Java Engineer at DeARX Services (Pty) Ltd

About the Role

• An exciting opportunity for a Senior Java Engineer to join a high-performing engineering team responsible for building Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) services within a modern digital platform.
• This role focuses on developing reactive, non-blocking microservices that sit between customer-facing channels (web, mobile, third-party integrations) and downstream systems.
• You will play a key role in delivering high-performance, resilient, and secure APIs that directly impact user experience at scale.

Key Responsibilities
BFF & API Layer

• Design and build BFF services that aggregate and orchestrate downstream APIs
• Tailor responses for different channels (web, mobile, conversational interfaces)
• Define and evolve consumer-driven API contracts

Reactive Development

• Build services using Spring Boot 3.x, WebFlux, and Project Reactor
• Apply non-blocking, asynchronous programming models
• Ensure optimal handling of backpressure and concurrency

Resilience & Performance

• Implement resilience patterns using Resilience4j
• Apply caching strategies (Redis, Caffeine)
• Optimize for low latency and high throughput

Integration & Messaging

• Integrate with distributed systems via REST and messaging platforms
• Use Kafka or RabbitMQ for event-driven processing

Security

• Implement OAuth2 / OpenID Connect and JWT-based security
• Enforce API protection, validation, and rate limiting

Testing & Quality

• Develop comprehensive test coverage:
• Unit testing (JUnit, Mockito)
• Integration testing (Testcontainers)
• Reactive testing (StepVerifier)
• Contract testing

Cloud & DevOps

• Containerise applications using Docker
• Deploy via Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines
• Contribute to automation and infrastructure practices

Observability

• Implement logging, tracing, and monitoring
• Use tools such as Micrometer, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana

Collaboration & Leadership

• Participate in architecture and design discussions
• Conduct code reviews and enforce best practices
• Mentor engineers and contribute to team growth

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong experience in Java 17+
• Deep expertise in Spring Boot and Spring WebFlux
• Solid understanding of reactive programming paradigms
• Experience with BFF / API composition patterns
• Messaging systems (Kafka / RabbitMQ)
• Containers and cloud platforms (Docker, Kubernetes)
• CI/CD and modern DevOps practices
• Redis, R2DBC, and/or NoSQL databases

Preferred Experience

• 6–10 years of software engineering experience
• 3+ years working with reactive systems
• Experience in high-scale distributed environments
• Exposure to regulated or security-sensitive domains
• Familiarity with API gateway ecosystems

Key Traits

• Strong engineering craftsmanship and attention to detail
• Passion for reactive and scalable systems
• Customer-focused mindset
• Collaborative and team-oriented
• Strong problem-solving ability in distributed systems
• Ownership and accountability
• Continuous learner with a growth mindset