Senior Java Microservices Engineer – Payments (IKP | Service Mesh)
We are looking for a Senior Java Microservices Engineer to design and build high-throughput, low-latency payment systems using modern microservices architecture on IKP (Kubernetes-based platform). You will play a key role in developing scalable, secure, and resilient payment services, leveraging Service Mesh capabilities for enhanced communication, observability, and security across distributed systems.
Job Title: Senior Java Microservices Engineer – Payments (IKP | Service Mesh)
Location: Sheffield, UK
Duration 6-12 Months
Exp: 5-10
Key Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and maintain Java-based microservices for end-to-end payment processing.
- Build REST/gRPC APIs and event-driven services supporting critical payment flows such as:
- Payment initiation
- Validation
- Routing
- Clearing & settlement
- Exception handling
- Implement resilience patterns including timeouts, retries, circuit breakers, and bulkheads.
- Leverage Service Mesh capabilities (traffic routing, mTLS, observability, policy enforcement) to improve service reliability and security.
- Optimize systems for high performance and scalability (low latency, high throughput, concurrency handling).
- Ensure idempotency, fault tolerance, and safe retries in distributed systems.
- Implement payments-grade controls such as auditability, traceability, and non-repudiation.
- Collaborate with product, architecture, and SRE teams to deliver secure-by-design systems.
- Drive engineering best practices:
- Code reviews
- Automated testing
- CI/CD pipelines
- Continuous improvement
Required Technical Skills
- Strong hands-on experience in Java (preferably Java 11+) and microservices architecture.
- Experience working on IKP or Kubernetes-based platforms.
- Solid understanding of Service Mesh concepts:
- Traffic management
- mTLS
- Sidecars
- Service discovery
- Strong knowledge of microservices design patterns:
- Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
- API versioning
- Contract-first development
- Backward compatibility
- Experience with event-driven architecture and messaging systems (e.g., Kafka).
- Understanding of message delivery guarantees (at-least-once vs exactly-once).
- Experience implementing observability solutions:
- Distributed tracing
- Metrics
- Structured logging (e.g., OpenTelemetry)
Preferred / Nice-to-Have Skills
- Frameworks: Spring Boot / Quarkus
- Build tools: Maven / Gradle
- Containers & orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes
- API tools: OpenAPI / Swagger, API Gateways
- Security: OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, mTLS, secrets management
- CI/CD: Pipeline automation, SAST/DAST tools
- Testing: Unit, integration, contract testing (e.g., Pact), performance testing
Payments Domain Experience (Highly Preferred)
- Strong understanding of payment processing lifecycle:
- STP (Straight Through Processing)
- Validation & enrichment
- Routing
- Reconciliation
- Exception handling
- Familiarity with payment standards/rails:
- ISO 20022
- SEPA
- Faster Payments
- ACH
- Knowledge of risk & compliance controls:
- Transaction limits
- Sanctions screening
- Audit trails
- Regulatory requirements