Lead Backend Developer (Java)

Deltatre; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading media technology company is seeking a Lead Backend Developer to join the Vesper Video Catalogue Team in the United Kingdom. This hands-on leadership role requires strong experience in Java, AWS, and RESTful API design. You will manage a team while contributing to code and architecture. Ideal candidates should have proven skills in relational databases and automated testing. Join a dynamic environment that values innovation and collaboration.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in designing and optimizing relational databases.
• Familiarity with design patterns in software development.
• Experience with automated testing and designing test cases.
• Proven capability in RESTful API design and implementation.
• Extensive knowledge of AWS services and cloud operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical direction for the Video Catalogue domain.
• Manage and coach team members in a dynamic environment.
• Drive collaborative delivery with product and engineering teams.
• Contribute to technical problem solving across Java services.

Skills

Relational database experience (MySQL/PostgreSQL)

Software design skills

Event driven systems experience

Automated testing

RESTful API design and implementation

Agile development team experience

AWS Cloud experience

Delivery of complex features

Line managing and coaching engineers

Tools

Docker

Infrastructure as code tools (Ansible, Terraform)

Job description

Lead Backend Developer (Java) - Vesper Video Catalogue Team

United Kingdom

Position

This role is part of the Vesper Video Catalogue Team and will see the successful candidate working alongside colleagues who have also recently joined Deltatre through the acquisition of Endeavor Streaming.

Profile

We are looking for a Lead Backend Developer to join our multidisciplinary agile core platform development teams.

This is a hands‑on leadership role. You will be a people manager who also contributes to architecture, solution design, delivery, and operational excellence. You will partner with your Product peer and other engineering leaders to shape roadmap, objectives, and execution.

You will help build, maintain, operate, and optimise our platform of Java services running event driven processes and RESTful APIs on AWS infrastructure. These services power Video on Demand and Live Events for users around the world.

We are looking for driven individuals with strong ownership, attention to detail, and an engineering mindset, comfortable working in a demanding and fast‑moving environment.

Key responsibilities

Technical leadership (hands on)

• Own technical direction for the Video Catalogue domain, aligned with platform strategy.
• Lead architecture and solution design for complex initiatives, including trade‑offs and phased delivery plans.
• Contribute directly to implementation, reviews, and technical problem solving across Java services.
• Drive quality through standards, testing strategy, and pragmatic use of design patterns.
• Improve reliability, performance, and observability, including incident support and follow‑up actions.

People leadership

• Line manage engineers in the team, including coaching, feedback, and performance management.
• Support hiring and onboarding where needed.
• Build a healthy team culture with clear goals, ownership, and continuous improvement.

Delivery and collaboration

• Run or support agile ceremonies (planning, refinement, stand‑ups, reviews, retros) and keep delivery predictable.
• Collaborate with Product, Delivery, and other engineering teams on roadmap, dependencies, and milestones.
• Communicate progress, risks, and decisions clearly to stakeholders.

Requirements

Required skills

• Strong relational database experience (MySQL and/or PostgreSQL), including schema design and query optimisation.
• Strong software design skills and experience applying design patterns appropriately.
• Experience working on event driven systems.
• Automated testing (unit, integration) and the ability to design test cases for QA.
• RESTful API design and implementation (JAX‑R, Dropwizard, Spring Boot, or similar).
• Experience working in an agile development team.
• AWS Cloud experience (EC2, ECS, RDS, S3, SQS, Kinesis, DynamoDB), including operating services in production.
• Experience delivering complex features with no downtime, using safe rollout strategies and backwards compatibility.
• Experience line managing and coaching software engineers

Valued optional skills

• Docker.
• NoSQL.
• Infrastructure as code tools (Ansible, Terraform, or similar).
• Scala or familiarity with functional programming paradigms.

We’re looking for someone who is:

• driven to push the boundaries and lead change and performance
• communicative to leave no-one in the dark and to work with your team successfully
• reliable so we know that we can call on you to meet deadlines
• passionate about the latest technologies and standards
• proactive to suggest improvements, identify and fix potential issues
• solid technically speaking, to advise both Clients and internal teams

Our people are key to our success and we pride ourselves on offering a dynamic, creative, innovative and supportive environment. Having the right combination of a 'can‑do' approach, strong work ethic, integrity, friendliness and attention to detail is crucial.

Even if you don’t tick all the boxes for one particular role, but you have a keen interest in what we do, send us your details, we may find a suitable match during the interview process.

Deltatre consciously nurtures an environment where each and every team member feels safe to bring their whole selves to work, in which everyone is valued and respected for who they are and what they bring. Everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential, and every team member is expected to treat everyone with dignity and respect, value different perspectives, use inclusive language and work in alignment with Deltatre's commitment to diversity and inclusion. At Deltatre, everyone is welcome and celebrated.

We are committed to ensuring that we provide equal opportunities for all. Please let us know if you need us to make any adjustments or if you have any special requirements for the interview process. Depending on the role this normally includes a written test and interview.