Lead Java Software Engineer
About Kestra
At Kestra, we’re on a mission to make orchestration and automation simpler for everyone. Our open‑source platform helps teams manage complex workflows with confidence, and we’re already making a big impact in businesses around the world. Now, we’re looking for a Full Stack Engineer to help us take things to the next level. In March 2026, we closed a $25M Series A led by RTP Global, with participation from Alven, ISAI, and Axeleo – backed by founders from Datadog, dbt Labs, and Hugging Face.
What You’ll Do
- Build and improve our core platform backend using Java.
- Work on enterprise solutions, crafting products that scale with our customers’ needs.
- Lead engineers as Team Leader, conducting code reviews, unblocking developers, and providing technical mentorship.
- Serve as the translator between technical and non‑technical departments, working with Product Managers to define road-maps and balance technical debt with feature delivery.
- Own software quality, overseeing CI/CD pipelines, defining SLOs/SLAs, and leading post‑mortems when systems fail.
- Collaborate closely with customers to understand and fix their pain points.
You’ll work in an environment where speed and agility are key, and delivering value to our customers is always the top priority. We embrace modern development tools, including AI assistants and coding agents, and we encourage engineers to leverage them to move faster, explore ideas, and improve productivity. We provide access to leading AI models and tools when needed so you can use them effectively in your daily work.
We strongly believe great engineers must fully understand what they build. This means mastering the business context, architecture, performance considerations, security implications, and quality standards of the code being produced. You should be comfortable reviewing, validating, and improving AI‑generated code, and ultimately take ownership of the entire lifecycle from understanding the problem and designing the solution to implementation, testing, and delivery. AI can accelerate the work, but responsibility, critical thinking, and technical judgment always remain with the engineer.
Our Tech Stack
- Backend: Java, Micronaut
- Front‑end: Vue.js, Bootstrap
- Datastore: Kafka, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, MySQL
- Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform
- Cloud: GCP, AWS, Azure
- Tools: GitHub for repo management, actions, and issues
What We’re Looking For
- 10+ years of experience in backend (Java).
- Ability to lead major architecture decisions and drive key initiatives.
- Prefer simplicity over beautiful complexity.
- Strong experience with testing and automation, and familiar with agile development practices.
- A love for building great products that solve real problems.
- Track record of quickly learning new technologies and concepts.
- Ability to work well both independently, remotely and as part of a team.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and spoken, in English.
Bonus Points If You Have
- Contributed to or maintained an open‑source project.
- Experience with front‑end technology (Vue.js or React), allowing you to develop full‑stack features.
- Experience with high‑performance application frameworks or Micronaut.
- Knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, and public cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure).
- Familiarity with relational and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
- Experience working with high‑performance, distributed systems.
Perks & Benefits
- Work from anywhere: we’re a remote‑first company, so you can work from wherever feels like home. Plus, you’ll have access to coworking spaces worldwide if you ever need a change of scenery.
- Health coverage: medical support, dental, and vision.
- Home office setup on us: we’ll provide all the equipment you need to work comfortably.