Principal Application Engineer
About this role
Application Modernization Platform (“AMP”) is a MongoDB offering that modernises our customer’s legacy relational applications to a modern architecture underpinned by MongoDB using a combination of software, processes, and engineers. In this offering, the people and software are inextricably linked and cannot be separated. The delivery happens in an accelerated timeframe wherein the team takes advantage of GenAI and algorithmic tooling to expedite the turnaround time for application delivery.
AMP team generally works with enterprise-grade customers, in all verticals on a variety of exciting use cases. This role solves technically sophisticated problems, gains incredible cross-stack experience, works with top-notch people in the business, addresses multiple customer-facing opportunities. The role also becomes the forefront of groundbreaking R&D that enables further acceleration for enterprises working across a variety of technologies.
AMP exists to expedite time to value for customers who are looking forward to changing, modernising and updating their tech stack while keeping MongoDB the cornerstone of their system architecture.
Work as a software developer in an Agile environment delivering solutions for customers focused on migrating our customers’ legacy relational-based Java applications to a more modern cloud-based architecture running on MongoDB, leveraging the latest GenAI tools and approaches to accelerate this process. During each project, successful candidates will be required to innovate on potential new GenAI-based solutions for specific challenges in addition to applying existing playbooks and tooling for migration.
This role will be based remotely in France.
Position Expectations
Shape architecture and technology strategy across AMP modernization projects and workstreams, making complex technical decisions with limited supervision and connecting engineering choices to customer and business outcomes
Lead the assessment and modernization of legacy Java applications by uncovering dependencies, embedded business logic, integration points, and operational constraints; recommend fit-for-purpose modernization paths rather than defaulting to lift-and-shift
Design, implement, and review production-quality solutions using Java and Spring Boot, including APIs, integrations, monolith decomposition, relational-to-document data modeling, stored-procedure transformation, schema evolution, and MongoDB operational practices
Establish safe, incremental delivery practices through explicit acceptance criteria, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and rollback, dual-run, or other risk-control strategies; identify quality, security, performance, and reliability risks and guide teams to resolve them
Serve as a senior technical partner to customers, application owners, and account and project stakeholders by explaining complex topics clearly, aligning priorities, navigating disagreement, communicating trade-offs, and maintaining trust through high-risk change
Multiply the effectiveness of engineers by mentoring, raising engineering standards, creating reusable migration playbooks and documentation, applying GenAI advancements responsibly where valuable, and influencing project direction without relying on formal authority
Requirements
- Professional fluency in French is required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Typically 8+ years of progressive experience designing, building, and delivering Java applications, including significant experience leading complex application modernization initiatives
- Expert understanding of Java fundamentals, object-oriented design, concurrency, error handling, performance considerations, and maintainable software architecture; able to review code and guide design decisions across teams
- Deep production experience with Spring Boot and related patterns for building resilient services, APIs, integrations, and testable distributed applications
- Demonstrated ability to assess legacy estates, decompose monoliths, uncover dependencies and embedded business logic, and define practical modernization strategies with clear trade-offs
- Strong experience with relational databases and SQL, including stored procedures, data dependencies, data migration, schema evolution, and relational-to-document modeling for MongoDB or comparable document databases
- Proven history of delivering high-cadence modern applications using Agile methodologies, test-first development, CI/CD pipelines, Git-based version control, observability, and reliability practices; demonstrated success mentoring engineers and influencing technical outcomes across teams
- Nice-to-have skills
- Experience in building REST APIs with Spring Boot
- Experience in performance and memory optimization of JAVA applications
- Familiarity with tools like Postman, IntelliJ IDEA, and Maven/Gradle
- Exposure to other languages or technologies like JavaScript, .Net
- Understanding of ORM tools like Hibernate, Spring Data or JPA (even through coursework or self-study)
- Experience in nascent GenAI technologies and approaches, such as using OpenAI/Anthropic API not purely through chat interfaces
- Experience with AI-powered development tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or similar code assistants
- Good experience of using MongoDB
- Successful candidates will engage with customer systems and may be exposed to highly confidential customer data, including but not limited to non-public information. For this reason, and due to the nature of the highly regulated industry in which our customers operate, successful candidates may be subject to enhanced background checks, security screenings, and possible constraints around the trading of securities. Successful candidates will understand these requirements and be willing to participate in enhanced screenings and constraints as required by MongoDB and its customers in connection with this role.
About MongoDB
MongoDB is built for change, empowering our customers and our people to innovate at the speed of the market. We have redefined the data platform for the AI era, enabling builders to create, transform, and disrupt industries with software. MongoDB’s unified data platform, the most widely available, globally distributed data platform on the market, helps organizations modernize legacy workloads, embrace innovation, and unleash AI. Our cloud-native platform, MongoDB Atlas, is the only globally distributed, multi-cloud data platform and is available across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. With offices worldwide and over 67,000 customers, including AI-native startups and approximately 75% of the Fortune 100, relying on MongoDB for their most important applications, we’re powering the next era of software. Our compass at MongoDB is our Leadership Commitment, guiding how and why we make decisions, show up for each other, and win. It’s what makes us MongoDB. To drive the personal growth and business impact of our employees, we’re committed to developing a supportive and enriching culture for everyone. From employee affinity groups, to fertility assistance and a generous parental leave policy, we value our employees’ wellbeing and want to support them along every step of their professional and personal journeys. Learn more about what it’s like to work at MongoDB, and help us make an impact on the world! MongoDB is committed to providing any necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request an accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter. MongoDB is an equal opportunities employer. Req ID: 3273528270