Forward Deployment Engineer

Overview As an Expert Forward Deployed Engineer, you will lead hands-on engagements to improve security, release reliability, maintainability, and resilience of critical banking applications. You work directly with development teams and client stakeholders to define remediation approaches, implement changes, and elevate engineering practices. You will balance coding, DevOps, SRE, test automation, and modernization to deliver measurable improvements across systems and processes. This role offers the opportunity to shape technical strategy and enable lasting improvements through hands-on execution and coaching. ResponsibilitiesLead targeted engagements addressing security, testing, release, resilience, and legacy tech challengesAssess code, dependencies, runtime, test coverage, CI/CD, observability, and operational risksWrite and review production-quality code and configurationsDefine and implement modernization/remediation plans with priorities and risksDevelop unit/integration/contract/deployment tests using TDDChoose and execute automation-testing strategies, including AI-assisted codingSource test data and implement secure data maskingConduct vulnerability triage, root-cause and dependency analyses, and regression testingUpgrade runtimes/frameworks/libraries and container platforms; maintain supported versionsEstablish dependency-management with ongoing library updates (Renovate or equivalents)Modernize legacy apps and middleware (WebSphere/WebLogic)Containerize applications with Docker; support OpenShift deploymentsImprove source control, branching, PRs, and code-review practicesDesign and optimize CI/CD pipelines for safe, repeatable releasesAutomate database changes (Liquibase/Flyway)Automate installed software/environments with Ansible or equivalentsImplement secure coding, secrets management, and least-privilege controlsIntroduce standard observability patterns (logging, metrics, tracing, dashboards)Enhance exception handling, diagnostics, rollback, and production validationDesign resilient deployment architectures (hot-hot, multi-region)Lead technical workshops; communicate decisions, risks, trade-offs to stakeholdersProvide technical leadership through code reviews, standards, docs, knowledge transferOwn initiatives from assessment to production handover Key requirementsextensive hands-on software engineering experience with production appsexpertise in Java and JVM-based development; strong TypeScript for Node.js projectsSpring ecosystem and modernization of Java enterprise appsrecent coding, debugging, and production code review experienceTest-Driven Development across multiple testing frameworksautomation of tests within CI/CD; release automation and quality gatessecure coding practices, vulnerability remediation, dependency risk managementupgrading runtimes/frameworks/libraries and container platforms (Docker/OpenShift)Linux administration; build tools (Maven/Gradle/npm); advanced Git workflows; production debuggingapplication observability, exception handling, production readinessdistributed systems engineering principlesstrong client-facing communication; technical leadership; coachingproficient use of AI-assisted development toolsclient-facing communicationtechnical leadershipownership of complex projectsJava/JVM development; Spring; TypeScript; Node.jsTest-Driven Development; automated testing in CI/CDsecure coding; vulnerability management; dependency risk analysis