IT Software Engineer 5 (Java Lead Engineer)

Role: IT Software Engineer 5 (Java Lead Engineer) Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid - Currently 2 days/week onsite; may increase based on business needs) Let's create our future together at The AES Group! About The AES Group: The AES Group is a premier technology and engineering consulting company that has been bringing businesses and talent together for over 20 years to deliver innovative solutions that have the greatest positive impact on society. AES has helped over 40 business enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, engage their customers, empower their employees, and transform their business operations with the power of cloud, data, AI, engineering, and other emerging technologies. Position Overview Seeking an experienced Java Lead Engineer to design, develop, and deploy enterprise-scale digital platform solutions. This role requires strong backend development expertise, technical leadership, and hands-on experience building highly available, scalable cloud-based applications. Key Responsibilities Lead the design, development, and deployment of Java-based enterprise applications. Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and guidance to development teams. Drive delivery of business-critical features and enhancements. Design and support highly available, reliable, and scalable solutions. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop new functionality and applications. Lead troubleshooting, debugging, performance tuning, and production support activities. Conduct integration testing and support customer acceptance testing. Participate in architecture discussions, technology evaluations, and technical recommendations. Promote software engineering best practices, coding standards, and code quality. Mentor junior developers and support team growth initiatives. Work with business stakeholders and internal customers to define and deliver solutions. Required Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field. 10+ years of hands-on experience designing and developing Java applications. 3+ years of experience leading geographically distributed development teams. Strong backend engineering experience in enterprise environments. Required Technical Skills Java 17 Backend Application Development RESTful Web Services / APIs AWS Services: IAM Kinesis DynamoDB API Services SQS SNS KMS Strong SQL and database querying skills DevOps practices and CI/CD High Availability and Reliability Engineering Application Design and Architecture Experience Required Soft Skills Strong leadership and mentoring abilities Excellent communication and collaboration skills Ability to work effectively under pressure and meet deadlines Passion for technology and continuous improvement Strong problem-solving and analytical skills Preferred Candidate Profile Hands-on Java backend lead with recent development experience. Strong AWS cloud engineering background. Experience building scalable, resilient enterprise applications. Comfortable balancing technical leadership with hands-on coding responsibilities. Proven experience leading distributed teams.