Job posts for this role ask most for Java and Spring Boot, followed by SQL, Spring MVC and React, with Angular close behind for full-stack work. The full story of what each skill is used for is on the skills page.

Java is the backbone of the GCCs. Global companies built their core systems in Java, and their engineering centres in India build and run those systems.

The biggest hiring hotspot is the retailers. Inside the retailers and consumer-goods companies, at Walmart, Tesco, Albertsons and Lowe's, Java is the largest single role (who they hire). The work is the parent's stores, stock and online shop, built as many small services that must keep up with millions of orders. These are the centres that build the parent's apps and platforms, and they hire mostly experienced engineers.

The banks hire the most Java engineers of any GCC group. Inside the banks and financial institutions, Java runs both sides of a bank (who they hire). At JPMorganChase, Societe Generale and Barclays it builds new platforms. At Wells Fargo, NatWest Group, American Express and Morgan Stanley it also keeps the systems the bank has run for decades. Inside the insurers, at MetLife, The Hartford and Principal, Java is hired for the same reasons and has become one of the main roles. Inside the telecom operators, at T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom Digital Labs and BT Group, the centres are small but hire Java heavily for the systems behind their networks.

Elsewhere in the GCCs, Java follows the centres that build the parent's own platforms. Among the manufacturers, Sony Software Centre and SIXT hire it far more than the rest, and among the logistics groups, Cardinal Health and Hapag-Lloyd do. The hotel and airline centres, like Marriott and Delta Air Lines, hire fewer Java engineers but take juniors more readily than most GCCs. More on Java across all of them is in the GCCs' Java hiring.

Among product companies, Java is the language of the systems that cannot be allowed to fail. The hiring hotspots are the companies that handle money, bookings and goods, whether they sell to people (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B).

The biggest hiring hotspot is Fintech. In Payments, Java runs card networks and payment processing, the card networks of Mastercard and Visa (who they hire). It also runs UPI apps, wallets and neobanks, the UPI and wallet apps of PhonePe and Paytm. In core banking and banking as a service (BaaS), the core-banking platforms of Candescent, FIS and Pismo are among the most Java-heavy companies in the market. In Lending and credit, credit bureaus, scoring and underwriting is the work of companies like Equifax, Experian and Crisil, which build full-stack Java with Angular, and they take juniors more readily than most finance companies. In Wealthtech and capital markets, Intuit stands out in stock trading apps and personal finance with its personal finance products, along with the exchanges and post-trade systems of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and CME Group.

E-commerce, travel and logistics is the other big hiring hotspot, and here Java runs at scale. Travel tech is one of the most Java-heavy industries in the product world. In online travel agencies (OTAs), the world's booking sites, like Agoda, Expedia, Priceline and Airbnb, build search and pricing for millions of trips, often with Kotlin beside Java. India's own, like MakeMyTrip and ixigo, do the same at home. Behind them sits travel distribution (GDS) and airline software, the airline systems of Amadeus and Sabre, and it is Java too. In Supply chain and logistics, the planning software of Blue Yonder and QAD is built in Java. So is shipment tracking and supply chain visibility platforms, the shipment trackers of project44 and FourKites. In E-commerce and D2C brands, online marketplaces, like eBay, Wayfair and Coupang, run their catalogues and orders on Java services.

Enterprise SaaS and software hires Java at an ordinary rate, but a few corners are true hiring hotspots. The makers of contact centre software (CCaaS), like Five9, NiCE and Talkdesk, handle live calls in Java. Chargebee and Zuora, in subscription billing software, and Cornerstone and Whatfix, in corporate learning (LMS) and skills platforms, are built in Java and open to juniors.

In Cybersecurity, Java is not the main language, but three kinds of product are built in it. Qualys and Rapid7 build scanners for vulnerability management and penetration testing. OneTrust and Smarsh build platforms for governance, risk and compliance (GRC). DigiCert builds certificate products. A few more pockets are worth knowing. They include the analytics tools of Strategy and ThoughtSpot, the scholarly publishers RELX and Elsevier, the car-dealer systems of Solera, Tekion and CDK Global, and the telecom software of Amdocs and Circles.

In the services world, Java engineers build and run systems for clients. Accenture is the largest single employer of Java engineers in India, though Java is a smaller part of its hiring than at most services firms (who they hire). The IT services giants, like TCS, IBM, Infosys and Cognizant, hire Java at an ordinary rate and in large numbers.

The real hiring hotspot for Java in services is the services firms that feel like product companies (who they hire). EPAM, Publicis Sapient, Luxoft and Grid Dynamics build large Spring Boot systems for clients from scratch, and Java is their largest role by far. These are senior jobs. Mid-sized IT services firms hire Java heavily too, most of all the US-headquartered firms that deliver from India, like Virtusa and Synechron. The consulting firms' engineering arms, like Deloitte, PwC and Capco, build Java for their banking clients. The firms that run the infrastructure, like Kyndryl and Unisys, are small but Java-heavy. Across services, junior Java openings are rare. More on all of them is in the services world's Java hiring.

In big tech, Amazon hires the most Java engineers, mostly for its retail systems, and it is one of the more open Java employers for a junior. Microsoft has moved its India hiring towards cloud and AI and now hires few Java engineers. Google hardly hires Java engineers in India.

The staffing companies, like TekWissen, Recro and People Prime Worldwide, place Java engineers with clients more than any other role, mostly at senior level. The hiring platforms, like hackajob, Uplers and Weekday AI, offer remote Java work for companies abroad.

Java engineers are rarely hired by the chip makers, the cloud and operating-system companies, the storage and database makers, the data-centre companies, or the pharma companies. These build in C, C++, Go or Python. The GCCs of the energy majors and the engineering-services firms hire few Java engineers too.