Senior Software Engineer (Java)

Kunai, part of the PwC Network, builds full-stack technology solutions for financial services. They are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to support a digital payments modernization program, focusing on integrating a major card network into a large financial institution. The role involves hands-on engineering, performance testing, and application modernization, contributing to both current systems and future architecture.

Responsibilities:

• Design and execute enterprise-grade performance testing strategies for payment processing services, defining frameworks, tooling, and success criteria from the ground up
• Identify performance bottlenecks across legacy and modern service layers and drive measurable improvements through analysis and targeted optimization
• Instrument and validate services running on Java, Oracle, Tomcat, and WebSphere as well as modern workloads running on PostgreSQL and OpenShift
• Collaborate with backend engineers to ensure scalability requirements are met across all environments prior to release
• Translate performance findings into clear recommendations for engineering leads and stakeholders
• Build and maintain full-stack backend services supporting card network integration, working primarily in Java with PostgreSQL and OpenShift Container Platform (OCP)
• Contribute to application modernization efforts, migrating and re-platforming services from legacy infrastructure to cloud-native environments
• Leverage AI-assisted development tooling (including GitHub Copilot) to improve development velocity and code quality
• Participate in code reviews, architectural discussions, and cross-team technical planning sessions
• PCI data purging pipelines and event-driven architecture patterns including token removal and event consumption
• Work with event-driven services running on OpenShift and Oracle and PostgreSQL backends to support data lifecycle and compliance requirements
• Serve as a flexible, senior contributor across teams where engineering depth and experience are needed most

Requirements:

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, primarily in Java
• Strong working knowledge of relational databases — Oracle and/or PostgreSQL required
• Experience deploying and operating services in containerized environments (OpenShift, Kubernetes, or equivalent)
• Familiarity with legacy enterprise application servers — Tomcat and/or WebSphere experience a plus
• At least one enterprise-level performance testing engagement — defining strategy, selecting tooling, executing tests, and presenting findings
• Experience with performance profiling, load testing, and bottleneck resolution in high-throughput, distributed systems
• Ability to design logical, streamlined test frameworks from scratch and operate with minimal guidance
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in large, matrixed program environments with multiple teams and stakeholders
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to translate technical complexity for non-technical audiences
• Comfortable operating in environments with evolving requirements and ambiguity
• Bachelor's Degree, in lieu of a degree, demonstrating in addition to the minimum years of experience required for the role, three years of specialized training and/or progressively responsible work experience in technology for each missing year of college is required
• Background in digital payments, card processing, or financial services technology strongly preferred
• Understanding of PCI compliance requirements and secure data handling practices
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture patterns and OpenShift-based eventing
• Experience with PGLogical or PostgreSQL logical replication
• Exposure to AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot or Claude)
• Prior work on bank or card network integration programs
• Experience working in segregated or air-gapped development environments