Senior Backend Engineer - REMOTE
About the role
As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will make an impact by shaping the architecture and delivery of scalable backend services that support reporting, data access, scheduled processing, and data export. You will be a valued member of the engineering team and work collaboratively with product, quality assurance, and partner engineering teams to deliver secure, reliable, and maintainable solutions.
In this role, you will:
• Own the technical roadmap for backend services supporting reporting, data access, scheduled processing, and export or delivery capabilities.
• Drive and document architectural decisions across interdependent services and data sources while balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term technical health.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards for code quality, testing, API design, security, observability, and technical debt management.
• Translate ambiguous requirements into executable technical plans, review designs and code, resolve complex engineering challenges, and contribute hands-on code for high-risk or high-ambiguity work.
• Partner with product, quality assurance, engineering teams, and vendors on scope, sequencing, dependencies, platform evaluations, and architecture decisions while mentoring engineers and strengthening technical judgment across the team.
Qualifications:
• 12+ years of experience building and operating production backend systems, including demonstrated formal or informal technical leadership.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java and Spring or another modern backend language and framework, along with scalable distributed application design.
• Proven ownership of architecture across multiple services, including REST API and service contract design, authentication and authorization patterns, and distributed-system security tradeoffs.
• Strong relational database expertise covering schema design, migrations, query performance, and system-level data design.
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably Google Cloud Platform, plus containerization and continuous integration and delivery pipelines.
Salary and Other Compensation
The annual salary for this position is between $81K - $141K depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.
This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.
Benefits
Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:
• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Disclaimer
The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.
Important Disclaimers
Please note: A few of our roles may require in-person interviews at Cognizant offices or client locations, depending on project or client needs.
Candidate must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.
Application Deadline
Applications for this position will be accepted until 11/10/2026. Candidates are encouraged to apply as early as possible, as the posting may close sooner if a sufficient pool of qualified applicants is identified.
