Senior Software Engineer

Shape the utilities market of the future with us! Permanent / Full-time / On site in Ilmenau, Erfurt or Leipzig (3 days per week) / Start ASAP What is the role about? As a Senior Software Engineer in our Meter Data Management (MDM) team, you will combine hands-on software development with technical ownership for a performance-critical product. MDM covers the collection, validation, processing, and management of energy meter data. Our software processes large data volumes and supports critical customer and operational processes within the ZONOS ecosystem. You will provide technical direction within the team, guide solution design, coordinate technical dependencies, and help establish high standards for performance, quality, security, and reliable delivery. This is a technical leadership role without disciplinary people-management responsibility. You will also contribute to migrations between customer systems, ensuring reliable data transfer, validation, integration, and system transition. Your Role at a Glance Provide technical direction and guide decisions from requirements through reliable delivery. Own solution design, APIs, integrations, data flows, non-functional requirements, and technical risks within the team’s scope. Develop and improve scalable software for high-volume, performance-critical data processing. Guide migrations between customer systems, including data transfer, validation, reconciliation, and cutover activities. Coordinate technical dependencies between Product, Platform, Operations, QA, DevOps, Security, and Architecture. Facilitate design discussions, code reviews, technical workshops, and Architecture Decision Records. Define and promote standards for performance, data quality, testing, maintainability, and operational reliability. Support profiling, benchmarking, load testing, monitoring, and performance optimisation. Contribute to backlog refinement, technical estimation, feasibility assessments, and release readiness. Support CI/CD, observability, secure development, and ISO 27001 requirements. Coach and support engineers through knowledge sharing, onboarding, mentoring, and constructive technical feedback. Evaluate suitable agentic AI and AI-assisted engineering solutions while maintaining security and quality standards. Must-haves (to thrive in this role) University degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a comparable discipline. Several years of hands-on software development experience with technical ownership in a product or complex software environment. Strong professional experience with Java and/or Kotlin. Strong knowledge of software design, APIs, integrations, data processing, distributed systems, and Kafka-based event-driven architectures. Practical experience with PostgreSQL and/or Oracle databases. Experience with scalable or performance-critical software and large-volume data processing. Experience with migrations between customer systems or complex software environments. Ability to structure incomplete requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and guide technical decisions, including the responsible use of AI-assisted or agentic AI approaches. Experience with technical design, code reviews, testing, performance optimisation, and reliable delivery. Strong communication skills and the ability to align different technical contributors. Professional English; German is an advantage. Additional relevant degree or vocational qualification is welcome; equivalent practical experience is equally valued. Nice-to-haves (great if you have them, but not a dealbreaker) Experience with Kubernetes or OpenShift in production environments. Experience with gRPC-based service communication. Experience in smart metering, energy, utilities, Meter Data Management (MDM), or Head-End Systems. Experience with specialised data migration tools and reconciliation processes. Experience with documenting tech