Job Description & Details
This is a heavy-duty production support and maintenance role tailored for a seasoned Java veteran who isn't afraid to dive straight into live environments. If you enjoy untangling complex multi-tier application issues, debugging legacy enterprise stacks, and directly deploying code fixes to production, this position offers plenty of technical grit. You will act as the ultimate escalation point, bridging the gap between high-level development and critical operational stability.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
Your day-to-day will revolve around jumping into active production incidents, diagnosing deep-seated bugs across legacy and modern codebases, and executing immediate code changes following strict SDLC protocols. You'll spend a significant amount of time analyzing thread dumps, tuning database queries, and managing deployments across a variety of application servers. Expect to collaborate closely with upstream development teams and infrastructure groups while handling ticket queues in Jira or ServiceNow, ensuring root cause analysis is thoroughly documented and resolved.
The Core Tech Stack
You absolutely must bring a strong foundation in Advanced Java and J2EE, touching everything from legacy Struts and Servlets to modern Spring and Hibernate, alongside REST APIs and basic frontend hooks like JavaScript and HTML. Because this role deals with complex, multi-tier enterprise systems, deep familiarity with application servers like Tomcat, JBoss, WebSphere, and Weblogic is non-negotiable. Furthermore, you need heavy hands-on database muscle with platforms like DB2, Oracle, or Sybase, paired with solid Unix shell scripting and CI/CD tooling like Git and Jenkins to push code safely.
Interview Expectations
Given the mandatory face-to-face interview process, expect the hiring panel to test your real-world troubleshooting instincts under pressure. They will likely ask you to walk through a scenario where a multi-tier enterprise application is throwing memory leaks or thread pool exhaustion in production, and they want to hear how you methodically isolate the bottleneck across the JVM, the application server, and the database. The hiring manager is secretly looking for calm composure, systematic problem-solving, and a deep understanding of how code interacts with underlying infrastructure when things break at scale.
Application Advice
To stand out and clear the initial ATS screening, ensure your resume highlights heavy L2/L3 production support experience alongside your pure development background. Explicitly weave in keywords like production debugging, incident management, thread dump analysis, and specific enterprise servers (WebSphere, Weblogic) right at the top of your technical summary. Avoid listing Java as a passive skill; instead, couple it with your hands-on database querying and Unix scripting history to prove you are a well-rounded engineer capable of handling high-stakes operational environments.