Principal Backend Engineer - Rules Engine & Data Platform

Intellibus
Intellibus

Software Engineering

New York, NY, USA

USD 75-85 / hour

Posted on Aug 2, 2026

Are you a Principal Engineer working at a large financial institution and being told you’re “too hands-on” or “too detail-oriented”? Do you think and work like a start-up engineer who thrives on solving complex problems?

At Intellibus, we engineer platforms that impact billions of lives. Our Platform Engineering Team is solving the Multiplicity Problem and has recently led conversion and go-live of applications that support the backbone of the global financial trading industry.

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Java Backend Engineer with 10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience to join our high-performing engineering team. This is a mission-critical remediation and modernization role focused on improving, optimizing, and transforming enterprise financial platforms.

The ideal candidate is a deeply hands-on engineer who enjoys working directly in the code, solving complex distributed systems problems, optimizing application performance, and modernizing large-scale enterprise Java applications. Candidates should have experience within FinTech, Banking, Capital Markets, Financial Services, or Technology Consulting environments.

We are looking for Engineers who can:

  • Design and develop highly scalable enterprise-grade Java backend applications.
  • Build and optimize distributed systems capable of processing millions of financial transactions.
  • Modernize legacy enterprise applications into cloud-native Java services.
  • Identify and resolve application performance bottlenecks across Java services, APIs, databases, and distributed systems.
  • Tune complex SQL queries, execution plans, indexing strategies, and database performance.
  • Develop scalable REST APIs and microservices using Spring Boot.
  • Design resilient, highly available backend services for mission-critical financial platforms.
  • Work on enterprise remediation initiatives, technical debt reduction, and platform modernization.
  • Develop and optimize high-throughput data processing and reporting platforms.
  • Design cloud-native solutions using AWS services.
  • Work closely with Architects, Product Managers, Business Analysts, and Engineering Leadership to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
  • Lead production troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and performance optimization initiatives.
  • Mentor engineers while maintaining a strong hands-on engineering presence.
  • Champion clean architecture, reusable frameworks, CI/CD automation, and engineering best practices.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (or equivalent experience).
  • 12+ years of hands-on Java backend development experience.
  • Expert-level Java development (Java 11/17+ preferred).
  • Extensive experience with Spring Boot, Spring Framework, REST APIs, and Microservices.
  • Strong expertise in Object-Oriented Design, Design Patterns, Multithreading, Concurrency, Collections, and JVM Performance Tuning.
  • Strong experience building high-performance distributed systems.
  • Experience modernizing legacy enterprise applications.
  • Strong SQL optimization, query tuning, execution plans, indexing strategies, and database performance analysis.
  • Experience supporting enterprise production environments and remediation initiatives.
  • Strong AWS experience including:
  • AWS Lambda
  • Amazon S3
  • Amazon Redshift (Preferred)
  • Strong understanding of distributed systems, scalability, resiliency, and high availability.
  • Experience with asynchronous messaging and event-driven architecture (Kafka preferred).
  • Experience with Git, Maven, Gradle, Jenkins, and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Excellent debugging, profiling, and production support experience.
  • Experience working in Financial Services, Banking, Capital Markets, FinTech, or Technology Consulting.
  • Experience with Business Rules Engines (Drools, ILOG, Blaze Advisor, etc.).
  • Experience with Apache Parquet.
  • Experience with Jasper Reports.
  • Experience building enterprise ETL or large-scale data processing platforms.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first six months, you will have:

  • Modernized critical enterprise Java applications through remediation and optimization initiatives.
  • Improved scalability, resiliency, and performance of distributed backend services.
  • Reduced SQL execution times through advanced query tuning and indexing strategies.
  • Enhanced production stability through root cause analysis and performance engineering.
  • Contributed to cloud modernization initiatives using AWS technologies.
  • Established yourself as a trusted hands-on technical leader who drives engineering excellence while remaining deeply involved in production code.

We work closely with

  • Java 17+
  • Spring Boot
  • REST APIs
  • Microservices
  • Distributed Systems
  • SQL Server
  • AWS Lambda
  • Amazon S3
  • Amazon Redshift
  • Kafka
  • Performance Tuning
  • Query Optimization
  • SQL Indexing
  • JVM Performance
  • High-Volume Transaction Systems
  • Enterprise Application Modernization
  • Production Support
  • Financial Services
  • Banking
  • Capital Markets
  • FinTech
  • Technology Consulting
  • Business Rules Engines (Drools, ILOG, Blaze)
  • Apache Parquet
  • Jasper Reports
  • Large-scale Data Pipelines

Compensation: $75 - $85 / Hour

Our Process

  • Schedule a 15-minute video call with someone from our Team
  • 1 Proctored GQ Tests, Multiple choice (< 1 hour) & a Presentation Deck.
  • 30-45 min Final Video Interview
  • Receive Job Offer

If you are interested in reaching out to us, please apply, and our team will contact you within the hour.