Hybrid Principal Java Technologist

at Mindera

• Job title: Principal Java Technologist
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: No Education Requirement
• Tech skills: Azure, Cloud, Java, Kafka, Kubernetes, Microservices, Spring, Spring Boot, SpringBoot, Terraform
• Location requirements: Hybrid, London, United Kingdom

About the role

• Principal Java Technologist providing technical leadership across teams in a large retail organization. Involves hands-on coding and architectural guidance in backend systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead deep technical discovery sessions and architecture reviews across teams and projects.
• Anticipate technical and operational challenges, proposing pragmatic, scalable solutions.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor to engineering, product, and senior stakeholders.
• Influence product and business decisions through a strong understanding of trade-offs, risk, and value.
• Write and review high-quality Java code (Java 17+) using frameworks such as **Spring Boot or Micronaut**.
• Design and build resilient backend services supporting **high-volume, secure retail and payment transactions**.
• Develop and oversee integrations with **acquiring banks, PSPs, payment gateways, and fraud platforms**.
• Step in where needed to unblock complex technical challenges or critical deliveries.
• Champion **event-driven architectures** using Kafka and enterprise integration patterns.
• Drive consistent, scalable microservices design across multiple teams.
• Balance long-term architectural direction with short-term delivery needs.
• Design, build, and support **cloud-native platforms** (Azure preferred) using **Kubernetes and Terraform**.
• Set standards for CI/CD using **GitHub Actions**, ensuring reliable and repeatable releases.
• Own and promote observability, monitoring, and alerting using tools such as **OpenTelemetry and Dynatrace**.
• Advocate for operational excellence, resilience, and production readiness.
• Champion secure-by-design principles and best practices across all services.
• Ensure systems align with **PCI DSS, PSD2, and SCA** requirements.
• Embed data protection and security considerations into architecture and delivery from day one.
• Mentor engineers across all levels, from junior to senior and lead.
• Raise the bar for code quality, testing, and engineering practices.
• Help define and promote standards for code review, testing strategies, delivery, and on-call/operational support.
• Foster a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Continuously improve platform reliability, performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.
• Stay ahead of technology trends and identify opportunities to innovate within the retail and payments space.
• Challenge existing approaches constructively and drive positive change.

Requirements

• Proven experience as a **Principal Java Engineer / Technologist** in large-scale, backend-heavy environments.
• Experience working across **multiple teams**, providing leadership beyond a single product or squad.
• Strong Java expertise (Java 17+) with **Spring Boot or Micronaut**.
• Solid experience with **Kafka, event-driven architectures, microservices, and enterprise integration patterns**.
• Strong understanding of **retail and payment systems**, including PSP integrations, fraud, tokenisation, and settlement flows.
• Cloud experience (Azure preferred), including Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Working knowledge of **PCI DSS, PSD2, and SCA**.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience working in **Agile/Scrum environments** with a strong DevOps and test-driven mindset.
• **Retail experience is mandatory**, ideally in high-volume or customer-facing platforms.

Benefits

• Competitive salary including self-proposed salary increases
• Flexible working arrangements
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays. After 2 years you are entitled to 1 additional day/ year up to 30 days
• Annual profit distribution
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, Shared Parental and Adoption leave and pay
• Enhanced pension scheme (up to 8% matched)
• Growth opportunities, including access to Udemy
• Private Medical Healthcare with Aviva
• A dynamic, innovative, and supportive work environment, where your ideas and contributions are valued
• Opportunities for professional development and career advancement within a global company
• Annual company team-building trip, Anniversary and Christmas party
• The chance to work on cutting-edge projects that are transforming the fintech industry
• Electric Vehicle leasing scheme
• Retail Discounts
• At our offices we have a wide range of snacks and drinks to keep you fed and healthy
• Conference Budget
• Cycle to Work scheme