Our task was to design and deliver a production-grade authentication and caching layer that could be adopted across multiple microservices, ensuring high availability, seamless integration, and reduced operational complexity.
The platform and project included the following core areas:
- Centralized authentication and fine-grained authorization (RBAC)
- Distributed caching and performance optimization
- Shared platform libraries for cross-service standardization
- High-availability, event-driven microservices architecture
In practical terms, the work was structured across the following initiatives:
RBAC Service (Authentication & Authorization Platform)
- Developed a production-grade authentication microservice managing employee SSO via Google OAuth2
- Designed a fully reactive, non-blocking architecture using Spring WebFlux, R2DBC, and Project Reactor
- Implemented a message-driven system using RabbitMQ exclusively (no REST), enabling loose coupling and horizontal scalability
- Built a multi-layer RBAC model with job-title-based inherited permissions and individual overrides, scoped per property
- Introduced encrypted JWE tokens carrying permissions, eliminating per-request authorization calls across microservices
- Delivered robust administrative capabilities including bulk onboarding, automated stale-permission cleanup, and strict privilege escalation controls
- Integrated with AWS SSM, Secrets Manager, Redis, Flyway, and Google Workspace Admin API
Distributed Caching & Performance Optimization
- Built and deployed a shared Redis-backed caching library adopted across multiple production services
- Reduced external API load and significantly improved response times through intelligent caching strategies
- Designed automatic failover, ensuring zero service disruption by falling back to live data sources during Redis outages
- Implemented stale-while-revalidate caching, enabling instant responses while refreshing data asynchronously in the background
- Created a plug-and-play caching abstraction, reducing implementation effort to just a few lines of code and accelerating development across teams
- Embedded observability into every cache interaction, enabling tracing, failure detection, and rapid incident response
Shared Platform Libraries & Standardization
- Delivered a company-wide shared library covering authentication, validation, encryption, and third-party integrations (e.g., Contentful, ZeroBounce, AWS)
- Standardized engineering practices across microservices, reducing duplication and improving maintainability
- Accelerated development velocity by providing reusable, production-ready building blocks for multiple teams
A scalable, secure, and highly reusable platform foundation was successfully delivered, enabling faster development, improved system performance, and consistent engineering practices across the organization.
