Senior Backend Engineer - Java Game Platform

About the role

Twin Harbour Interactive develops strategy games and is looking for a Senior Backend Engineer for its live strategy game Supremacy World War III. You will design, build and improve features for the game platform, focusing on the self-built Java game engine that interfaces with other Java and PHP services, running on a distributed architecture in Google Cloud. The role requires fluency in technical and business English.

Key responsibilities

• Take ownership of the Java backend and drive firefighting and quality initiatives
• Profile and improve performance of a long-running Java game server under live load (GC, threading, slow game loops)
• Refactor step by step, add tests and keep live games stable during seasonal releases
• Define SLOs, add metrics, tracing and logging, and take part in on-call and incident reviews
• Work with game designers and product leads to implement new features, and learn complementary full-stack technologies
• Participate in technical decisions on the architecture of services and the platform
• Mentor other engineers through code reviews, pair programming and knowledge sharing
• Contribute maintainable Java code using Spring, JUnit5, Gradle, Docker, MySQL, Apache Kafka, Flatbuffers and Redis

Required profile

• 7+ years of proven Java development experience with strong coding and debugging skills
• Experience developing and maintaining multi-server, high-load backend services and APIs
• Good understanding of computer science fundamentals: object-oriented design, algorithms and software architecture patterns
• Strong automated quality mindset with unit and integration testing
• Ability to integrate AI tools into development workflows
• Proactive attitude toward learning new technologies and languages
• Fluent technical and business English; excellent communication skills
• Enthusiasm for games, ideally strategy games

Required skills

• Java, Spring, Spring Boot, JUnit5, Gradle
• MySQL, SQL and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB or similar)
• JavaScript/TypeScript, and familiarity with PHP, Node.js or willingness to learn them
• Cloud platforms (GCP preferred), CI/CD (GitHub Actions), distributed systems debugging
• Agile methods such as Scrum or Kanban

What we offer

• A global team with over 30 nationalities, united by a shared passion for strategy games
• Flexible hybrid work models
• Career path framework, mentorship, language courses, e-learning and support for conferences and training