Lead Software Engineer - Java Development

Lead Software Engineer (Java)

Role Summary

The Lead Software Engineer (Java) provides technical leadership across multiple backend services, drives architectural decisions, and ensures the successful delivery of strategic platform capabilities. The role is accountable for defining engineering standards, guiding solution architecture, mentoring engineers, and influencing technical direction across teams. The Lead Software Engineer serves as the primary technical authority within the product area, collaborating closely with Product Management, Architecture, DevOps, Security, and business stakeholders to deliver scalable, secure, and high-performing solutions for lottery and gaming platforms operating in highly regulated international markets.

Responsibilities

Software Development

Lead the design, architecture, and delivery of large-scale Java backend services, REST APIs, and distributed systems across multiple product components. Drive technical execution from concept through production, ensuring solutions align with enterprise architecture standards, scalability objectives, and business goals.

Software Maintenance

Own the overall technical health of the platform by driving proactive maintenance strategies, technical debt reduction initiatives, modernization efforts, and continuous reliability improvements. Lead the resolution of critical production issues and establish preventive measures to minimize operational risk.

Architecture & Design

Define and govern architecture standards, integration patterns, API design principles, and development best practices across the engineering organization. Lead architectural reviews, evaluate emerging technologies, and make strategic technology recommendations that improve platform capability, scalability, and maintainability.

Quality & Security

Champion engineering excellence across teams by establishing quality standards, testing strategies, security frameworks, and performance benchmarks. Ensure compliance with OWASP standards, regulatory requirements, and enterprise security policies applicable to gaming and lottery systems.

Leadership & Stakeholder Collaboration

Act as the primary technical advisor for product, business, and customer-facing teams. Provide technical leadership for strategic initiatives, guide engineering roadmaps, mentor senior engineers, and foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Authorities

• Define and approve technical solutions, architecture approaches, and engineering standards across the team’s product portfolio.
• Lead architectural reviews and make technology recommendations for strategic initiatives.
• Make design and implementation decisions impacting multiple services, teams, or product areas.
• Influence product roadmaps by identifying technical opportunities, risks, and dependencies.
• Mentor Senior, Software, and Associate Engineers and provide technical leadership across projects.
• Recommend process, tooling, and organizational improvements to enhance engineering effectiveness and product quality.
• Drive technical hiring, interview processes, and engineering capability development.

Key Tasks

• Define solution architectures for complex business initiatives spanning multiple systems and services.
• Lead the design and implementation of enterprise-scale Java and Quarkus-based platforms and integrations.
• Establish technical standards for API design, microservices architecture, security, observability, and performance.
• Drive technical roadmaps, modernization initiatives, and platform evolution strategies.
• Lead architectural reviews and approve major design decisions across projects.
• Provide technical leadership during critical production incidents and major customer escalations.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Architects, DevOps, Security, and other engineering teams to align technical solutions with strategic objectives.
• Identify, prioritize, and drive reduction of technical debt across the platform.
• Lead code quality initiatives, engineering best practices, and continuous improvement programs.
• Coach and mentor engineers at all levels; support career growth and technical capability development.
• Contribute to workforce planning, recruitment, technical assessments, and onboarding of engineers.
• Drive improvements in CI/CD, cloud adoption, automation, operational readiness, and platform observabi…