Lead Java Developer - Central Government Projects Location: Telford (ideally 2 days per week on-site, with flexibility) Contract: Inside IR35, until end of year Clearance: BPSS mandatory; SC preferred or eligibility required Role Summary We are seeking a Lead Java Developer with proven experience delivering solutions for Central Government projects. You will work in Agile Scrum teams alongside Java Engineers, Frontend Developers, and Quality Engineers to modernise legacy services into scalable, cloud-aligned platforms. This is a hands-on technical leadership role, responsible for design, code quality, and mentoring. Key Responsibilities Lead the design and development of backend services using Java and Spring Boot. Drive modernisation and refactoring of legacy Java services. Define and uphold coding standards, architectural patterns, and best practices. Ensure robust test coverage using JUnit and Mockito. Support containerised deployments in Kubernetes environments. Review pull requests and provide technical leadership across the team. Collaborate with Product, Frontend, and QA teams to ensure high-quality delivery. Required Skills Java, Spring Boot, JUnit, Kubernetes Experience working on Central Government projects Desirable Skills JPA, Maven, Mockito, AWS, GitLab CI/CD, Helm, OpenAPI, SQL, Kibana, Shell scripting