Lead Engineer

Viable Solutions Pty Ltd; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Viable Solutions Pty Ltd is seeking a Lead Engineer to design and deliver cloud-native Java microservices for financial crime platforms at a bank or APRA-regulated organisation. You will own solution design, set engineering standards, and remain hands-on in code.

You will lead the development of scalable microservices in Java/Spring Boot, containerise with Docker, and deploy to Kubernetes. The role emphasizes AI-assisted coding tools, security, and real-time monitoring of transactions.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with recent lead/senior roles.
• Deep expertise in Java (Java 17+) and Spring Boot.
• Proven experience designing and building microservices and RESTful APIs at scale.
• Hands-on with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience building CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, ArgoCD).
• Solid design experience – patterns, distributed systems, resilience, DDD.
• Experience in banking/financial services or APRA-regulated environments.
• Financial crime domain experience – KYC/CDD, AML/CTF, real-time monitoring.
• Experience using AI coding tools and driving productivity gains.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design of microservices, APIs and integration patterns with clear docs.
• Hands-on development in Java and Spring Boot for production-grade services.
• Containerise services with Docker and deploy on Kubernetes (EKS/AKS/GKE/OpenShift).
• Build and improve CI/CD pipelines with automated testing, quality checks, and secure releases.
• Drive AI-assisted engineering guidelines and measurable productivity gains.
• Design and build real-time financial crime detection services (KYC/CDD, monitoring).
• Ensure regulatory alignment with CPS 234, CPS 230, AML/CTF obligations and AUSTRAC requirements.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and collaboration with architects, product owners, testers, and platform teams.
• Own production services with observability and rapid incident response.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Microservices

KYC/CDD

AML/CTF

Real-time processing

AI tools

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

GitLab CI

Azure DevOps

ArgoCD

Terraform

Helm

Kafka

Job description

Lead Engineer - Java | Spring Boot | Microservices | Banking | Financial Crime

About the Role

We're looking for a Lead Engineer to design and deliver cloud-native Java microservices for financial crime platforms at a bank or APRA-regulated organisation, covering KYC and real-time payment transaction monitoring for fraud and scams. You will own solution design, set the engineering standard for the team, and stay hands-on in the code.

This role suits an independent, experienced engineer who knows what good modern software engineering looks like and already uses AI tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Devin to deliver faster without cutting corners on quality or security.

Key Responsibilities

Solution design: Lead the design of microservices, APIs and integration patterns, producing clear design documents and making sound trade-offs on scalability, resilience, security and cost.

Hands-on development: Build high-quality, production-grade services in Java and Spring Boot (Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Spring Data).

Containers and orchestration: Containerise services with Docker and deploy and run them on Kubernetes (e.g. EKS, AKS, GKE or OpenShift).

CI/CD: Build and improve CI/CD pipelines with automated testing, code quality and security scanning, and safe release practices.

AI-assisted engineering: Drive the practical use of AI coding tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Devin and similar) across the team, setting guidelines for safe, effective use and measuring productivity gains.

Financial crime solutions: Design and build services for KYC/CDD onboarding, customer screening and real-time payment transaction monitoring that detect and prevent fraud and scams, including rules engines, risk scoring, alerting and case management integration.

Real-time monitoring: Build low-latency, high-throughput services that assess payments in real time (e.g. NPP/PayTo, cards, BPAY) and can hold, block or step-up suspicious transactions.

Regulatory alignment: Make sure solutions meet banking and APRA requirements, including CPS 234 (Information Security) and CPS 230 (Operational Risk Management), AML/CTF Act and AUSTRAC obligations, the Scams Prevention Framework, data privacy and auditability.

Technical leadership: Mentor engineers, guide technical decisions, and work closely with architects, product owners, testers and platform teams.

Production ownership: Own services in production, with strong observability (logging, metrics, tracing) and fast resolution of incidents.

Must-Have Experience

10+ years of software engineering experience, including recent time in a lead or senior engineer role.

Deep, hands-on expertise in Java (Java 17+) and Spring Boot.

Proven experience designing and building microservices and RESTful APIs at scale.

Strong hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes.

Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (e.g. GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, ArgoCD).

Solid design experience – design patterns, distributed systems, resilience patterns and domain-driven design.

Experience in banking, financial services or another APRA-regulated environment (insurance, superannuation).

Financial crime domain experience – KYC/CDD, AML/CTF, and payment transaction monitoring for fraud and scam detection.

Experience building real-time or near-real-time transaction processing or monitoring systems.

Day-to-day use of AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor or Devin, with real examples of productivity gains.

Ability to work independently, take ownership and deliver with minimal supervision.

Nice to Have

Cloud experience on AWS, Azure or GCP, and infrastructure as code (Terraform, Helm).

Event-driven architecture and streaming (Kafka, Kafka Streams, Flink) for real-time event processing.

Exposure to financial crime trasaction monitoring

Exposure to core banking, payments (NPP, PayTo) or Open Banking (CDR).

Security practices such as OAuth 2.0/OIDC, secure coding (OWASP) and SAST/DAST tools.

Relevant certifications (e.g. CKA/CKAD, AWS or Azure, Spring Professional).

About You

Independent: You take ownership and get things done without needing to be told.

Design-minded: You think in systems and can explain your design decisions clearly.

Forward-thinking: You stay current with modern engineering and AI tools, and bring the team along with you.

Great communicator: You write clearly and communicate well with both technical and business stakeholders.

Team leader: You lead by example, share knowledge and lift the people around you.