Integration Architect - Remote Portugal

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Join a dynamic technology company undergoing major digital transformation as their Senior Integration Architect, working fully remote from Portugal. You'll lead the architectural evolution from monolithic legacy systems to modern distributed architectures, shaping the integration landscape using Apache Kafka and Java Spring Boot. This senior role requires proven integration architecture experience with hands-on expertise in microservices, event-driven solutions, and successfully modernizing legacy systems.

PROJECT & CONTEXT

As the technical leader driving integration transformation, you'll architect complex solutions ensuring seamless connectivity across the enterprise technology ecosystem. Your core responsibilities include designing scalable, secure integration architectures aligned with business goals and enterprise standards, leading integration microservices development with defined architectural patterns and governance frameworks, and overseeing legacy integration redesign projects transitioning to modern event-driven or API-based solutions.

You'll provide hands-on technical leadership as the subject matter expert for integration technologies, guiding development teams building Java Spring Boot microservices while ensuring architectural consistency and best practices. Your Apache Kafka expertise will be critical for designing event-driven architectures and implementing streaming patterns enabling real-time data flow and system decoupling.

Stakeholder engagement is essential - you'll translate complex business requirements into technical architectures, collaborate with enterprise architects for broader technology alignment, and communicate decisions to cross-functional teams including product managers and executive leadership. You'll debug complex distributed systems, ensure solutions are designed for observability and operational excellence, create comprehensive architectural documentation, mentor teams on integration best practices, and establish reusable patterns for API-first design and microservices communication.

Core Tech Stack: Apache Kafka, Java Spring Boot, RESTful APIs, event-driven architecture, integration middleware

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR (Required)

Integration Architecture Experience: Proven track record designing and implementing complex integration solutions across enterprise environments

Integration Microservices Expertise: Deep hands-on experience with integration microservices architectures including design patterns, governance, and management frameworks

Java Spring Boot: Hands-on experience with Spring Boot microservices, Spring ecosystem, RESTful API development, and microservices design patterns

Apache Kafka: Production-level experience with Kafka for event-driven architectures, event streaming, real-time data pipelines - understanding of Kafka architecture, topics, partitions, consumer groups

Legacy Integration Redesign: Demonstrated experience redesigning and replacing legacy integrations, transitioning monolithic systems to modern API-based or event-driven solutions

Scalable Architecture Design: Proven ability designing scalable, secure architectures meeting complex business requirements with high performance and reliability

Technical Leadership: Strong leadership skills guiding development teams, acting as SME for integration technologies, providing architectural direction

Problem-Solving & Debugging: Excellent analytical abilities debugging complex distributed systems, identifying integration issues, resolving architectural challenges

Stakeholder Engagement: Experience with business and technical stakeholders, translating requirements into architectures, communicating decisions across teams

Distributed Systems: Deep understanding of fault tolerance, eventual consistency, service mesh concepts, resilience patterns

API Design: Knowledge of API design principles, RESTful architecture, versioning strategies, management best practices

English: B2 level (Upper Intermediate) or higher

Work Authorization: Eligible to work from Portugal

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR (Required)

Integration Architecture Experience: Proven track record as an Integration Architect with demonstrated success designing and implementing complex integration solutions across enterprise environments - this is the core requirement

Integration Microservices Expertise: Deep hands-on experience working on integration microservices architectures including design patterns, architectural governance, best practices for service composition, and management frameworks for distributed integration services

Java Spring Boot Microservices: Hands-on experience working with or directly supporting development teams building Java Spring Boot microservices, understanding Spring ecosystem, RESTful API development, and microservices design patterns

Apache Kafka Experience: Production-level experience using Apache Kafka within integration landscapes for event-driven architectures, event streaming, real-time data pipelines, and system decoupling - understanding of Kafka architecture, topics, partitions, consumer groups, and integration patterns

Legacy Integration Redesign: Demonstrated experience in redesigning and replacing legacy integrations, successfully transitioning monolithic or outdated systems to modern API-based or event-driven solutions with proven ability to manage technical debt and incremental migration strategies

Scalable Architecture Design: Proven ability to design scalable and secure architectures that meet complex business requirements while maintaining high performance, reliability, and alignment with enterprise standards

Technical Leadership: Strong technical leadership skills with ability to guide and mentor development teams, act as subject matter expert for integration technologies, and provide architectural direction across multiple projects

Problem-Solving & Debugging: Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities specifically in debugging complex distributed systems, identifying integration issues, troubleshooting performance problems, and resolving architectural challenges

Stakeholder Engagement: Experience engaging with business and technical stakeholders, translating business requirements into technical architectures, communicating architectural decisions, and ensuring alignment across cross-functional teams

Architectural Documentation: Ability to create comprehensive architectural documentation including integration patterns, design decisions, system diagrams, data flows, and technical specifications

Distributed Systems Understanding: Deep understanding of distributed systems principles including fault tolerance, eventual consistency, service mesh concepts, and resilience patterns

API Design: Knowledge of API design principles, RESTful architecture, API versioning strategies, and API management best practices

English Proficiency: B2 level (Upper Intermediate) or higher in English for technical documentation, stakeholder communication, and collaboration with distributed teams

Work Authorization: Eligible to work from Portugal with full remote work capability

NICE TO HAVE (Preferred)

Cloud-Native Integration: Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform including managed messaging services and serverless integration

API-First Design: Deep expertise in OpenAPI/Swagger specifications, API gateway technologies, and API lifecycle management

Containerization & Orchestration: Docker and Kubernetes for deploying and managing integration services at scale

DevOps & CI/CD: CI/CD pipeline implementation for integration components including automated testing and deployment automation

Additional Event Streaming: AWS Kinesis, Azure Event Hubs, Apache Pulsar, or RabbitMQ

Message Queue Systems: RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, AWS SQS, or Azure Service Bus

API Management Platforms: Kong, Apigee, AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management, or MuleSoft

Service Mesh Technologies: Istio, Linkerd, or Consul for microservices communication management

Monitoring & Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Splunk, or distributed tracing platforms

Enterprise Integration Patterns: Deep knowledge of EIP and practical application in modern architectures

Security & Compliance: OAuth2, JWT, API security, encryption in transit and at rest

GraphQL: Experience as an alternative to REST for API design

gRPC & Protocol Buffers: Knowledge for high-performance microservices communication

Multiple Programming Languages: Python, Go, Node.js, or Scala

Database Technologies: SQL and NoSQL databases including PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, or Redis

Agile Methodologies: Experience in Agile/Scrum environments

Enterprise Architecture Frameworks: TOGAF, Zachman, or similar methodologies

Performance Optimization: Caching strategies, connection pooling, batch processing, throughput optimization

Disaster Recovery: Designing solutions with disaster recovery and business continuity considerations

Multi-Region Architectures: Designing integration architectures spanning multiple geographic regions

Location: Remote from Portugal (Full-Remote)