Lead Java Developer (Payments Platform)

This is a genuine leadership opportunity for a senior engineer who wants to shape architecture and standards while working alongside Architects, Product, DevOps, Security and AI teams on business-critical infrastructure.

The role sits at the centre of technical decision-making for the payment platform, covering everything from architecture and API design through to security, performance and production reliability. It would suit an experienced Java engineer who enjoys leading from the front technically, mentoring other developers, and balancing business needs against technical risk. Payments or FinTech background is a strong advantage.

Responsibilities:

• Lead architecture, technical design and coding standards across microservices, distributed systems and event-driven integrations.
• Design high-performance solutions using PostgreSQL, MySQL, Hibernate/JPA, Redis, Kafka and RabbitMQ.
• Own authentication, authorisation and API security (JWT, OAuth 2.0/2.1, OpenID Connect), including cryptography and secure payment-data handling.
• Champion OWASP, threat modelling and security-by-design practices.
• Take ownership of complex production incidents, performance issues and root-cause analysis.
• Drive testing strategy, CI/CD, build engineering and cloud/containerised deployment.
• Conduct code and architecture reviews, and mentor senior and junior developers.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and promote AI-assisted engineering practices across the team.

Requirements:

• 7–10 years' professional Java development experience, including Java 18–25 and Spring/Spring Boot.
• Strong background in system design, distributed systems and API design.
• Proven experience leading technical initiatives and mentoring developers.
• Hands-on expertise with PostgreSQL/MySQL, Hibernate/JPA, Redis, Kafka and RabbitMQ.
• Solid grounding in API security, cryptography and OWASP practices.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Payment/FinTech experience strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or equivalent experience.