KWAN
Backend Developer - Java/Kotlin & Kafka
January 8, 2026
Full-time
We are looking for a Backend Developer (Java or Kotlin), to work remotely in Portugal who’s eager to embark on an exciting new opportunity!
About KWAN
We connect IT professionals with projects that match their skills, professional experience, and goals, then we offer a career progression program, delivered by in-house specialists - our People Experience Partners - to guide them through our journey with us.
What is this challenge about:
- Build and enhance backend services powering APIs, integrations, and internal tools.
- Shape scalable and reliable distributed systems for data-heavy workflows.
- Design and optimise schemas, indexing strategies, and database performance (PostgreSQL, ClickHouse).
- Develop high-throughput ingestion pipelines using Kafka.
- Improve observability tooling: logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting.
- Convert financial workflows into robust, production-ready backend components.
- Participate in architectural decisions for event-driven pipelines, sync/transform logic, and search layers.
- Enable AI-driven features by structuring pipelines for RAG, validation, and evaluation.
- Define guardrails and validation layers for data-writing operations.
- Explore new architectural models (graph DBs) for complex data relationships.
Does it sound exciting? Apply now!
What we are looking for
- 5+ years of experience as a backend engineer working with data-intensive or large-scale systems
- Strong SQL knowledge and database design expertise, ideally using PostgreSQL
- Solid programming background in Kotlin or Java; and Kafka.
- Bonus: experience with Python or TypeScript
- Experience creating and maintaining production APIs (REST, gRPC, or similar)
- Comfortable using cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, etc.) and container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Understanding of ETL processes and pipelines for structured and semi-structured data
- Exposure to AI-related data infrastructure (vector DBs, graph DBs, model-serving frameworks, etc.)
- Familiarity with agent orchestration or AI observability tooling
- Experience designing data pipelines optimised for AI workloads (embeddings, feature stores, validation layers)
- Interest in working in a fast-paced environment where engineering decisions shape the product direction
- Fluent level of English (mandatory);
- Availability to work remotely in Portugal
- Candidates must be residing already in Portugal.
Do you meet most of the position requirements? Then grab this opportunity and apply now!
What we offer
• A project that matches your skills and ambitions, as well as your preferences for working policies and culture.
• A competitive salary with awesome benefits and opportunities to leverage your knowledge and network to earn additional income.
• An empowering and respectful work culture enriched with social and learning events.
• A People Experience Partner specially assigned to you - your go-to career guide, responsible for supporting your growth, facilitating training, and ensuring your work-life balance at KWAN.
• A relocation package and visa sponsorship for all our international hires.
Some Words From Our Colleagues
“At KWAN, they make sure that I feel comfortable with the client I’m working for and that what I’m doing aligns with my career aspirations.” - Luis Caldeira, DevOps @ KWAN
Grab this opportunity, apply now!
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