Description
The Associate - Java Developer - LMEC will play a key role in the strategic replacement of a legacy clearing platform by designing, developing, and delivering robust, scalable interfaces and integration services using modern cloud-native architecture principles.
The role is responsible for building high-performance Java-based microservices that enable secure, resilient, and efficient data exchange across critical clearing and post-trade systems.
Working within an agile engineering team, the individual will leverage technologies such as Java 21, Apache Kafka, and the OpenShift Container Platform to develop event-driven solutions, promote system decoupling, and enhance operational scalability and resilience.
The role will drive the implementation of modern engineering practices, including API-first development, containerisation, automation, observability, and continuous integration and deployment.
The successful candidate will collaborate closely with architects, business stakeholders, and engineering teams to ensure the target-state platform meets functional, non-functional, and requirements while supporting the organisation’s broader technology transformation strategy.
They will champion best practices in software engineering, solution design, and platform modernisation to deliver a future-ready clearing ecosystem.
Responsibilities:
- Design, develop, and maintain Java-based microservices to support the replacement of the legacy clearing platform.
- Build and enhance interfaces and APIs that enable secure, reliable, and high-volume integration between clearing, settlement, and downstream systems.
- Develop event-driven solutions using Apache Kafka, including producers, consumers, and streaming integrations to support near real-time processing.
- Deploy, manage, and troubleshoot containerised applications on the OpenShift Container Platform.
- Collaborate with Solution Architects and Technical Leads to implement target-state architectures aligned with enterprise standards and cloud-native design principles.
- Participate in the full software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, solution design, development, testing, deployment, and production support.
- Create and maintain RESTful APIs and service contracts, ensuring scalability, security, and backward compatibility.
- Write clean, maintainable, and testable code while adhering to coding standards, design patterns, and secure development practices.
- Develop automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to ensure solution quality and minimise production defects.
- Support CI/CD pipelines by integrating build, test, deployment, and quality assurance processes within the software delivery lifecycle.
- Monitor application performance, investigate production issues, and implement improvements to optimise system resilience, throughput, and latency.
- Work closely with Business Analysts, Product Owners, QA Engineers, and infrastructure teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
- Conduct peer code reviews, provide technical guidance to junior developers, and promote software engineering best practices across the team.
- Produce and maintain technical documentation covering solution designs, APIs, integration patterns, operational procedures, and deployment processes.
- Contribute to platform modernisation initiatives by identifying opportunities to improve architecture, automation, observability, security, and operational efficiency across the clearing technology landscape.
PERSON SPECIFICATION:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline; Master's degree preferred.
- Extensive experience in Java application development, with a strong track record of delivering enterprise-scale, mission-critical systems.
- Strong hands-on experience with Apache Kafka, including event-driven architecture, messaging patterns, and stream processing.
- Experience working within Agile delivery frameworks, including Scrum or Kanban.
- Understanding of financial markets, clearing, settlement, post-trade processing, or capital markets systems would be highly advantageous.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, problem-solving, and analytical skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across business and technology teams.
Technical Skills
- Apache Kafka (KRaft Architecture)
- SpringBoot
- Java 21+
- Kafka Streams
- Confluent Platform (desirable)
- Helm Charts
- Kubernetes / OpenShift
- Event-Driven Architecture
- Schema Registry
- Kafka Connect
- CI/CD Automation for Kafka Deployments
- Monitoring tools such as Prometheus, Grafana
- BitBucket, Bamboo, JIRA, Confluence