Staff Java Software Engineer (Full-Stack Focus)
Location: Manchester
Engagement Model: 12 month contract to permanent contract
Target Start: ASAP
Our client, a leading entity within the Financial Services sector, is seeking a high-calibre Staff Java Software Engineer to assume a leadership role within a critical workstream. This position is central to enhancing the customer experience journey within a modern, cloud-native architecture. Beyond development, this role requires setting technical direction, leading best practices, and mentoring senior engineers.
Core Mandate: Technical Leadership & Engineering Standards
The Staff Engineer will assume a pivotal role in engineering resilient and scalable microservices, with a dual focus: hands-on development and establishing enterprise engineering standards. The mandate includes driving the evolution of the technical roadmap, defining architectural patterns, and ensuring the technical quality and scalability of solutions across the entire domain.
Technical Domain Expertise
The required technical skills span the full stack, with a focus on defining standards:
-
Backend & Services: Deep expertise in Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, Microservices, and MySQL.
-
Cloud & DevOps: Expertise in AWS; responsible for defining robust CI/CD and deployment standards.
-
Frontend: Experience with Angular, React, and TypeScript; responsible for establishing consistent UI engineering practices.
-
Quality Engineering: Expertise in Cucumber (BDD) and defining enterprise-wide quality assurance frameworks.
Key Responsibilities
The Staff Engineer will combine deep technical contribution with strategic leadership:
-
Technical Roadmap & Strategy: Set the engineering vision and define the technical roadmap for scalable backend services, focusing on complex API integration and data flow within distributed systems.
-
Engineering Standards & Governance: Establish, champion, and govern best practices for code quality, testing (BDD/TDD), security, and performance across the workstream and potentially the broader department.
-
Architecture & Implementation: Architect and implement highly scalable backend services using Java and Spring Boot. While leading, the role remains hands-on and requires significant technical contribution.
-
Mentorship & Guidance: Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and code review guidance to Senior and Principal Engineers, helping to uplift the team's overall technical capability.
-
Cloud Evolution: Drive the adoption and optimal use of AWS services to ensure deployment efficiency, operational resilience, and cost-effectiveness in the cloud-native environment.
-
Full-Stack Direction: Define the technical approach for the frontend using Angular or React, ensuring architectural cohesion across the full technology stack.
-
Agile Leadership: Serve as a technical authority within the Agile framework, helping the team break down complex epics and unblock challenging technical issues.
Candidate Profile
We are seeking an established Staff or Principal Engineer with a compelling track record of not just delivering, but leading the delivery of enterprise-grade, cloud-native solutions in a demanding financial services environment. Demonstrable expertise in backend Java architecture, setting engineering standards, and prior experience leading technical transformation in the AWS ecosystem are essential.
Interview Process: A streamlined two-stage process is designed for rapid feedback and onboarding.
