SDE-3 / Senior Software Development Engineer

Role Overview

Senior Software Development Engineer (SDE-3) at Weekday AI for one of their clients, based in Abu Dhabi. Full-time position requiring 9+ years of software engineering experience.

Role Purpose

Design, develop, and scale high-performance backend systems using Java and Spring Boot. Take ownership of complex technical initiatives, contribute to system architecture and engineering best practices, and work closely with product, engineering, and cross-functional teams to deliver reliable, scalable, and maintainable applications in production environments.

Key Responsibilities

Design & Development

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain scalable backend services and applications using Java and Spring Boot.
• Architect and implement robust, secure, and high-performance APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Develop clean, modular, reusable, and maintainable code following established engineering standards and design principles.
• Design and optimize database interactions, APIs, service integrations, and backend workflows.

Project Ownership & Architecture

• Own complex engineering projects from requirements gathering and technical design through implementation, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Participate in architecture discussions and contribute to technical decisions involving scalability, reliability, observability, and maintainability.
• Drive engineering initiatives and continuously identify opportunities to improve development processes, system architecture, and operational efficiency.

Performance & Reliability

• Analyze system performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement solutions to improve scalability, reliability, latency, and resource utilization.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and perform root-cause analysis to ensure long-term resolution.

Code Quality & Mentorship

• Conduct thorough code reviews and promote high standards for code quality, testing, documentation, and engineering practices.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and contribute to improving the overall technical capabilities of the team.

Collaboration

• Collaborate with product managers, designers, QA engineers, DevOps, and other stakeholders to deliver high-quality software solutions.

Qualifications & Experience

• 9–14 years of professional software development experience.
• Strong proficiency in Java, including object-oriented programming, collections, concurrency, exception handling, and performance optimization.
• Extensive hands-on experience with Spring Boot and the Spring ecosystem.
• Strong experience building and maintaining RESTful APIs and microservices.
• Solid understanding of distributed systems, backend architecture, scalability, and high-availability concepts.
• Strong knowledge of software design principles, design patterns, data structures, and algorithms.
• Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases and database performance optimization.
• Strong understanding of unit testing, integration testing, debugging, and code quality practices.
• Experience working with Git and modern software development and deployment practices.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to independently handle complex technical challenges.
• Experience in team management, technical leadership, or engineering mentorship (good-to-have).
• Exposure to cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP (good-to-have).
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps practices (good-to-have).
• Familiarity with Kafka or other event-driven/messaging systems (good-to-have).
• Experience with observability, monitoring, logging, and production reliability practices (good-to-have).
• Exposure to system design interviews, technical architecture reviews, and large-scale application development (good-to-have).

Additional Information

• Job Type: Full-time
• Location: Abu Dhabi