Senior Digital Java Developer

Senior Digital Java Developer

Rate 640 pounds per day, Umbrella per day, Inside IR 35

Location - Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle - 3 days per week

12 months contract

We are seeking an exceptional Senior Java Developer to join one of the impactful digital transformation programmes. This is an opportunity to contribute to the development of innovative, large-scale digital services that support millions of citizens across the UK. If you enjoy solving complex technical challenges, collaborating with talented multidisciplinary teams, and building modern cloud-native applications at scale, this role offers an outstanding opportunity to make a real difference.

What You'll Be Doing

As a Senior Java Developer, you will be a key member of an Agile delivery team working alongside Developers, Architects, Designers, Product Managers, and Business Analysts to:

• Design, develop, and enhance modern digital services using Java and microservice architectures.

• Build secure, scalable, and high-performing APIs for internal and external consumers.

• Develop robust automated testing frameworks and contribute to a continuous delivery environment.

• Champion engineering best practices including Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD).

• Participate in pair programming, peer reviews, and collaborative problem-solving.

• Support and improve live services, ensuring reliability and performance.

• Contribute to technical discussions, innovation initiatives, and continuous improvement across engineering communities.

• Communicate technical solutions effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Essential Skills & Experience

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate:

• Strong commercial experience with Java 21 (or later).

• Extensive experience developing and supporting microservice-based architectures.

• Proven expertise in TDD and BDD methodologies.

• Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs.

• Strong understanding of Agile delivery practices and modern software engineering principles.

• Experience working in collaborative environments including pair programming.

• Ability to build and maintain comprehensive automated test suites.

• Strong Linux/Unix knowledge and command-line proficiency.

• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.

• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and adapt to changing priorities.

Desirable Experience

Any of the following would be highly advantageous:

• Spring Boot ecosystem.

• Jackson, JAX-RS, and Mockito.

• Messaging technologies such as Kafka or ActiveMQ.

• MongoDB or other NoSQL/document databases.

• Building and scaling high-traffic, customer-facing applications.

• Experience handling large-scale datasets and distributed systems.

• Cloud-native development experience (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

• CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate will be:

✅ Adaptable and comfortable working in fast-paced environments.

✅ Accountable and proactive in removing delivery blockers.

✅ Passionate about engineering quality and continuous improvement.

✅ Collaborative, open-minded, and receptive to feedback.

✅ Innovative and eager to challenge conventional approaches.

✅ Strategic in their thinking, understanding both technical and business impact.

✅ Enthusiastic about delivering meaningful outcomes for users.

✅ Committed to fostering a positive and inclusive team culture.