08/31/2026 updated

**** ******** ****
100 % available

Senior Java/Kotlin Backend Engineer | Spring Boot, Kotlin| 17+ Years Experience

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Worldwide
Specialist in Quality Engineer, Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (2010-2011)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Worldwide
Specialist in Quality Engineer, Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (2010-2011)

Profile attachments

Damian_Fernandez_CV_linkedin.pdf

Java (Programming Language)Spring Boot
I build backend systems that hold up under real banking-grade load, and I have spent the last sixteen years doing
exactly that across Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.
At ING España & Portugal, I designed a reactive customer information microservice from scratch using Java, WebFlux,
and VAVR for a multi-country platform, and helped ship GDPR data anonymisation into production. I also built a
mutation testing programme that reduced integration testing overhead, and a parallelisation strategy that cut test
suite execution time by fifty percent, both now standard practice on the team.
At Allianz Direct, I led five engineers across five microservices as Tech Lead, delivered six rounds of major features on
schedule, and coordinated test strategy across the wider engineering organisation.
More recently at Southern Code, I have led engineering delivery end to end, from an Azure Pipelines and release
model redesign through Kubernetes and Istio reliability improvements.
I am an Oracle Certified Associate, and I increasingly work with AI-assisted engineering tools including coding agents,
MCP, and automated code review to speed up delivery without cutting corners.
I hold a UAE dependent visa, I am available immediately, and I am targeting senior backend roles in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, or remote with UAE-based teams. If you are hiring for Java, Kotlin, or Spring Boot backend roles, I would welcome a conversation.








































































Experience

Professional experience10+ years
Freelancer since2024

Languages

EnglishFluentRussianBasic knowledgeSpanishNative speaker

Project history

Head of Engineering

Southern Code
Led engineering delivery for a distributed product team, directing an Azure Pipelines redesign and new release model that improved delivery predictability across multiple squads. Strengthened platform resilience through Kubernetes, Istio, logging, and alerting improvements, and mentored engineering and QA on coding standards and production readiness.

Tech Lead

Allianz Direct
Led a team of five engineers across five microservices, driving architectural decisions on scalability and performance. Delivered six rounds of major features on schedule, increased unit test coverage through mutation testing, and coordinated test strategy as Lead of the organisations Test Guild.

Senior Java / Kotlin Software Engineer / Security Champion

ING Espana & Portugal
Joined as an HCL Infosystems contractor and converted to a direct ING employee within the same banking environment. Designed and deployed a reactive customer information microservice using Java, WebFlux, and VAVR, delivered GDPR data anonymisation to production, and reduced test suite execution time by fifty percent through a parallelisation strategy adopted across the team.

Senior Java Software Engineer - ING Spain and Portugal Bank (Contractor)

HCL Infosystems Ltd.
Worked as a Senior Java Software Engineer contractor at one of the biggest banks in Europe. Maintained the login and main page flow, implemented a GDPR customer data anonymization system, and created a microservice application for a new architecture. Actively participated in chapter improvements and was accredited as an internal Dementor (approved code reviewer, technical consultant and coaching other team members). Technologies: Spring-Boot, Java 8-11, Cucumber, Maven, Scala, Functional programming, GIT.

Senior Java Software Engineer - WellsFargo (Contractor)

Intertec International
Worked with one of the most important banks based in the U.S., helping the onsite team to release software in time and quality, participating in the creation of new features, maintenance, bug fixing and providing support for the application. Technologies: AngularJS, Jasmine, Spring Boot, GIT-SVN, Spring REST.

Senior Java Software Engineer / Scrum Master

Intel Corporation
Worked as a Scrum Master and software developer, leading and supporting a group of 6 people. Organized all scrum rituals, planned sprints, tracked work effort, and presented work in sprint demonstrations. Involved in the creation of a security system able to detect and handle external threats. Coached team members on the technology stack. Technologies: Apache Kafka, TeamCity, ElasticSearch, Python, Redis, Spring Boot, Gradle, GIT.

Senior Java Software Engineer

Magic Memories
In charge of multiple roles including adding new features and fixes to an existing REST web service application, performance tuning, investigating production issues, and creating functional tests. Adopted Jenkins CI and created build pipelines for each product, reducing release process time from 3 days to 30 minutes. Introduced Apache Maven for project homogenization across programming languages. Technologies: Spring-MVC, QueryDSL, Postgres SQL, GIT, Jenkins, TestNG, Apache Kafka.

Semi-Senior Java Software Engineer - Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online (Contractor)

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online
Created stubbed REST web services simulating real future web services for the Disney hotels and resorts web application. Later reassigned to maintain and add features to the completed real web services, including new business rules, performance tune-up, bug fixing, and implementing API changes. Used Scrum methodology throughout. Technologies: REST Apache-CXF, JBoss AS, JBehave, Perforce, Selenium IDE, JPA / Hibernate, Continuous integration tools like Bamboo.

Semi-Senior Java Software Engineer - Services Team

Nimbuzz
Developed new features and bug-fixing for backend services systems. Handled communication processes using Ejabberd protocol and XML stanzas for IM gateways. Owned a lightweight web application client for legacy mobile devices. Technologies: Spring-JDBC, EasyMock, XMPP Protocol, Apache JMeter, Apache Wicket, Maven, MySQL, JUnit, Java NIO & Concurrency API, JAX-RS, Continuous integration tools like Hudson.

Junior Java Software Engineer - La Caixa

HP Enterprise Services
Worked for La Caixa, one of the most important banking and financial companies in Spain. Part of a team of 5 maintaining a customer offers web service, involving requirements analysis, solution design, coding, testing, code review, and environment integration. Received Hewlett-Packard e-ward for outstanding efforts and recognized as the most productive team by the customer. Technologies: Servlets / JSP, Ant, Spring IOC / DI, JAX-WS, Apache Axis 2, Tomcat 6, Corba RMI, BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere 6.1, Oracle DB 10, 11, SVN.

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