Lead Java Developer

• Visa sponsorship available for eligible candidates
  

• Strong focus on work-life balance with a flexible hybrid model (3 days onsite)
  

• Be part of a collaborative, multidisciplinary agile environment alongside civil servants and industry experts
  

Based in Swansea, South Wales - three days per week on-site

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced and technically strong Lead Java Developer to lead the design, development, and delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performance enterprise applications.

The ideal candidate will have extensive hands-on experience with Java and Spring Boot, strong expertise in microservices and cloud-native architectures, and proven experience providing technical leadership within development teams.

As a Lead Java Developer, you will take ownership of technical solutions, guide development teams, drive engineering best practices, and work closely with Architects, Product Owners, Business Analysts, QA, DevOps, and other stakeholders to deliver high-quality digital solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Lead the technical design, development, and maintenance of enterprise-grade backend applications using Java (8/11/17+) and Spring Boot.
  
• Provide technical leadership and direction to development teams throughout the software development lifecycle.
  
• Define and promote coding standards, development practices, design principles, and engineering best practices.
  
• Conduct and lead code reviews, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, maintainable, and fit for purpose.
  
• Mentor and support Senior and Working-Level Developers, helping to improve technical capability and engineering quality.
  
• Make technical decisions and provide recommendations on architecture, frameworks, tools, and development approaches.
  
• Work closely with Solution Architects and Engineering Managers to align technical solutions with wider technology strategies and roadmaps.
  

Application Development

• Design and develop scalable, resilient, and high-performing backend applications using Java and Spring Boot.
  
• Design and implement RESTful APIs and microservices-based solutions.
  
• Develop and integrate distributed services using APIs, messaging platforms, and event-driven architectures.
  
• Ensure applications meet required security, performance, reliability, and maintainability standards.
  
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues and provide effective solutions across development and production environments.
  
• Remain hands-on with development while providing technical leadership to the wider team.
  

Architecture & Design

• Take a leading role in system architecture, technical design, and solution planning.
  
• Translate complex business and technical requirements into scalable and robust technical solutions.
  
• Drive the adoption of cloud-native architectures, microservices, and modern engineering practices.
  
• Identify technical risks, dependencies, performance bottlenecks, and scalability challenges.
  
• Contribute to technical roadmaps, modernization initiatives, and architectural improvements.
  
• Promote reusable, maintainable, and extensible solutions across the development team.
  
• Apply principles such as Domain-Driven Design (DDD), SOLID, design patterns, and API-first development where appropriate.
  

DevOps & Delivery

• Support and improve CI/CD pipelines and automated software delivery processes.
  
• Work closely with DevOps teams to implement containerized and cloud-based solutions.
  
• Contribute to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) initiatives using tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
  
• Support deployment, release planning, production implementation, and incident management activities.
  
• Promote automation, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and engineering efficiency.
  
• Help identify opportunities to improve development and delivery processes.
  

Team Leadership & Mentoring

• Provide day-to-day technical guidance and mentoring to developers.
  
• Support developers with complex technical challenges and architectural decisions.
  
• Help establish development standards and ensure consistent engineering practices across the team.
  
• Contribute to technical estimations, planning, task breakdown, and delivery forecasting.
  
• Support the Engineering Manager and Solution Architect in managing technical risks and dependencies.
  
• Encourage knowledge sharing, collaboration, and continuous technical improvement within the team.
  

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Work closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Solution Architects, Engineering Managers, QA, DevOps, and other stakeholders.
  
• Translate business requirements into practical and scalable technical solutions.
  
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  
• Provide technical input during planning, refinement, design, and delivery discussions.
  
• Represent the development team in technical discussions and contribute to cross-team decision-making.
  

Required Skills & Qualifications

Technical Skills

• 10+ years of professional software development experience, with strong hands-on experience in Java.
  
• Extensive expertise in Java and Spring Boot.
  
• Strong experience designing and implementing microservices architectures.
  
• Extensive knowledge of RESTful API design, development, and integration.
  
• Strong experience with Hibernate, JPA, and ORM frameworks.
  
• Hands-on experience with messaging and event-driven technologies such as Kafka or RabbitMQ.
  
• Strong experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
  
• Strong hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes.
  
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, or similar.
  
• Strong understanding of application security, authentication, authorization, and secure coding practices.
  
• Experience with performance tuning, monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimisation of distributed systems.
  
• Strong knowledge of Git, branching strategies, and Agile/Scrum methodologies.
  
• Experience designing scalable, resilient, and highly available enterprise applications.
  

Leadership Experience

• Proven experience leading technical delivery for development teams.
  
• Experience providing technical direction and mentoring to developers.
  
• Proven ability to make technical decisions and drive engineering best practices.
  
• Experience contributing to architecture and solution design decisions.
  
• Experience managing technical deliverables, estimations, development planning, risks, and dependencies.
  
• Ability to remain hands-on while leading and supporting other developers.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working within regulated, standards-driven, or public sector environments, including GDS-aligned projects.
  
• Strong experience implementing cloud-native and event-driven architectures.
  
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
  
• Experience with observability and monitoring tools such as ELK, Grafana, Prometheus, or Splunk.
  
• Experience with Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and API-first development.
  
• Experience with distributed systems and asynchronous processing.
  
• Relevant Java, AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, or architecture certifications.
  
• Experience contributing to technology strategy and architectural roadmaps.
  

Soft Skills

• Strong technical leadership and decision-making capabilities.
  
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
  
• Strong communication and stakeholder management abilities.
  
• Ability to mentor, coach, and develop technical team members.
  
• Strong collaboration and team-building mindset.
  
• Ability to balance technical excellence, delivery priorities, and business objectives.
  
• Ability to work effectively across geographically distributed teams.
  
• Self-motivated with the ability to take ownership of complex technical challenges.
  

Nice to Have

• Experience working on large-scale digital transformation programmes.
  
• Experience in government, healthcare, banking, or other highly regulated industries.
  
• Experience leading geographically distributed development teams.
  
• Experience with modern software engineering practices and AI-assisted development tools.
  
• Exposure to platform engineering, DevSecOps, and automated quality engineering practices.
  
• Experience contributing to enterprise-wide technical standards and engineering communities.
  

Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

At Scrumconnect Consulting, we believe that diversity drives innovation. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone is respected, valued, and supported. We actively encourage applications from women, people with disabilities, individuals from underrepresented communities, and those seeking flexible working arrangements.

As a Disability Confident Level 1 employer, we provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and employment to ensure equal opportunity for all.