Lead Java Engineer

Who you are

• Strong Java Expertise: Proven experience building backend systems using Java and frameworks such as Spring / Spring Boot, with deep understanding of the JVM ecosystem
• Event & Message‑Driven Design: Experience designing systems using messaging and event‑driven approaches (e.g. Kafka or similar technologies), with a solid grounding in Domain‑Driven Design
• Engineering Fundamentals: Strong grasp of SOLID principles, design patterns, dependency injection and persistence technologies (JPA/Hibernate)
• Problem‑Solving Mindset: Solid knowledge of algorithms and data structures, with the ability to reason about performance, complexity and scalability
• Data Awareness: Experience working with both SQL and NoSQL data stores, understanding query patterns, indexing strategies and trade‑offs
• Cloud‑Ready Development: Experience building software for cloud environments, including containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes) and modern deployment practices
• Quality & Resilience Focus: Understanding of secure coding practices, fault tolerance and building reliable systems in distributed environments
• Collaboration & Influence: Comfortable working with other engineers, sharing ideas clearly and contributing positively to team discussions
• Experience with reactive or asynchronous programming models
• Exposure to API technologies such as GraphQL, gRPC or API gateway patterns
• Interest or experience in AI‑assisted development or agent‑based frameworks (e.g. LangChain4j or similar)
• Contributions to open‑source projects, technical blogs, or a strong interest in staying current with the Java ecosystem

What the job involves

• This role sits within our Risk Intelligence division, an area responsible for delivering critical services that support anti‑money laundering and financial crime prevention across global markets
• We’re looking for a Lead Java Engineer to join our growing Nottingham‑based engineering team
• This is a hands‑on role for a Java expert who enjoys building high‑quality backend systems, shaping technical direction, and working with modern, message and event‑driven architectures
• You’ll play a key role in designing, building and evolving core services, working closely with other senior engineers and architects
• While you’ll have influence over technical decisions, this role is firmly rooted in delivery — ideal for someone who loves writing code, solving complex problems, and continuously raising engineering standards
• Hands‑On Engineering: Designing, developing and maintaining high‑performance Java services that are scalable, secure and resilient
• Modern Backend Design: Applying Domain‑Driven Design and message‑/event‑driven design principles to build loosely coupled, well‑structured systems
• Code Quality & Craftsmanship: Writing clean, maintainable code and contributing to peer reviews, championing best practices and continuous improvement
• System Evolution: Helping modernise and evolve existing platforms, balancing pragmatic delivery with long‑term architectural health
• Collaboration: Working closely with product managers, architects and fellow engineers to turn complex business requirements into robust technical solutions
• Developer Experience: Contributing to improvements in build tooling, CI/CD pipelines, testing approaches and overall engineering productivity
• Operational Excellence: Supporting systems in production, improving observability, performance and resilience