Lead Java Developer & Architecture Leader

Police; Wellington; Hybrid; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

New Zealand Police is seeking a Lead Java Developer to provide technical leadership within a product team, while remaining hands-on where it matters. You will guide solution design, set engineering standards, mentor developers, and influence technical strategy across Centres of Expertise in Wellington.

You will uplift engineering capability, support major modernisation initiatives, and deliver secure, reliable, and impactful solutions for frontline staff and communities.

Qualifications

• Proven Java enterprise-scale development experience.
• Experience leading development teams or providing technical leadership.
• Excellent understanding of software architecture, integration patterns and engineering practices.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and shape architectural direction and system design.
• Lead delivery of complex features, integrations and modernisation work.
• Champion engineering best practices, coding standards and patterns.
• Mentor and coach developers across levels for capability uplift.
• Conduct and lead design and code reviews for quality and maintainability.
• Partner with engineers, product teams and stakeholders to design secure, scalable solutions.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across distributed systems and guide root cause resolution.
• Influence development roadmaps as a senior technical advisor.

Skills

Java 17+

Technical leadership

Enterprise architecture

CI/CD

Spring Boot

REST APIs

Cloud concepts

Team mentoring

Tools

Spring Boot

CI/CD pipelines

Docker/Kubernetes

Job description

New Zealand Police is seeking a Lead Java Developer to provide technical leadership within a product team, while remaining hands-on where it matters. You will guide solution design, set engineering standards, mentor developers, and influence technical strategy across Centres of Expertise in Wellington.

You will uplift engineering capability, support major modernisation initiatives, and deliver secure, reliable, and impactful solutions for frontline staff and communities.