Lead Java Engineer

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Location: Manchester (Hybrid)
Engagement: Contract-to-Permanent
Rate: Inside IR35 via Umbrella

A leading Tier 1 financial institution is expanding its Manchester technology hub and seeks an experienced Lead Full-Stack Software Engineer to play a pivotal role in the transformation of its digital business banking platforms.

This position offers a rare opportunity to enter on a high-value contract while transitioning into a permanent senior leadership role within a globally recognised organisation. The successful candidate will combine technical authority, architectural vision, and people leadership in a complex, regulated environment.

• Lead the modernisation of large-scale legacy systems, transitioning from monolithic architectures to scalable, API-driven microservices.
• Drive architectural best practices across performance, reliability, security, and maintainability.

• Provide hands-on technical leadership while mentoring and managing a large offshore engineering team (20+ developers).
• Own engineering standards, code quality, and delivery outcomes across distributed teams.

• Oversee the migration of enterprise platforms from legacy middleware (e.g., WebSphere) to containerised Kubernetes environments across GCP, AWS, or internal cloud platforms (IKP).
• Champion DevOps practices, automation, and CI/CD maturity.

• Act as a senior technical interface between engineering, architecture, product, and business stakeholders.
• Translate complex regulatory and financial requirements into low-level technical designs and implementation plans.

• Design and build secure, high-performance applications using Java 17+, Spring Boot, and Angular.
• Set standards for frontend engineering, API design, and backend service orchestration.

• Support the modernisation of legacy SDLC tooling and data platforms.
• Lead or contribute to complex data migrations, including Elasticsearch upgrades and distributed data pipelines.

• Java 17+, Spring Framework, Spring Boot
• Microservices & RESTful API design

• Angular, TypeScript
• HTML5, CSS3, SASS

• Kubernetes (GKE / IKP / AWS EKS)
• Docker, Terraform
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Jenkins

• Apache Kafka
• Apache Flink, Apache Beam
• Redis

• PostgreSQL
• Oracle
• MongoDB

• OAuth 2.0, Okta
• Enterprise security scanning: Checkmarx, Aqua Security
• Strong understanding of banking-grade security and regulatory control frameworks

• Proven experience within Tier 1 financial institutions (e.g. Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Barclays, or equivalent).
• 20+ years' experience in enterprise Java and web-based platforms.

• Demonstrated success leading large engineering teams across onshore and offshore models.
• Strong ability to coach, mentor, and develop senior engineers while influencing technical strategy.

• Deep expertise in Agile delivery (Scrum/Kanban), TDD, and enterprise design patterns.
• Track record of delivering complex system transformations in regulated environments.

• MSc in International Banking & Finance and/or
• BSc in Computer Information Systems (or equivalent)

• Play a visible leadership role in large-scale digital transformation
• Transition from contract flexibility to permanent leadership
• Work within a globally recognised Tier 1 banking environment
• Influence architecture, people, and platform strategy at enterprise scale