Senior Full Stack Developer

Senior Full Stack Developer

Location: Remote

Employment type: B2B contract, indefinite basis (Freelance or Contract)

For our client, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, a global shipping and logistics company, we are seeking a Senior Full Stack Developer to join ZIMLABS, ZIM's technology innovation hub. In this role, you'll help design and build cutting-edge digital products while taking ownership of the full software development lifecycle, from solution design and architecture to development, testing, and deployment. You'll collaborate in a highly engineering-driven environment that embraces Extreme Programming (XP), remote pair programming, TDD, and continuous improvement.

Role description:

• Hands on expert level fullstack development of innovative, business-critical applications.
• Own and lead the full engineering lifecycle: technical discovery, solution design, architecture, implementation, testing strategy, DevOps, production readiness, and continuous improvement.
• Act as a technical authority for complex Java/Spring, React, microservices, cloud/hybrid, and container-based solutions.
• Drive XP practices with remote pairing, TDD/BDD, continuous integration, evolutionary design, fast feedback loops, and high-quality engineering standards.
• Use AI-assisted development capabilities responsibly to accelerate delivery, improve design quality, generate tests, review code, support refactoring, and enhance engineering productivity.

Key responsibilities

• Lead architecture and design decisions for complex services, APIs, front-end capabilities, integration flows, and cloud-ready components.
• Guide other developers through pairing, code reviews, design reviews, mentoring, and hands-on technical leadership.
• Translate business needs into scalable, maintainable, secure, and testable technical solutions.
• Identify modernization opportunities, reduce technical debt, and improve system reliability, observability, performance, and deployment quality.
• Promote engineering excellence across teams: clean code, automation, testability, secure coding, reusable components, and clear technical documentation.

Role requirements:

• BSc in Software Engineering or BS degree in Computer Science, or equivalent practical engineering experience.
• 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, including significant experience in enterprise-scale systems.
• Expert-level Java experience, including Spring / Spring Boot / Spring Cloud, microservices, RESTful APIs, and integration-oriented architecture.
• 4+ years of front-end development experience, mainly React, with strong knowledge of modern JavaScript / TypeScript frameworks, component design, state management, and reactive UI patterns.
• Strong experience in distributed systems design, API-first architecture, service resilience, service discovery, circuit breaker patterns, scalability, observability, and performance tuning.
• Strong experience with TDD/BDD and automated testing using frameworks such as JUnit, Jasmine, Mockito, Protractor/Selenium, or equivalent modern tools.
• Solid DevOps mindset and hands-on experience with CI/CD, Jenkins or equivalent pipelines, automated quality gates, deployment automation, and production-readiness practices.
• Experience designing, developing, and deploying cloud/hybrid solutions in container-based environments such as Kubernetes or Cloud Foundry.
• Experience with Kotlin, functional programming, Java Streams, and modern JVM ecosystem practices - strong advantage.
• Ability to evaluate technology options, make architectural trade-offs, and communicate technical recommendations clearly to both engineering and management stakeholders.
• Self-starter with strong ownership, ability to prioritize complex work, drive decisions, and operate effectively in a rapidly changing environment.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, high engineering judgment, strong critical thinking, and ability to simplify complex technical challenges.
• Good English - verbal and written.

AI capabilities:

• Practical experience using AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT/OpenAI based tools, or equivalent AI engineering assistants.
• Ability to use AI tools to accelerate coding, unit-test generation, refactoring, documentation, troubleshooting, API exploration, and code-review preparation.
• Understanding of responsible AI usage in software engineering, including data sensitivity, security, IP awareness, validation of generated output, and human-in-the-loop review.
• Experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into applications, workflows, developer tooling, or automation processes - strong advantage.
• Ability to identify practical AI use cases that improve developer productivity, reduce manual effort, and increase delivery quality without compromising security or maintainability.

Candidate profile:

• A hands-on expert, not only a senior implementer: able to lead by example and raise the technical level of the team.
• Comfortable working across back-end, front-end, DevOps, architecture, testing, and production concerns.
• Strong mentor and pairing partner who helps other developers become better engineers.
• Business-aware engineer who understands delivery impact, quality, maintainability, and long-term platform evolution.