Senior Java Software Engineer

RE Partners; Belfast City District; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

RE Partners is seeking a senior Java engineer to join a new security-focused squad within a global tier-1 financial institution. You will design and build backend microservices (Java 17+, Spring Boot) that secure deployment pipelines in AWS, orchestrated on Kubernetes/OpenShift.

You will own the full lifecycle, mentor 3–4 mid-level engineers, and drive technical decisions in a high-autonomy environment. Must hold UK work authorization.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional Java development experience.
• Deep expertise in Spring Boot and microservices.
• RESTful API design and scalable backend systems.
• Hands-on with Kubernetes/OpenShift in cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and observability.
• Experience integrating with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI).
• Excellent communication in a large enterprise setting.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize resilient microservices in Java 17+ and Spring Boot.
• Deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes/OpenShift in AWS.
• Build integrations with CI/CD pipelines to enforce security gates.
• Own the full lifecycle: coding, testing, deployment, production monitoring.
• Mentor 3–4 mid-level engineers and drive technical decisions within the squad.

Tools

Java 11+/17

Spring Boot

Microservices

RESTful APIs

Kubernetes/OpenShift

Distributed systems

CI/CD

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

GitLab CI

OpenShift

Job description

Work Authorization:

Must already hold valid UK work authorization (no visa sponsorship available for this role)

About the Role

We are building a new engineering team for a global tier-1 financial institution to strengthen its deployment security platform.You will design and build backend microservices (Java 17+, Spring Boot) that secure internal software delivery pipelines—automating vulnerability detection, policy enforcement, and secrets management at enterprise scale. This is a long-term, multi-year program. You will work in a high-autonomy squad alongside SREs and DevOps engineers.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize resilient microservices using Java 17+ and Spring Boot.
• Deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes (OpenShift) in AWS cloud environments.
• Build integrations with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions) to enforce security gates.
• Own the full lifecycle: coding, testing, deployment, and production monitoring.
• Mentor 3–4 mid-level engineers and drive technical decisions within the squad.

Required Skills

• 8+ years of professional Java development (Java 11/17+).
• Deep expertise in Spring Boot, microservices, and RESTful API design.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes or OpenShift.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems (retries, circuit-breakers, observability).
• Excellent communication skills and comfort working in a large enterprise environment.
• Must already hold valid UK work authorization (no visa sponsorship available).

Nice to Have

• Experience with CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or GitLab CI).
• Familiarity with security protocols (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS).
• Event-driven architecture (Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS SQS/SNS).