Senior/Lead Software Engineer

Upwork is the world’s work marketplace, serving everyone from one-person startups to over 30% of the Fortune 100. We provide a powerful, trust-driven platform enabling companies and talent to work together in new ways, unlocking their potential. Last year, more than $3.8 billion of work was done through Upwork by skilled professionals gaining more control and innovating their careers.

This is a contract position through Upwork’s Hybrid Workforce Solutions (HWS) Team, a global group of professionals supporting Upwork’s business.

Position Overview

Are you a Senior/Lead Software Engineer passionate about designing and building highly performant, robust systems to create outstanding user experiences? Do you want to impact the professional lives of millions of independent professionals and clients worldwide? If you relish solving important problems, identifying potential scalability issues, implementing solutions following engineering best practices, and coming up with creative solutions to technical and product challenges, we want to hear from you!

This is a contract position with the potential for renewal based on project needs and accomplishment towards deliverables.

Work/Project Scope

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand requirements and deliver high-quality solutions.
• Design, develop, test, and maintain scalable and robust server-side logic, databases, and APIs according to project requirements.
• Utilize programming languages such as Java or Kotlin for backend development.
• Architect and optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Implement security measures to protect backend systems and data.
• Contribute to the enhancement of our codebase by improving quality, documentation, and reducing technical debt.
• Stay updated on current and emerging technologies.
• Utilize collaborative tools such as Gmail, Slack, Confluence, Jira, and various others for efficient communication, documentation, and project management.
• Participate in code reviews and design reviews.
• Provide technical guidance and support to junior developers.
• Document code and technical specifications for future reference.
• Analyze system performance and respond to incidents within specified deadlines.
• Provide services during on-call rotations to address system issues.
• Participate in the Scrum process, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospective meetings, to contribute to project progress and team coordination.
• Participate in project-critical meetings and provide regular status updates on deliverables.
• Manage time independently and effectively to achieve project deliverables, requiring an estimated 40 hours of project-related effort per week.
• Time Zone: PST +/-3 (or willing to work in a way that overlaps with 9 am - 3 pm PST).

Requirements (Must-Haves)

• Solid software development experience using Java/Kotlin and Python.
• Extensive knowledge of REST and/or GraphQL.
• Experience in writing well-structured, easily maintainable unit tests (e.g., JUnit, Mockito).
• Experience with relational and non-relational databases.
• Consistent track record of collaborating with large, distributed teams of engineers over documentation, code, and reviews.
• A desire to learn new technologies and continually develop professional skills.
• Comfortable working with AWS.
• Experience building/supporting high-load web applications and solving scalability issues.
• Experience working with AI Agents to any degree, or extensive experience with LLMs.

Company Information

Upwork is proudly committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce. We never discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.