The Lead Developer programs and configures software to meet TIAA business needs. Under minimal supervision, this job identifies and analyzes complex business software needs, writes and reviews complex code to optimize the performance and efficiency of the organization's IT platform/infrastructure, and conducts testing to ensure programs are functioning properly. This job is considered a subject matter expert in the Applications Development & Support area and provides technical leadership across the development lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities and Duties- Leads the design and development of production-quality Java solutions (microservices, batch pipelines, APIs) that serve enterprise financial and insurance platforms, with a focus on externally-facing, partner-integrated capabilities
- Provides technical leadership across the development lifecycle, including architecture decisions, code review, and mentoring of other developers on the team
- Partners with business analysts, partner integration teams, and downstream data consumers to design, develop, and troubleshoot complex end-to-end technical solutions supporting SIA product portability
- Designs, secures, and maintains external customer-facing APIs at enterprise scale, ensuring performance, security, and reliability standards are met
- Leads containerization and deployment strategy using AWS EKS, working across CI/CD tooling (Jenkins/Cloudbees/ArgoCD) to drive delivery velocity and platform stability
- Applies, validates, and stress-tests AI-generated code in a production-grade, externally-facing environment, ensuring quality and security are never compromised
- Performs maintenance programming and correction of identified defects across own work and the work of the broader team
Educational Requirements- Bachelor's Degree Required
Work Experience- 5+ Years Required; 7+ Years Preferred
Physical Requirements- Physical Requirements: Sedentary Work
Career Level9IC
Required Skills- 5 or more years of experience with Java development (Java 17+), with deep expertise in Spring Boot and Spring Batch
- Hands-on experience developing and securing external customer-facing APIs at enterprise scale
- Hands-on experience with AWS EKS, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and CI/CD tooling (Jenkins, Cloudbees, ArgoCD)
- Experience with REST API design and integration; deep familiarity with contract-first approaches (OpenAPI/Swagger)
- Demonstrated ability to leverage AI-assisted development tools (Copilot, Kiro, or similar) to drive SDLC quality and delivery velocity
- Experience with production-support incident triage using Splunk, Dynatrace, or similar observability tools
- Proven track record providing technical leadership and mentorship to development teams
Preferred Skills- Proficiency in Python for scripting, automation, and/or data-processing tasks supporting platform and integration workflows
- Message-based integration experience (IBM MQ, Apache ActiveMQ Artemis, Kafka, or JMS)
- Broader cloud infrastructure experience: AWS (ECS, S3, Glue, Lambda), OpenShift, Terraform
- Secrets management and authentication chains (CyberArk Conjur, Kerberos, or equivalent)
- Financial services or insurance industry domain exposure
- BPMN / workflow orchestration (Flowable, Camunda, or similar)
- Agile/Scrum practices in a Jira-based SDLC
- Ability to work across technical and business teams to translate strategic platform goals into engineering execution
Related Skills
Agile Methodology, Continuous Integration and Deployment, Data Analysis, Debugging, DevOps, Enterprise Application Integration, Operating Systems Management, Problem Solving, Programming, Software Development, Software Development Life Cycle, Web Application Development
Anticipated Posting End Date:2026-09-07
Base Pay Range: $128,000/yr - $153,000/yr
Actual base salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, base salary of internal peers, prior performance, business sector, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, the competitive compensation package may include, depending on the role, participation in an incentive program linked to performance (for example, annual discretionary incentive programs, non-annual sales incentive plans, or other non-annual incentive plans).
