Lead Java Engineer – Scalable Microservices & APIs

GTC Recruitment; Manchester; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

GTC Recruitment in Manchester is seeking an experienced Lead/Senior Java Developer to join our high-performing agile team. You will guide developers while contributing to backend development, APIs, and automated testing in a hands-on leadership role.

You will work on large, high-traffic systems using modern practices, designing resilient services and scalable architectures. The role requires strong Java expertise, mentoring ability, and a bias for clean code and reliable delivery.

Qualifications

• Must have strong Java experience and leadership skills.
• Deep knowledge of microservices and REST APIs.
• Proficient in TDD/BDD and automated testing practices.
• Experience in Agile development and live production support.
• Solid understanding of scalable web architectures.
• Comfortable in Linux/Unix environments.
• Desirable: Kafka/ActiveMQ, MongoDB, and cloud platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead or mentor a team of Java developers.
• Design and build server-side apps and RESTful APIs.
• Develop automated tests using TDD/BDD.
• Support CI/CD and deployment pipelines.
• Handle 2nd-line production incidents.
• Build scalable, high-performance distributed systems.
• Work with large datasets and ensure scalability.
• Explain complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Operate in Linux/Unix environments.

Skills

Java

Team leadership

Microservices

REST APIs

TDD/BDD/Automated testing

Agile

Production support

Scalable web architecture

Linux/Unix

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

ActiveMQ

Kafka

MongoDB

NoSQL

CI/CD

DevOps

Jackson

JAX-RS

Job description

GTC Recruitment in Manchester is seeking an experienced Lead/Senior Java Developer to join our high-performing agile team. You will guide developers while contributing to backend development, APIs, and automated testing in a hands-on leadership role.

You will work on large, high-traffic systems using modern practices, designing resilient services and scalable architectures. The role requires strong Java expertise, mentoring ability, and a bias for clean code and reliable delivery.