Hybrid Senior Software Engineer – Java

at Lobster

• Job title: Senior Software Engineer – Java
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Senior
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: Cloud, GRPC, Java, JUnit, Kafka, Mockito, MongoDB, MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, TCP/IP, TypeScript
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Tutzing, Germany

About the role

• Senior Software Engineer responsible for backend systems development, design integrations, and implementing network-layer solutions at Lobster. Work in a hybrid environment in Germany or the Netherlands.

Responsibilities

• Developing, testing, and deploying core backend components of our Data Platform, with a focus on performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Designing and implementing network-layer solutions in Java, including HTTP tunnelling, TCP/IP communication, and Netty-based pipeline architectures.
• Building and maintaining load balancing strategies and understanding their role in distributed, high-availability systems.
• Designing integrations that combine cloud systems with on-premises data sources with a seamless operations experience.
• Contributing to technical designs and actively participating in code reviews to ensure clean, maintainable, and production-grade code.
• Actively integrating AI tools into your engineering workflow—using them to accelerate engineering, automate repetitive tasks, improve code quality, and explore solutions faster.
• Collaborating closely with QA and Product teams to deliver reliable, high-quality releases.

Requirements

• Around 3–6 years of experience in backend development, with strong hands-on skills in Java.
• Solid understanding of Java networking internals—including NIO, sockets, HTTP/HTTPS tunnelling, and proxy protocols.
• Practical experience with Netty or similar async networking frameworks (e.g., Vert.x, gRPC); ability to reason about event loops, channel pipelines, and non-blocking I/O.
• Knowledge of load balancing concepts - L4/L7 load balancing, connection pooling, health checks, and failover strategies.
• Strong debugging skills and a structured, solution-oriented mindset - particularly when dealing with low-level networking or concurrency issues.
• Solid experience with test automation (e.g., JUnit, Mockito, or similar frameworks) and a commitment to well-tested, maintainable software.
• Hands-on experience with at least one database technology: PostgreSQL, Oracle, MSSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB.
• Good understanding of integration protocols: HTTP/HTTPS, REST, WebSocket, gRPC.
• Confidence with concurrency and multithreading in Java—thread safety, executors, reactive patterns.
• Some exposure to asynchronous messaging systems (e.g., Kafka, AMQP, MQTT).
• A proactive attitude toward AI-augmented engineering—you actively use AI tools (LLM assistants, code generation, automation agents, etc.) to improve your own productivity and the quality of your output.
• Familiarity with TypeScript is a welcome plus, but not a requirement.
• Clear communication skills in English; sufficient German for everyday collaboration is a welcome plus, but not a requirement.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work flexibly from home
• Modern offices in Germany and the Netherlands
• A personal Learning & Development budget
• Up to 30 days of remote work per year from any EU country
• Company pension plan
• 30 vacation days a year
• Location-specific benefits packages (your recruiter will be happy to provide more details during your first chat)
• Company-sponsored business travel