Principal Java Engineer

TL;DR

Principal Java Engineer: Leading the design and evolution of complex, enterprise-grade backend platforms with an accent on architectural decisions, engineering standards, and ensuring secure, scalable, and highly reliable systems. Focus on driving solution architecture, defining engineering principles, and mentoring teams while applying AI-assisted development tools pragmatically.

Location: Flexible and hybrid work models in Burgas, Ruse, or Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgarian language proficiency is required.

Company

Avenga is a global technology and business advisory company with 6000+ specialists providing a full spectrum of services from advisory to software development, valuing human creativity and high-impact systems.

What you will do

• Drive solution architecture and key technical decisions with business and technical stakeholders, ensuring cloud portability and long-term maintainability.
• Define and enforce engineering principles and standards: API-first design, contract versioning, security-by-design, observability, resiliency, and performance.
• Lead the design and development of microservices / service-based architecture with event-driven communication (event modeling, topic design, schemas, reliability patterns).
• Design and oversee authentication and authorization strategies: OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, SSO integrations, token strategies, and secure API access patterns.
• Guide teams on deployment and operational readiness for Azure / Kubernetes / OpenShift, including autoscaling, failure handling, and production resilience.
• Act as a technical mentor and trusted advisor, raising the overall engineering maturity of the teams.

Requirements

• 10+ years of backend engineering experience, with a strong track record in Java and Spring Boot.
• Proven experience as a Principal Engineer or Solution Architect on complex enterprise platforms (preferably in regulated domains).
• Strong knowledge of Kubernetes runtime and deployment patterns; experience with OpenShift is highly valued.
• Demonstrated expertise in event-driven architecture (e.g., Kafka), including schema/versioning strategy, idempotency, retries, and delivery guarantees.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems – consistency models, latency, resiliency, circuit breaking, backpressure, and operational reliability.
• Strong security background, including mTLS, API security, and secure engineering practices.
• Hands-on experience integrating OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect and SSO with external identity providers.
• Ability to design systems for high performance and scalability, handling large datasets and peak usage patterns.
• Bulgarian language proficiency is required.

Nice to have

• Experience with OpenShift.
• Strong motivation to use AI-assisted development tools to improve productivity and code quality.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on high-impact systems and influence strategic technical decisions.
• Collaborate with strong engineering teams in an environment that values quality, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Enjoy benefits like private health insurance and well-being programs.
• Flexible and hybrid work models.
• Laptops and gear, training opportunities, and language classes.
• Social events and equal opportunities in recruitment, career development, and leadership.

Hiring process

• Send your application for review by the Talent team.
• Meet our Talent team for an interview to discuss goals and learn more about the company.
• Undergo a technical interview to dive deeper into your expertise and problem-solving.
• Have a customer interview for roles where clients are closely involved.
• Receive a job offer if it's the right match.