Senior Java Engineer (PST Overlap)

Appliscale is an independent Technology Consultancy specializing in bespoke, cloud-based systems and full-cycle engineering including business analysis, architecture design, development, and deployment. They work across industries such as gaming, proptech, legaltech, and adtech, partnering with startups, scaleups, and Fortune 500 companies worldwide. The company focuses on building intelligent agents that drive automation and scalable agentic ecosystems, fostering a remote-first culture with self-organized teams.

• 6+ years backend development experience with ownership of production systems
• Strong modern Java (17+)
• Experience building services with Spring Boot or similar frameworks
• Demonstrated ability to design clean, maintainable backend architectures
• Experience building systems with complex workflows or state transitions
• Experience designing REST APIs
• Experience with JPA/Hibernate or strong SQL-first data modeling (e.g., JOOQ)
• Solid relational database fundamentals
• Comfortable working independently in a remote environment

Nice to have:

• Experience with GraphQL APIs
• Experience with event-driven systems (Kinesis, Kafka, etc.)
• Experience implementing caching or rate limiting
• Experience building correctness-critical systems
• Experience building internal/operator tools
• Experience with competitive or gaming platforms
• Familiarity with trading card games (TCGs) and tournament formats (e.g., Swiss rounds, decklists, brackets), or strong interest in competitive gaming, esports

• Implement tournament lifecycle logic (Swiss, playoffs, standings, tiebreakers)
• Build workflows for registration, dropouts, rule enforcement, and audit logging
• Extend backend services that model tournaments and match structures
• Design and evolve clean, maintainable backend components
• Develop REST and GraphQL APIs
• Work with relational databases to model and query tournament data
• Debug complex production issues and review peer code
• Participate fully in 2-week sprints and team rituals

Please note, availability to attend afternoon/evening meetings is a requirement due to team location on the US West Coast (LA and Seattle).