We are seeking a backend software engineer for a remote contract engagement building and operating scalable, revenue-critical payment infrastructure. You will deliver payment features, reduce technical debt, and modernize services while collaborating with engineers, product managers, and partner teams.
Enterprise experience strongly preferred.
Key Responsibilities
- Implement production backend features for payment flows.
- Refactor legacy services, improve test coverage, and modernize APIs, including migrations from deprecated APIs.
- Deliver clean, well-tested, production-ready code with passing CI/CD pipelines and peer-review approval.
- Deliver initiatives within agreed sprint cycles and participate in code reviews, design discussions, and sprint ceremonies.
- Clarify requirements with product managers and partner teams and deliver end-to-end solutions.
- Produce designs, API specifications, knowledge-transfer documentation, and runbooks for owned workstreams.
- Support maintainability and a smooth handoff to the engineering team at the conclusion of the engagement.
QualificationsMust-Have Skills
- 3+ years of backend software engineering experience.
- Experience building and operating production backend services at scale.
- Strong proficiency in Java as the primary programming language, with Kotlin and Python as complementary skills.
- Hands-on experience with RESTful and GraphQL APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems.
- Payments, fintech, or billing domain experience, including gateways, processors, or payment service providers.
- Experience writing unit, integration, and contract tests.
- Agile/Scrum experience with sprint-based delivery.
- Ability to ramp quickly on an existing codebase with minimal guidance.
- Git-based version control and code review using GitLab.
- Hands-on experience with GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
- Relational database experience with MySQL and SQL.
- Distributed systems experience with message queues, asynchronous processing, and eventual consistency.
- Jira experience for task and sprint tracking.
- Experience building end-to-end backend payment flows in production, including charges, refunds, disputes, and webhooks.
- Legacy service refactoring or migration experience with regression testing.
- Experience resolving production incidents in payment or billing systems.
- Experience designing internal APIs consumed by multiple downstream services.
- Ability to own feature delivery with minimal supervision and collaborate asynchronously with distributed, cross-functional teams.
Nice-to-Have Skills
- Experience in a large enterprise engineering organization.
- Experience with Spring Boot, Gradle, and service mesh technologies.
- PCI-DSS compliance, payment security, or financial data handling experience.
- Experience with Datadog observability tooling.
- Open-source contributions or a portfolio of shipped payment features.
Additional InformationRequired Tools & Platforms
- Java, with Kotlin and Python as complementary languages.
- RESTful and GraphQL APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems.
- Git, GitLab, and GitLab CI/CD.
- MySQL and SQL.
- Message queues and asynchronous processing systems.
- Jira.
Location, Time & Engagement
- Candidates must be based in India or a nearby eligible APAC location no more than two hours ahead of or behind India Standard Time (IST).
- IST support is required, preferably 10 AM to 7 PM IST.
- Remote contract engagement, 40 hours per week.
- Expected engagement through March 31, 2027; start date to be agreed.
- One opening is available.
- This is not currently a contract-to-hire opportunity.
Skills Required
- 3+ years of backend software engineering experience
- Experience building and operating production backend services at scale
- Strong proficiency in Java, with Kotlin and Python as complementary skills
- Experience with RESTful and GraphQL APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems
- Payments, fintech, or billing domain experience, including gateways, processors, or payment service providers
- Experience writing unit, integration, and contract tests
- Agile/Scrum experience with sprint-based delivery
- Ability to ramp quickly on an existing codebase with minimal guidance
- Git-based version control and code review using GitLab
- Hands-on experience with GitLab CI/CD pipelines
- Relational database experience with MySQL and SQL
- Distributed systems experience with message queues, asynchronous processing, and eventual consistency
- Jira experience for task and sprint tracking
- Experience building end-to-end backend payment flows in production, including charges, refunds, disputes, and webhooks
- Legacy service refactoring or migration experience with regression testing
- Experience resolving production incidents in payment or billing systems
- Experience designing internal APIs consumed by multiple downstream services
- Ability to own feature delivery with minimal supervision and collaborate asynchronously with distributed, cross-functional teams
- Enterprise experience
- Experience in a large enterprise engineering organization
- Experience with Spring Boot, Gradle, and service mesh technologies
- PCI-DSS compliance, payment security, or financial data handling experience
- Experience with Datadog observability tooling
- Open-source contributions or a portfolio of shipped payment features
- Candidates must be based in India or a nearby eligible APAC location within two hours of IST
- Availability for IST support, preferably 10 AM to 7 PM IST
What We Do
Lifted, an Upwork Company, is a B2B SaaS platform that helps enterprise organizations source, contract, manage, and pay contingent talent globally and compliantly. It supports multiple engagement models, including independent contractors, staff augmentation, and employer-of-record, while integrating with MSPs and VMSs to provide centralized visibility, spend control, and audit-ready compliance, delivering a white-labeled talent experience for hiring managers and contingent workforce programs.
