Senior Java Software Engineer
- london, england, United Kingdom
- Permanent
- Full time
- £90 - £130 Per Hour
Job Description
The Opportunity
We are looking for a Senior Java Engineer to join a small, elite team working on a high-impact payments platform for a top-tier investment bank. This is not a generic CRUD role. You'll be building and optimising systems that process millions of transactions per second – low-latency, high-throughput, mission-critical. The team is senior, empowered, and takes full ownership of services from design to production support. If you're a hands-on Java engineer who enjoys solving complex performance problems, debugging threading issues, and working with modern tech , this could be the right move for you.
What You'll Be Doing
- Design, build, and optimise low-latency, high-throughput microservices using Java 21, Spring Boot, Kafka, and Kubernetes
- Own services end-to-end – from architecture and implementation to deployment and production support
- Work on concurrency, multithreading, and performance tuning – solving real production problems
- Collaborate with a small, senior team – no hand-holding, real ownership
- Drive code quality, engineering standards, and best practices across a wider organisation
What We're Looking For
Must-Have:
- 8+ years of hands-on Java development experience
- Strong experience with multithreading and concurrency in production
- Experience with Kafka (or similar messaging systems)
- Good understanding of distributed systems and cloud-native architectures
- UK work authorisation (no visa sponsorship available)
Nice to Have
- Experience in banking, financial services, or payments
- Experience with Kubernetes and AWS
- Knowledge of FIX protocol or electronic trading systems
- Experience with performance tuning and optimisation
Why Join?
- Meaningful Work: You'll be building systems that power global payments – your code will have real impact
- Modern Tech Stack: Java 21, virtual threads, Kafka, Kubernetes, AWS – no legacy maintenance
- Senior Team: Work alongside engineers with elite banking and tech backgrounds
- Real Ownership: You'll own services from design to production – not just tickets
- Long-Term Stability: This is a permanent role – we've had people on this project for over 3 years
- Hybrid Flexibility: 2-3 days per week in Canary Wharf, rest remote
- UK work authorisation is required – we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role


