Austin Samuel Light
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Survey Point · 52.2297° N

Austin SamuelLight.

Java Backend Engineer

I map complex business domains into resilient, observable JVM services — charting clear routes through distributed systems, data pipelines and high-traffic APIs.

0Years on the trail
0Services shipped
0% Uptime held
B2
Legend Panel 01

Survey Report

BEARING
042° NE

I'm a backend engineer who treats architecture like cartography: before writing a line of code, I want to understand the terrain — the domain boundaries, the data flows, the failure modes hiding in the valleys.

For the past eight years I've built and operated Java and Kotlin services on the JVM, from Spring Boot microservices handling payments and logistics to event-driven platforms streaming millions of messages through Kafka every hour. I care deeply about clean domain models, sensible API contracts and systems that are boring to operate at 3 a.m.

I'm happiest when profiling a hot path down to its allocations, untangling a legacy monolith into well-scoped services, or mentoring teammates on testing and observability practice.

DisciplineBackend / Distributed Systems
Primary StackJava 21, Spring Boot 3, Kafka
DatastoresPostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch
TerrainFintech, Logistics, SaaS
BaseWarsaw, Poland
Status● Open to new routes
C3
Legend Panel 02 · Elevation in metres of mastery

Terrain Features

CONTOUR
INTERVAL 10 m

Core Ridge · Languages

  • Java 17 / 21960m
  • Kotlin780m
  • SQL880m
  • Python / Bash600m

Frameworks Plateau

  • Spring Boot950m
  • Spring Cloud820m
  • Hibernate / JPA860m
  • Quarkus620m

Data Rivers · Messaging

  • Apache Kafka900m
  • PostgreSQL880m
  • Redis800m
  • RabbitMQ700m

Infrastructure Lowlands

  • Docker / K8s840m
  • AWS780m
  • CI/CD · GitLab820m
  • Observability860m
JUnit 5TestcontainersMockitogRPCREST / OpenAPI GraphQLMavenGradleFlywayPrometheus GrafanaOpenTelemetryTerraformDDDEvent SourcingCQRS
D4
Legend Panel 03 · Marked waypoints

Expeditions

4 WAYPOINTS
LOGGED
01WP-01 · 52.23N 21.01E

Ledgerline

A double-entry payment ledger built on event sourcing. Every transfer is an immutable event, projections rebuild balances in seconds, and idempotency keys guarantee exactly-once settlement.

12k tx/sp99 18ms0 lost events
  • Java 21
  • Spring Boot
  • Kafka
  • PostgreSQL
  • Axon
02WP-02 · 51.10N 17.03E

Waymark Routing API

A fleet route-optimisation service for a logistics operator. Reactive WebFlux endpoints, a constraint solver for delivery windows, and a Redis geo-index for live vehicle positions.

-23% km driven3,400 vehicles
  • Spring WebFlux
  • OptaPlanner
  • Redis Geo
  • gRPC
03WP-03 · 50.06N 19.94E

Monolith Descent

Led a strangler-fig migration of a 900k-line legacy Java EE monolith into 14 Spring Boot services on Kubernetes, with zero-downtime cut-overs and contract tests guarding every boundary.

14 services6× deploy freq.
  • Spring Cloud
  • Kubernetes
  • Pact
  • Flyway
04WP-04 · 54.35N 18.65E

Beacon Observability Kit

An internal open-source starter that wires OpenTelemetry tracing, structured logging and RED-metric dashboards into any Spring Boot service with a single dependency.

60+ adopting teams-40% MTTR
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Micrometer
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
E5
Legend Panel 04 · Elevation profile of the career route

Route Log

ASCENT
2018 → NOW
CAMP III · 2023 — PRESENT

Senior Java Backend Engineer

Fintech scale-up · Warsaw
  • Own the core payments platform: 30+ Spring Boot services on Kubernetes.
  • Designed an event-sourced ledger processing 12k transactions per second.
  • Cut p99 latency by 45% via JVM tuning, virtual threads and query rework.
  • Mentor five engineers; run the backend architecture guild.
CAMP II · 2020 — 2023

Backend Engineer

Logistics SaaS provider · Remote
  • Built reactive routing and tracking APIs for 3,400 delivery vehicles.
  • Introduced Kafka-based integration, replacing nightly batch exports.
  • Raised test coverage from 38% to 85% with Testcontainers suites.
CAMP I · 2018 — 2020

Junior Java Developer

Enterprise software house · Kraków
  • Maintained Java EE and Spring applications for banking clients.
  • Automated deployments with Jenkins pipelines and Docker images.
  • Wrote REST integrations and reporting modules on Oracle DB.
F6
Legend Panel 05 · Location card

Base Camp

SIGNAL
OPEN
Austin Samuel Light
Java Backend Engineer · Base camp
Address
Witosa 8
02795 Warsaw
Poland
Radio · Phone+1 732 664 6689