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James Lee

@jameslee9

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Senior back end engineer architecting resilient, high-throughput Java and reactive systems for regulated fintech.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I’m looking to build and scale backend systems in regulated fintech—architecting Java/reactive microservices on AWS, automating compliance workflows, and improving reliability and operational intelligence with strong testing and integration discipline.

I architect resilient, high-throughput backend systems for heavily regulated fintech and banking environments, using Java and reactive programming to deliver mission-critical transactional engines. I focus on event-driven microservices that maintain uncompromising consistency and performance under massive financial workloads.

At Pathward, I designed a high-throughput transaction reconciliation engine with strict ACID compliance, built non-blocking reactive pipelines in Java and Vert.x, and improved reliability using patterns like Hystrix circuit breaking. I also modernized infrastructure by migrating workloads to AWS (ECS/EKS) and increasing operational visibility with CloudWatch.

I’ve paired engineering with compliance and intelligent automation—developing AI agents with Python for anomaly detection to flag potential fraud or reconciliation discrepancies. Previously, I led regulatory reporting and ETL automation in banking environments and supported analytics efforts through SQL-based data preparation and modeling.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Software Engineer II

Current

Pathward

May 2022 - Present (4 years 2 months)

Architected an event-driven transaction reconciliation engine for a digital banking platform, using Java and Vert.x to process high volumes of payment and lending transactions with ACID compliance. Migrated workloads to AWS (ECS) and improved reliability and performance using Kafka, PostgreSQL optimizations, Pact/OpenAPI contract testing, and Hystrix circuit breakers.

Java Vert.X Reactive Programming Microservices Event Driven Architecture Apache Kafka AWS ECS Cloudwatch PostgreSQL OpenAPI Contract Testing (Pact)Hystrix Python

Software Engineer

PNC

Oct 2021 - Mar 2022 (5 months)

Led backend development for a treasury management dashboard aggregating and visualizing real-time cash flow data. Built secure REST APIs with Java and Spring Boot and implemented Redis caching and OAuth 2.0 authentication via an API gateway.

Java Spring Boot RESTful APIs Redis OAuth 2.0 API Gateway Caching

Systems Programmer / Data Specialist

BBVA

Jul 2018 - Oct 2021 (3 years 3 months)

Directed development of an automated regulatory reporting engine that parsed, transformed, and submitted financial datasets for audit compliance. Built backend modules in Java with JDBC, automated ETL from legacy systems, and improved operational visibility with monitoring dashboards and modularized batch processing components.

Java JDBC data transformation Dashboards Data Pipelines

Application Developer

The University of Alabama

Jan 2018 - May 2018 (4 months)

Collaborated with faculty on a business analytics project to develop a student performance prediction model. Built skills in SQL and Excel for dataset preparation and supported delivery of business requirements and technical specifications for data-driven insights.

SQL Excel Data Analysis Statistical Modeling Data Preparation Data Insights