Lead Software Engineer - Java

Nutmeg Saving and Investment Limited; Glasgow; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial services company in Scotland is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design and operate mission-critical systems for cleared derivatives. The role involves leading architecture and delivery of microservices while ensuring performance and reliability. Candidates should have extensive experience with Java, Spring Boot, and event-driven architectures, along with expertise in Kafka and database management. This position fosters an inclusive culture and emphasizes mentoring and engineering excellence.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in software engineering with leadership on distributed, production systems.
• Expert in Java (17/21) and Spring Boot.
• Production experience with microservices and event-driven architectures.
• Messaging expertise with Kafka or MSK.
• Database proficiency in Oracle and MongoDB.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and delivery of event-driven microservices in Java and Spring Boot.
• Translate business goals into technical OKRs and measurable outcomes.
• Engineer payment and charging controls.
• Build governed exception workflows for inbound data issues.
• Design robust Kafka/MSK pipelines.
• Instrument metrics and logs for observability.
• Set engineering standards and lead design reviews.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Microservices

Kafka

Oracle

MongoDB

CI/CD

Kubernetes

React

Job description

Job Summary:

As a Lead Software Engineer in Markets Prime Finance Services, you will design and operate mission-critical systems for cleared derivatives. You will lead architecture and delivery of event-driven microservices, ensuring performance, reliability, and control. Your work will focus on payment accuracy, robust exception workflows, and reliability ownership, partnering with product and operations to drive business outcomes and reduce operational risk. You will foster an inclusive, high-performance culture and set engineering standards for the team.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead architecture and delivery of event-driven microservices in Java and Spring Boot for cleared trade lifecycle and client charging.
• Translate business goals into technical OKRs and measurable outcomes; design solutions, write code, automate tests, deploy via CI/CD, and operate production systems.
• Engineer payment and charging controls, implementing control points, dual validations, reconciliation checks, and audit trails.
• Build governed exception workflows to detect, quarantine, and safely reprocess inbound data issues.
• Design robust Kafka/MSK pipelines, ensuring data integrity and effective event integration.
• Instrument metrics, logs, and traces for observability; build dashboards and alerts to drive continuous improvement.
• Set engineering standards, lead design reviews, mentor engineers, and contribute to hiring.
• Partner with product, controls, and operations to prioritize work and reduce operational risk.

Required Qualifications, Capabilities, and Skills:

• Extensive experience in software engineering with leadership on distributed, production systems.
• Expert in Java (17/21) and Spring Boot, with strong object-oriented design, memory management, concurrency, and performance tuning.
• Production experience with microservices and event-driven architectures.
• Messaging expertise with Kafka or MSK.
• Database proficiency in Oracle and MongoDB, including schema design, performance, and transactional integrity.
• Reliability ownership, including SLIs/SLOs, error budgets, incident response, capacity planning, and production operations.
• CI/CD fluency and automated testing, with experience using BDD frameworks such as Cucumber or Karate.
• Observability mindset, with experience instrumenting and acting on telemetry.
• Clear communication and ability to align engineering decisions to business outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications, Capabilities, and Skills:

• Orchestration experience with Kubernetes.
• Cloud experience with AWS or private cloud.
• Domain familiarity with cleared derivatives trade lifecycle, CCP connectivity, margin, and fee engines.
• Experience optimizing low-latency, high-throughput services and improving data quality and reconciliation.
• Front-end familiarity with React for operational tools and dashboards.