Lead Java Developer

About the Role We are looking for a Lead Java Developer with 11-13 years of experience to lead hands-on design, development, and delivery of enterprise-grade Java microservices and cloud-native applications. You will bring deep Java engineering expertise combined with strong technical leadership - guiding engineers, owning technical decisions, and delivering scalable, secure, high-quality solutions in a fast-paced Agile environment. This is a senior hands-on role - you will be equally effective writing production code as you are leading technical design and mentoring your team. Key Responsibilities Hands-on Java Development Design, develop, and maintain scalable Java microservices using Spring Boot - applying clean architecture, SOLID principles, and well-established design patterns. Build and expose secure, well-documented RESTful APIs - following API-first design principles, OpenAPI standards, and versioning best practices. Develop and optimise data access layers using Spring Data JPA / Hibernate - managing complex entity relationships, query optimisation, and database migrations. Implement event-driven architecture using Kafka or Azure Service Bus / AWS SQS - enabling decoupled, resilient inter-service communication. Write comprehensive unit and integration tests using JUnit and Mockito - maintaining high code coverage through TDD practices. Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues - performance bottlenecks, distributed system failures, and cloud service incidents. Technical Leadership Lead and mentor a team of Java developers - providing technical direction, code reviews, and hands-on guidance across all aspects of delivery. Set and enforce engineering standards - coding guidelines, design patterns, testing practices, and security standards. Lead technical design sessions - producing solution designs, architecture decision records, and technical specifications for complex Java initiatives. Collaborate with Solution Architects and Product Owners - translating business requirements into well-architected, deliverable technical solutions. Drive engineering best practices - clean code, TDD, CI/CD, and DevOps culture across the team. Support technical interviews and onboarding - contributing to capability building within the engineering team. Cloud & DevOps Design and deploy cloud-native Java applications on AWS or Azure - EKS / AKS, Lambda, RDS, S3, and API Gateway. Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines - Jenkins, GitLab CI, or GitHub Actions - automating build, test, and deployment workflows. Manage Docker containerisation and Kubernetes orchestration - deploying, scaling, and monitoring Java microservices in production. Implement cloud security best practices - IAM, Secrets Manager, KMS - ensuring secure, least-privilege access across application layers. Delivery & Collaboration Lead Agile ceremonies as a technical lead - sprint planning, backlog refinement, and retrospectives. Manage technical risks and delivery impediments - proactively identifying and resolving issues impacting team delivery. Engage stakeholders - technology leads, product owners, and architects - presenting technical progress and decisions clearly. Produce clear technical documentation - API contracts, solution designs, and deployment runbooks. What We're Looking For 11-13 years of hands-on Java development with proven technical leadership experience in enterprise engineering teams. Deep Java expertise - Java 8 / 11 / 17 / 21+ - with strong OOP, SOLID principles, design patterns, and microservices architecture. Strong Spring Boot proficiency - Spring MVC, Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring Kafka, and Spring Data JPA / Hibernate. Proven technical leadership - leading Java teams, conducting code reviews, and mentoring senior and mid-level engineers. Strong AWS or Azure cloud experience - EKS / AKS, Lambda, RDS, API Gateway, and cloud security services. Experience with event-driven architecture - Kafka, AWS SQS / SNS, or Azure Service Bus. Solid CI/CD experience - Jenkins, GitLab CI, or GitHub Actions. Experience with Docker and Kubernetes for containerised Java microservices deployment. Excellent communication skills - engaging technology and business stakeholders with clarity and technical authority. Nice to Have GraphQL API development alongside REST. CQRS and Event Sourcing patterns - Axon Framework or equivalent. Infrastructure-as-Code - Terraform or AWS CloudFormation / Azure Bicep. Service mesh - Istio or Linkerd - for microservices observability. Exposure to financial services domain - banking products, payments, or lending. AWS Certified Developer Associate or Azure Developer Associate certification. Experience in Financial Services or regulated industry environments.