Senior Backend Engineer (Java)

Location: Hybrid in San Ġiljan, Malta

Company

hirify.global develops long-term multiplayer strategy games, including Supremacy World War III, with offices in Hamburg and Malta.

What you will do

• Design, build, maintain, and extend the Java backend and self-built game engine for Supremacy World War III.
• Profile and improve the performance of long-running Java game servers under live load, including garbage collection, threading, and slow game loops.
• Maintain stability through seasonal releases by refactoring a mature codebase, adding automated tests, and leading firefighting and quality initiatives.
• Define SLOs and implement metrics, tracing, logging, incident reviews, and reliability improvements for distributed services running on Google Cloud.
• Collaborate with game designers, product leads, producers, and other teams to deliver player-focused features.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and mentor engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and knowledge sharing.

Requirements

• 7+ years of professional Java development experience with strong coding and debugging skills.
• Experience developing and maintaining multi-server, high-load backend services and APIs.
• Strong understanding of object-oriented design, algorithms, software architecture, distributed systems, and automated testing.
• Experience with Java, Spring or Spring Boot, JUnit5, Gradle, SQL and NoSQL databases, and related backend technologies.
• Working knowledge of JavaScript or TypeScript; familiarity with PHP and Node.js or willingness to learn them.
• Fluent technical and business English is required.

Nice to have

• Experience with GCP, CI/CD, GitHub Actions, networking, and distributed-system debugging.
• Hands-on experience with Scrum or Kanban.
• Enthusiasm for games, especially strategy games.

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible hybrid work model supported across the Hamburg and Malta locations.
• Career Path Framework, mentorship, language courses, e-learning platforms, and support for conferences and training.
• International environment with more than 30 nationalities across two locations.
• Trust-based culture with team activities including game nights, quiz nights, casual drinks, and karaoke.