Job Description
We are seeking an experienced Senior Java Engineer to join our UK Digital Data & Cloud Practice. Our Digital Practice is expanding rapidly and you will have the opportunity to achieve medium and long-term career goals. You will be working for one of our high-profile trading clients within the financial services domain, contributing hands-on to a Java-based development team supporting a high-volume message processing environment.
The team is heavily Java-focused, operating within a client ecosystem that relies extensively on Kafka, Kubernetes/OpenShift, caching solutions, REST APIs, and high-throughput distributed systems. You will bring deep, practical experience in scaling systems that process millions of messages per day and strong problem-solving capability across complex backend challenges.
Responsibilities
Technical Delivery
* Design, develop, and maintain high-quality backend components in Java, with a focus on performance and resilience.
* Contribute hands-on to complex features across messaging, caching, and distributed processing layers.
* Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to sequencing, recovery, message failures, and large-volume processing.
* Support releases, deployments, and production stability activities.
* Adhere to CI/CD pipelines, code quality standards, and operational readiness requirements.
* Apply performance, security, and resilience best practices, particularly around large-scale message handling.
Collaboration
* Work closely with the Technical Lead and peers to deliver against team objectives.
* Contribute to technical discussions, design reviews, and knowledge sharing within the team.
* Raise risks, blockers, and progress updates clearly within the team.
Qualifications
* Experience working on trading or financial platforms that process millions of messages per day, with strong awareness of non-functional requirements such as latency, resiliency, throughput optimisation, failover handling, and backpressure management.
* Experience designing and developing cloud-native applications with a microservices architecture running on Docker/OpenShift/Kubernetes.
* Strong application development skills in Java, SQL (SQL Server, Oracle, etc.) and messaging platforms such as Kafka and MQ.
* Experience with the Spring framework and Spring Boot technologies.
* Experience in Java REST API development and application security best practices (OAuth, JWT, etc.).
* Experience with build and source control tools: Gradle, Maven, Git/Bitbucket.
* Experience with caching services such as Redis.
* Awareness of AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Claude to accelerate development, generate boilerplate, and review code.
* Ability to apply AI tooling critically - validating, refactoring, and integrating AI-generated code rather than accepting output uncritically.
* Awareness of prompt engineering techniques relevant to software development workflows (code generation, test writing, documentation, debugging).
* Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment.
Additional Information
Why Version 1?
At Version 1, we believe in providing our employees with a comprehensive benefits package that prioritises their wellbeing, professional growth, and financial stability.
* Share in our success with our Quarterly Performance-Related Profit Share Scheme, where employees collectively benefit from a share of our company's profits
* Strong Career Progression & mentorship coaching through our Strength in Balance & Leadership schemes with a dedicated quarterly Pathways Career Development programme
* Flexible/remote working, Version 1 is tremendously understanding of life events and people’s individual circumstances and offer flexibility to help achieve a healthy work life balance
* Financial Wellbeing initiatives including; Pension, Private Healthcare Cover, Life Assurance, Financial advice and an Employee Discount scheme
* Employee Wellbeing schemes including Gym Discounts, Bike to Work, Fitness classes, Mindfulness Workshops, Employee Assistance Programme and much more. Generous holiday allowance, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, marriage/civil partnership leave and special leave policies
* Educational assistance, incentivised certifications, and accreditations, including AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat
* Reward schemes including Version 1’s Annual Excellence Awards & ‘Call-Out’ platform.
* Environment, Social and Community First initiatives allow you to get involved in local fundraising and development opportunities as part of fostering our diversity, inclusion and belonging schemes.
And many more exciting benefits… drop us a note to find out more.
Version 1 is an equal opportunities employer.
We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace where everyone feels valued and able to thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities and lived experiences, and we value the different perspectives people bring.
We want every candidate to have a positive and accessible recruitment experience. If you need reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process, please contact [recruiter email address] at Version 1. We will consider all requests carefully, respectfully and confidentially.
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