• Familiarity with service mesh technologies, API gateway patterns, and microservices design principles in a large-scale enterprise environment
• Experience with cloud-native infrastructure and deployment pipelines supporting containerized Java workloads
• Familiarity with observability practices including logging, monitoring, alerting, and incident response in production systems
• Experience with performance tuning across both distributed and relational database environments at high transaction volumes