Lead Full Stack Software Engineer

Our vision for the future is based on the idea that transforming financial lives starts by giving our people the freedom to transform their own. We have a flexible work environment, and fluid career paths. We not only encourage but celebrate internal mobility. We also recognize the importance of purpose, well-being, and work-life balance. Within Empower and our communities, we work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, and our associates dedicate thousands of hours to volunteering for causes that matter most to them.

Chart your own path and grow your career while helping more customers achieve financial freedom. Empower Yourself.

As a Lead Full Stack Software Engineer, you will play a leadership role across the full software development lifecycle—from requirements, solution architecture, and technical design through hands-on development, deployment, production support, modernization, and continuous optimization. You will lead the design and delivery of modern, scalable microservices and web applications while guiding the evolution and modernization of legacy systems as needed.

This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who enjoys solving complex technical challenges end-to-end, shaping technical direction, improving performance and reliability in production environments, and mentoring engineers while partnering closely with architects and stakeholders. You will work in a collaborative Agile environment alongside engineers, architects, product partners, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, high-quality software systems at scale.

What You Will Do

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of scalable full stack applications and microservices, building modern front-end experiences using React and/or Angular and back-end services using Java and Spring Boot.
• Own and lead delivery of complex features, services, and technical initiatives end-to-end in a fast-paced environment while balancing multiple priorities, contributing to architecture and carrying solutions through the full software development lifecycle from requirements through production support.
• Provide technical leadership for solution design, code quality, scalability, performance, reliability, security, maintainability, modernization, developer productivity, and long-term extensibility while influencing reusable patterns and engineering standards.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code and champion engineering best practices including automated testing, code reviews, clean coding standards, secure development, observability, and continuous improvement.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues across application, integration, infrastructure, and data layers, including root-cause analysis and short- and long-term corrective actions.
• Participate in a shared on-call rotation and provide production support as needed while improving operational readiness, monitoring, documentation, and support practices.
• Provide mentorship and technical guidance to engineers through design reviews, code reviews, pairing, and knowledge sharing, while raising the technical bar and fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and engineering excellence.
• Collaborate with architects, product partners, and business stakeholders to translate business needs into secure, scalable, and supportable technical solutions while contributing to technical roadmaps and continuous improvement efforts across the team.

What You Will Bring

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant full stack development experience and demonstrated technical leadership.
• Strong back-end expertise in Java, including core fundamentals, concurrency, JVM performance, and hands-on experience building RESTful services using Spring Boot.
• Strong front-end experience building modern web applications using React and/or Angular, with familiarity in contemporary tooling, component-based development, and automated testing practices across the stack.
• Experience designing secure, scalable APIs and systems, applying best practices in versioning, code quality, testing (TDD preferred), resiliency, observability, and maintainability.
• Experience working with relational databases such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, or similar, including writing and optimizing SQL queries and integrating applications with database systems; familiarity with NoSQL technologies is a plus.
• Experience with cloud-native development and DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, Git-based workflows, containerization, and working with at least one major cloud provider, preferably AWS.
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives, evaluate tradeoffs, influence design decisions, guide teams through implementation, and resolve complex production issues through root-cause analysis and sustainable technical improvements.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with experience working effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders in Agile/Scrum environments.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.

What Will Set You Apart

• Experience building, leading, and operating cloud-native applications in AWS, including core services such as compute, storage, managed databases, monitoring, and security, as well as containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, or EKS.
• Experience with event-driven and integration patterns, including messaging technologies such as Kafka, JMS, and SQS, as well as REST-based integrations.
• Experience with observability and monitoring tools such as Datadog, New Relic, OpenTelemetry, and CloudWatch.
• Knowledge of API and application security best practices, including OAuth2, JWT, TLS, secrets management, secure coding, and vulnerability remediation.
• Experience working in highly regulated environments such as financial services or healthcare, with retirement services experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to establish engineering standards, reusable frameworks, documentation, and delivery practices that improve engineering quality, consistency, and team effectiveness.

We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity.  All individuals, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, religion, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable state or local law.