Lead Java Developer

Lead Java Developer - Contract

Location: Manchester, Leeds or Birmingham
Working Pattern: 60% office-based
Contract: 2 months
IR35: Inside IR35

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Lead Java Developer to join a large-scale digital engineering programme, developing and supporting high-quality software products used by a wide range of users.

You will act as a technical leader within the engineering function, providing hands-on technical expertise while helping shape engineering strategy, standards and best practices. You will work closely with architects, senior engineers and wider technical teams to design robust, scalable and resilient solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across software engineering teams.

• Lead the design and development of complex software products and services.

• Define and implement medium- to long-term technical strategies.

• Champion modern software engineering practices, standards and principles.

• Design reusable libraries, services and components.

• Work closely with architects and technical decision-makers to establish technical direction.

• Provide technical guidance, coaching and mentoring to engineers.

• Identify and mitigate technical and infrastructure risks.

• Support production environments and provide 3rd-line technical support.

• Investigate and resolve complex infrastructure and application issues.

• Promote knowledge sharing and best practice across engineering teams.

• Identify skills gaps and support the development of engineering capability.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and contribute to their adoption where appropriate.

• Ensure solutions meet requirements around security, stability, resilience, accessibility and performance.

• Produce and maintain appropriate technical documentation.

• Contribute to system integration and ensure effective development and integration practices.

Technical Skills

Essential:

• Strong commercial experience with Java

• Expert-level Spring Boot

• Strong AWS experience

• Strong experience with Apache Kafka

• Strong MongoDB experience

• Microservices architecture

• REST APIs and integration

• Software design and development

• Automated testing and CI/CD

• Strong understanding of software development life cycle

• Experience working in Agile engineering environments

Leadership & Experience

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate:

• Proven experience providing technical leadership within engineering teams

• Experience mentoring and coaching software engineers

• Strong strategic thinking and technical decision-making

• Experience working closely with Solution/Technical Architects

• Ability to define and influence engineering standards and best practices

• Experience designing systems with significant technical complexity

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills

• Ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams

• Experience supporting production systems and resolving complex technical issues

What We're Looking For

This is a hands-on technical leadership role, so we're looking for someone who can combine strong Java development expertise with the ability to lead technical direction, influence architecture and support the wider engineering community.