Lead Java Developer – Vice President

Overview

Lead the design, development, modernization and support of enterprise applications, driving technical strategy and engineering excellence across multiple initiatives as a technical leader and trusted advisor.

What you'll do

• Lead the design, development and implementation of scalable, resilient, cloud-native applications using Core Java, Spring Boot, Microservices and Kafka.
• Drive architecture and technical design decisions across multiple projects and application domains.
• Provide technical leadership for complex engineering initiatives, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture and engineering standards.
• Partner with business, product, architecture and technology teams to define solution strategies and deliver outcomes.
• Lead performance optimization, resiliency improvements, security reviews and production stability initiatives.
• Establish and promote engineering best practices for coding, testing, CI/CD, observability and automation.
• Utilize AI-powered coding assistants and engineering agents (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Devin AI) to improve development efficiency, code quality and developer productivity.
• Apply Context Engineering and AI-first development practices to effectively leverage coding agents throughout the SDLC.
• Mentor senior and junior engineers and drive technical skill development across teams.
• Act as a recognized SME and technical advisor for stakeholders, architects and engineering leadership.
• Assess technology risks, drive remediation strategies and ensure compliance with Citi policies and regulatory requirements.

What you'll need

• 13+ years of application development experience.
• Strong expertise in Core Java.
• Strong expertise in Spring Boot.
• Strong expertise in REST APIs and Microservices.
• Strong expertise in Multithreading and Concurrency.
• Strong expertise in Collections Framework.
• Strong expertise in Transaction Management.
• Strong expertise in SQL / RDBMS.
• Strong expertise in Cloud Platforms.
• Strong expertise in Kafka.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, scalability, resiliency and performance optimization.
• Experience driving technical design, architecture reviews and engineering governance.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical initiatives across teams.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to operate independently and influence technical direction across organizations.

Nice to have

• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and cloud-native platforms.
• Familiarity with observability, monitoring and SRE practices.
• Experience using GitHub Copilot, Devin AI or similar coding agents.
• Understanding of Context Engineering, prompt design and Agentic SDLC practices.
• Strong knowledge of secure software development and application security.

Details

• Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
• Employment type: Full time.