Lead Java Developer

Lead Java Developer – Greenfield Platform Location: Alderley Park / Wilmslow (Hybrid – 50% office based) Package: Up to £90k + 9% Bonus + 14% pension A leading UK pensions provider is making a significant investment in its technology and engineering capability, building a new workplace pensions platform from the ground up. This is a genuine multi-year greenfield programme, giving Lead Java Developers the opportunity to join at an early stage and influence the architecture, engineering standards and technical direction of a strategically important platform. The Role You'll provide technical leadership within an engineering squad while remaining heavily hands-on, with around 80% of the role focused on development. You'll help shape technical design and architecture, drive engineering best practice and coach and mentor other developers. This is a technical leadership position with no formal line management responsibility. The environment includes Java, Spring, REST APIs, Microservices, Kafka, Kubernetes, Docker, Azure and MongoDB/NoSQL, alongside a strong focus on TDD and automated testing. We're looking for: Strong enterprise Java and Spring experience. Experience designing and building large-scale microservices. Strong REST API development experience. Experience with cloud-native/containerised environments. Strong engineering fundamentals, including TDD and automated testing. Experience influencing technical design and architecture. Experience mentoring developers and providing technical leadership. Kafka experience would be advantageous but isn't essential. We're also open to strong Senior Java Engineers who are already taking ownership of technical decisions, mentoring developers and effectively operating at Lead level. The priority is finding someone who combines deep Java engineering experience with the ability to provide technical leadership while remaining close to the code.