Senior Java Software Engineer / Technical Lead

We are seeking an experienced Senior Java Software Engineer / Technical Lead to provide technical leadership, engineering direction and governance across an enterprise Java microservices and API integration platform. The successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining high engineering standards, reviewing and approving complex code changes, guiding architectural decisions and ensuring the scalability, security, performance and maintainability of Java-based solutions. This role requires strong expertise in Java, Spring Boot, microservices, REST APIs and enterprise integration, together with proven experience in technical governance, pull request reviews, CI/CD automation and mentoring engineering teams across multiple environments.

• Provide senior Java technical leadership across enterprise API platforms and engineering teams.

• Design, review and guide the development of enterprise-grade Java and Spring Boot microservices, including reactive services.

• Ensure solutions adhere to approved API architecture patterns, engineering standards and technical governance frameworks.

• Guide the implementation of aggregators, system layers, connectors, common libraries and configuration repositories.

• Review and approve pull requests across multiple repositories, ensuring code quality, security, performance and maintainability.

• Assess code changes for correctness, readability, test coverage, exception handling, dependency risks and architectural alignment.

• Govern Java, microservices, API, repository, testing, logging, error-handling and release standards.

• Ensure contract-first and specification-first API development, including OpenAPI/Swagger reviews.

• Validate REST API principles, naming conventions, versioning standards and backward compatibility.

• Drive architecture stewardship, reusable components and prevention of duplicate APIs and backend integrations.

• Provide technical ownership and governance of shared Java libraries, common models, logging frameworks, security utilities and error-handling components.

• Lead Java and Spring lifecycle planning, including JDK upgrades, dependency management, parent POM evolution and migration activities.

• Implement and enforce secure coding practices, OWASP API security controls, authentication, authorisation and secrets management.

• Drive remediation of SonarQube, dependency, container and code-security findings.

• Establish and improve GitHub rulesets, CODEOWNERS, branch protection, quality gates and automated compliance controls.

• Integrate automated testing, security scanning and policy enforcement into CI/CD pipelines.

• Lead complex troubleshooting, root-cause analysis and remediation across applications, integrations, pipelines and runtime environments.

• Provide technical guidance, mentoring and knowledge transfer to senior and developing engineers.

• Conduct technical workshops, code walkthroughs, implementation reviews and remediation sessions.

• Collaborate with architecture, security, quality assurance, DevOps, platform engineering and business stakeholders.

• Maintain technical documentation, reusable engineering patterns and knowledge-sharing practices.

• Support production readiness, release investigations and critical technical escalations.

Desired Education and Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems or a related technical discipline.

• Relevant postgraduate qualifications would be advantageous.

• Java, Cloud, Kubernetes, Security, Enterprise Architecture or API-related certifications would be advantageous.

Experience Required:

• 8–10+ years of professional software engineering and application development experience.

• Minimum 5+ years of substantial hands-on Java and Spring engineering experience.

• 3–5+ years of experience working as a Senior Engineer, Lead Engineer or Technical Lead within an enterprise environment.

• Demonstrated experience reviewing and approving complex code changes across multiple engineering teams.

• Strong experience in enterprise APIs, distributed systems, microservices and integration platforms.

• Experience across the complete software development lifecycle, including design, development, testing, deployment and production support.

• Experience working with multiple engineering teams and influencing technical decisions without direct reporting authority.

Essential Technical Skills:

• Advanced Java and modern JDK capabilities.

• Java Spring Boot and Spring WebFlux / Reactive Programming.

• Maven, Parent POMs and Dependency Management.

• REST API Development, JSON, YAML and OpenAPI / Swagger.

• Microservices Architecture and Distributed Systems.

• Git and GitHub, including Pull Requests, Branch Protection, Rulesets and CODEOWNERS.

• CI/CD pipelines, automated testing and quality gates.

• Docker, Kubernetes and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

• JUnit, Mockito, MockMvc and WebTestClient.

• Secure Coding, OAuth 2.0, TLS/mTLS and OWASP API Security.

• Logging, Tracing, Metrics and Performance Analysis.

• Cloud-native configuration and Secrets Management.

Advantageous Technical Skills:

• Apigee / Apigee X.

• Argo CD and GitOps deployment models.

• Azure Key Vault and Grafana.

• SonarQube, GitHub Advanced Security, Dependabot and Fortify.

• ServiceNow Change Management and CAB processes.

• TM Forum Open APIs.

• Contract-first API Development and API Governance.

• Telecommunications API domains, including customer, product, subscription, payments, fulfilment and messaging.