Lead Software Engineer - Enterprise Email SME, SES. DNS, Java Development

This is not your average backend Java role where you just glue APIs together; this is a heavy-duty infrastructure and application crossover position. You'll be acting as the definitive Subject Matter Expert for an enterprise-scale email and messaging platform built on AWS, where your code has to survive the brutal realities of global inbox placement, deliverability matrices, and high-volume throughput. If you enjoy diving deep into DNS records just as much as writing clean Spring Boot microservices, this is where you get to own the entire pipeline from code generation to the inbox.

What You'll Actually Be Doing

Your days will be split between writing resilient Java/Spring Boot code and untangling complex messaging pipelines. You'll architect systems that handle asynchronous event-driven processing for millions of transactional emails, manage dedicated IP warm-up strategies, and build robust feedback loops for hard bounces and complaints. You won't just write features—you'll own the domain authentication strategy, ensuring strict DMARC, DKIM, and SPF alignment while collaborating closely with security, infrastructure, and product teams to keep sender reputation pristine across major mailbox providers.

The Core Tech Stack

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is the absolute heart of this platform, and you need to know its quirks inside and out—configuration sets, sending pools, and suppression management aren't buzzwords here; they are your daily tools. Wrapped around that is a robust Java and Spring Boot ecosystem utilizing event-driven messaging patterns with SNS/SQS, S3, and modern relational databases. Because you are dealing with massive enterprise workloads, deep familiarity with asynchronous processing, retry mechanisms, and robust JSON/XML processing is non-negotiable.

Interview Expectations

The interview panel is going to test both your system design chops and your deep operational knowledge of email mechanics. They will likely present a scenario where a major enterprise client's emails suddenly start routing to the spam folder despite valid API responses, asking you to trace the failure from application generation through custom MAIL FROM domains, DNS alignment, and ISP feedback loops. They're secretly looking to see if you panic when dealing with lower-level networking and reputation issues, or if you methodically isolate SPF/DKIM validation failures and throttling metrics. Another common line of questioning will revolve around designing an asynchronous, high-throughput batch notification service in Spring Boot that gracefully handles backpressure without overwhelming SES sending quotas.

Application Advice

To get past the ATS and grab the recruiter's attention, make sure your resume explicitly highlights your hands-on production experience with AWS SES, domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and enterprise deliverability management alongside your Java/Spring Boot accomplishments. Don't just list technologies; bullet-point specific instances where you rescued sender reputation, scaled high-volume transactional email pipelines, or managed complex DNS integrations. Weave these technical keywords naturally into your experience section to prove you are a true technical lead who can operate comfortably at both the infrastructure and application layers.