Senior Java Engineer - Football Squad

Hawk-Eye Innovations (HEI); Basingstoke; Hybrid; GBP 58,000 - 81,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading sports technology company based in the UK is looking for a Senior Java Engineer to join their Football Squad. This role involves designing and developing scalable backend systems that power high-impact projects for FIFA and UEFA. The ideal candidate should have strong Java and Spring Boot experience, along with familiarity with AWS and observability tools. This is a hybrid position, requiring in-office work two days a week, and offers a competitive salary and benefits.

Benefits

Annual Leave: 25 days + 8 public holidays

Enhanced Pension Scheme: 5% matching

Flexible Working: Hybrid model

Wellness: Complimentary Unmind app, onsite gym

Exclusive Perks: Access to sporting events

Qualifications

• Strong Java 17 & Spring Boot experience is essential.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms, particularly AWS, is preferred.
• Familiarity with observability tools like Datadog is required.
• Experience with microservices and distributed systems is a must.
• Understanding system monitoring, logging, and traceability is important.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment is required.

Responsibilities

• Develop, optimise, and maintain backend services using Java.
• Contribute to design decisions for new and existing projects.
• Work on data pipelines that power FIFA and UEFA operations.
• Deploy and scale applications in the AWS cloud.
• Enhance system observability for real-time monitoring.
• Work on event-driven architectures with message queues.
• Collaborate with teams and stakeholders to meet deadlines.
• Ensure system reliability and performance in real-time.

Skills

Strong Java 17 & Spring Boot experience

Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS preferred)

Familiarity with observability tools (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus)

Experience with microservices and distributed systems

Understanding of monitoring, logging, and traceability

Ability to work efficiently in a fast-paced environment

Tools

Datadog

AWS

Kafka

RabbitMQ

SQS

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub Actions

Terraform

Job description

Senior Java Engineer – Football Squad

Salary Banding: £58,810 - £80,190 per annum
Contract: Full-Time, Permanent
Working Location: Hybrid, 2 Days a week in the office, minimum
Office Locations: Basingstoke, London, Bristol

Join Our Team as a Senior Java Engineer at Hawk-Eye Innovations

Hi, I’m Peter Laszlo, Backend Discipline Lead and hiring manager for this role. I’m excited to invite you to apply for the Senior Java Engineer position in our Football Squad at Hawk-Eye Innovations. If you're passionate about building scalable backend systems and want to work on high-impact projects for FIFA and UEFA, this could be the ideal role for you.

What Your Day Will Look Like

As a Senior Java Engineer in our Football Backend Team, you'll play a key role in designing, developing, and optimizing data-intensive backend services that power live football events. Our team is responsible for managing data feeds, event-driven processing, and cloud-based infrastructure to deliver real-time insights to global football leagues and partners.

You’ll work in an agile environment, collaborating with engineers across our football backend team. Given the high-profile nature of our work, we operate in a fast-moving environment where efficiency and scalability are key to success.

What We Value

At Hawk-Eye, we believe in collaboration, ownership, and innovation. We strive to create an environment where engineers can contribute meaningfully, solve challenging problems, and improve their skills. Given the pace of work, we value engineers who can hit the ground running, take initiative, and contribute to mission-critical projects from day one.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, optimise, and maintain backend services using Java (Spring Boot)
• Contribute to design decisions for new and existing projects
• Work on football-related data pipelines that power FIFA, Serie-A and UEFA operations
• Deploy and scale applications in AWS (ECS, Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, etc.)
• Enhance system observability, ensuring real-time monitoring and logging using tools like Datadog
• Work on event-driven architectures, leveraging message queues (Pulsar, Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS, etc.)
• Collaborate with engineers, stakeholders and external partners to meet high-impact project deadlines
• Ensure system reliability and performance in high-traffic, real-time environments

Tech Stack and Skill Requirements

Required:

• Strong Java 17 & Spring Boot experience
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS preferred)
• Familiarity with observability tools (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry)
• Experience with microservices and distributed systems
• Understanding of monitoring, logging, and traceability
• Ability to work efficiently in a fast-paced environment

Bonus Skills:

• Experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS, etc.)
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and automation (GitHub Actions, Terraform)
• Familiarity with containerisation and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Exposure to real-time data processing and sports tech

Reward, Benefits, and Wellness

• Annual Leave: 25 days + 8 public holidays
• Enhanced Pension Scheme: 5% matching
• Flexible Working: Hybrid model (2 days in the office per week)
• Wellness: Complimentary Unmind app, onsite gym (Basingstoke)
• Exclusive Perks: Access to sporting events and tickets, Sony Group Company discounts

Equal Opportunity Employer

Hawk-Eye is committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We ensure all employees are treated fairly, regardless of gender, marital status, race, nationality, religion, age, disability, or union membership status. We value diversity and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential.

Apply Today!

This is a fantastic opportunity to join Hawk-Eye Innovations and make a significant impact in football technology. If you're looking for a role where you can solve real-world problems at scale, we’d love to hear from you!