Lead Developer

FindIT Recruitment; Wellington; Hybrid; NZD 148,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Contract through 30 June 2027

Hybrid working - 3 days in office 2 at

Competitive hourly rate

Job summary

FindIT Recruitment in Wellington, New Zealand, seeks an experienced Lead Developer to blend hands-on coding with technical leadership across multiple projects. You’ll design, code, troubleshoot and set technical direction while shaping development plans and engineering standards.

Reporting to the Software Engineering Manager, you’ll lead delivery, mentor peers and drive CI/CD pipelines within Kubernetes/OpenShift environments.

Qualifications

• Strong Java 17+ development experience, ideally Java 21.
• Experience with Apache Kafka including publishers/consumers.
• Proficiency in Kubernetes/OpenShift deployments.
• CI/CD and DevOps tooling experience.
• Relational DBs such as PostgreSQL.
• Proven technical leadership within software teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication; stakeholder management.
• Experience with Agile/Scrum practices and Jira/Confluence.
• Nice to have Python development experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead hands-on application and integration development.
• Develop solutions using Java 17+ and Kafka.
• Provide technical direction to developers.
• Lead planning, estimation and technical delivery.
• Contribute to software design and reviews.
• Design and implement Kafka messaging solutions.
• Support enterprise applications and SaaS/PaaS platforms.
• Lead Level 3 application support and CI/CD pipelines.
• Operate in Kubernetes/OpenShift environments across projects.

Skills

Java development

Java 17+/21

Technical leadership

Kafka

Kubernetes/OpenShift

CI/CD

Git/GitLab

Agile/Scrum

SQL/PostgreSQL

Problem solving

Communication

Tools

Kafka

PostgreSQL

Git

Kubernetes

OpenShift

GitLab

Jira/Confluence

Job description

Jora New Zealand will close on 9th September 2026. Thank you for being with us, we are cheering you on as you continue your career journey.

FindIT Recruitment – Wellington, North Island

Your new role

We are looking for an experienced Lead Developer who can combine strong hands‑on development skills with technical leadership. You’ll work across multiple projects while also supporting BAU applications, helping shape development plans, engineering standards and technical direction.

Working closely with the Software Engineering Manager, Project Manager and wider technical teams, you’ll lead development activities while remaining actively involved in designing, coding, troubleshooting and delivering solutions.

This is a contract opportunity starting ASAP and running through to 30 June 2027, with an hourly rate of up to $130 per hour.

Responsibilities

• Lead and contribute to hands‑on application and integration development
• Develop solutions primarily using Java 17 or later
• Provide technical direction and guidance to developers
• Lead development planning, estimation and technical delivery activities
• Contribute to software design, architecture and technical reviews
• Design and develop Kafka publishers, consumers and topic‑based messaging solutions
• Support bespoke enterprise applications and SaaS/PaaS platforms
• Provide technical leadership for Level 3 application support
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment practices
• Support applications deployed across Kubernetes and OpenShift environments
• Work across both project delivery and BAU initiatives
• Troubleshoot application performance and distributed system issues
• Mentor developers and contribute to improved engineering standards and practices
• Work closely with project managers, architects, designers and business stakeholders

Requirements

• Strong commercial development experience using Java 17 or later, ideally Java 21
• Strong understanding of software engineering best practices, coding standards and design patterns
• Practical experience with Apache Kafka, including publishers, consumers and topic‑based messaging
• Experience with PostgreSQL or comparable enterprise relational databases
• Strong experience using Git within collaborative development environments
• Experience deploying and supporting applications using Kubernetes and/or OpenShift
• Strong CI/CD experience, ideally using GitLab
• Experience working with Agile/Scrum practices and tools including Jira and Confluence
• Proven technical leadership experience within software development teamsthe rest
• Strong application support, troubleshooting and problem‑solving capability
• Understanding of AWS core services and cloud architecture principles
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability technologies such as Elasticsearch, Logstash, Prometheus, Grafana and Kibana
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong stakeholder management skills across technical and business teams
• Python development experience would be advantageous but is not essential

Perks and benefits

• Contract through to 30 June 2027
• Hourly rate of up to $130 per hour
• Opportunity to combine hands‑on development with technical leadership
• Work across complex enterprise applications and integrations
• Exposure to modern Java, Kafka, Kubernetes, OpenShift, AWS and DevOps technologies
• Hybrid working - 3 days in office 2 home.

You MUST be based in WELLINGTON to be considered for this role