Senior Software Engineer Java Platform Team

Job Description

Senior Software Engineer (5) | Java Platform Team

The Mission
The Java Platform Team is shifting from ''best effort'' support to a fully managed, curated ''Paved Path'' for the entire Netflix ecosystem. To scale this mission globally, we're building a new Java Subject Matter Expert (SME) hub in Poland.
While you will be hired into the centralized Java Platform organization, we are recruiting for two distinct focus areas. During the process, we will help assess which track aligns best with your expertise.
Framework Lifecycle Management (FLM)
''The Ecosystem Guardians'' This team manages the ''Paved Path'' for thousands of microservices. Your focus is on the massive Spring Boot ecosystem, ensuring that upgrades, security patches, and library integrations happen seamlessly - so that thousands of engineers can stay secure and up-to-date without extra work. You build the tooling that allows fleet-wide changes to happen automatically, removing the burden of maintenance from engineers.
Lightweight Java Frameworks (Java Lite)
''The Performance Architects'' This team focuses on the high-performance, resource-constrained edge of our infrastructure. You build sidecars, agents, and lightweight libraries that run where a full Spring Boot context is too heavy - for example, service mesh sidecars, observability agents, or edge services. Your focus is on raw JVM performance, startup time, low memory footprint, and architectural patterns for sidecar processes.

Key Responsibilities (Across Both Teams)
Regardless of the specific team, your goal is ''Zero Toil'' for our developers - in practice, this means that most platform upgrades and ecosystem changes happen automatically, without manual intervention from application teams.
• Engineer the ''Zero-Disruption'' Pipeline: Design and scale end-to-end integration and regression testing frameworks so that platform changes can be rolled out safely and predictably, with minimal impact on application teams and customers.
• Automate the Ecosystem: Build sophisticated tooling for automated code refactoring (e.g., OpenRewrite) and build/PR linting. You enable the fleet to stay current with minimal manual intervention.
• Drive Language-Agnostic Standards: Partner across the organization to establish standards for gRPC, service mesh, and metrics, ensuring our Java stack plays perfectly within the polyglot Netflix ecosystem.
• Scale the Fleet: Manage the complex Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for shared libraries and services, balancing technical evolution with stability.
Who You Are
• Experienced Engineer: You have previously owned or significantly contributed to shared platform components or libraries used by many teams. Typically, candidates have 6+ years of professional experience in Java and distributed systems, but we care more about impact and depth than years.
• Technical Leader: You are comfortable driving technical direction, aligning multiple stakeholders, and making pragmatic tradeoffs between stability and innovation.
• End-to-End Owner: You can lead initiatives end-to-end: from problem discovery and design through rollout, telemetry, and iterative improvement.
Core Competencies (Required for Both Teams)
We are looking for engineers who share a common set of values and foundational skills, regardless of their specialization.
• Java Language Expertise: You have strong proficiency in modern Java (17/21+). You understand the standard library, concurrency, and effective API design.
• Automation Mindset: You are committed to eliminating manual toil. You have experience building developer tools (linters, CLI tools, testing frameworks) that improve the lives of other engineers.
• Distributed Systems Fundamentals: You understand how services talk to each other (gRPC, HTTP, Mesh) and the challenges of distributed consistency and reliability.
• Empathy & Inclusivity: You value candor and seek out diverse perspectives. You recognize that the tools you build must empower every engineer at Netflix, not just the experts.
Specialized Tracks: Choose Your Focus Area
Beyond the core competencies, we are looking for specialized depth in one of the following areas.
1. The Spring Ecosystem Expert (FLM Track)
• Essential Skills: Deep expertise in Spring Boot internals. You understand auto-configuration, bean lifecycles, and how to debug complex dependency injection issues.
• Focus: You enjoy solving complex dependency challenges at scale. You are interested in tools like OpenRewrite or Gradle plugins to automate upgrades.
• Typical Challenge: ''How do we safely upgrade Spring Boot across 3,000+ microservices, with high confidence and minimal disruption?''
2. The Systems Performance Engineer (Java Lite Track)
• Essential Skills: Expertise in JVM internals and tuning. You understand memory models, Garbage Collection tuning, and how to minimize footprint in constrained environments.
• Focus: You are comfortable working outside of standard frameworks. You enjoy writing efficient, low-level code for sidecars, agents, or data-heavy applications (Spark/Kafka).
• Typical Challenge: ''How do we design a sidecar that consumes less than 50MB of RAM and starts in under 500ms?''
You Might Be a Good Fit If
• You get more excited about improving the developer experience for 500 engineers than building a single product feature.
• You naturally look for ways to automate away manual work - and you measure the impact of that automation.
• You're comfortable reading other people's code, debugging unfamiliar stacks, and communicating clearly with teams that depend on your tools.
• You enjoy owning problems end-to-end and are comfortable making, explaining, and revising architectural decisions.
Not ticking every box?
At Netflix, we value talent, passion, and the ability to learn over a perfect checklist. If you don't see yourself in every single bullet point above but you are confident you can contribute to our mission of creating a seamless, managed Java experience, we want to hear from you. We're looking for insightful, empathetic engineers who are excited to build the ''next'' in platform evolution.
Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.
We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-xk3m91-216-73-216-219-42 in your application.