Principal Java Engineer
Ocho People | Technology Recruitment
At a Glance
– Principal / Lead Java Engineer role in a high-performance financial technology environment
– Core stack: Java, Spring Boot, AWS (SQS, SNS, Lambda, S3), event-driven and low-latency systems
– Location and working model: TBC confirm with client before posting
– Salary: TBC confirm with client before posting
– A technically serious role where the problems are hard, the performance requirements are real, and your decisions carry genuine weight
About the Company
Our client is an established financial technology business building high-performance systems where latency, throughput and reliability are engineering-grade requirements, not aspirations. They work at the intersection of modern cloud infrastructure and low-latency market data, and are looking to bring in an experienced Principal Engineer to own technical delivery and raise the bar across the team.
The Role
This is a senior individual contributor role with real technical influence. You will be designing and building complex, high-throughput Java microservices, contributing to architectural decisions, and working close to the metal on performance-critical components. The expectation is that you bring both depth and the ability to share it mentoring engineers, leading on technical decisions, and setting the standard for how the team builds and ships software. Experience in financial markets, market data or regulated environments is an advantage, but the core requirement is someone who understands what engineering for performance actually means and has the track record to prove it.
Key Responsibilities
– Design, build and deliver high-performance Java microservices using Spring Boot in a production cloud environment
– Architect and evolve event-driven and low-latency system components, including IPC, messaging and data pipeline design
– Own technical decision-making across your domain, from API design and data modelling through testing, observability and production deployment
– Integrate with AWS cloud infrastructure SQS, SNS, Lambda, S3 and related services, with hands-on infrastructure ownership
– Drive engineering quality through code review, SDLC improvements and tooling such as SonarQube, CI/CD pipelines and containerised delivery via Docker and Kubernetes
– Mentor and upskill engineers across the team, contributing to a culture of technical rigour and continuous improvement
– Apply AI tooling and agentic development practices to accelerate delivery and improve engineering productivity
– Contribute to architectural decisions across the wider engineering function, including input on cross-team technical standards
What You’ll Need
Essential:
– 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with strong Java as the primary language
– Proven experience with Spring Boot and modern Java designing, building and operating production backend services at scale
– Experience building event-driven or message-based systems AWS SNS/SQS, Kafka, Solace or similar middleware
– Solid cloud infrastructure experience on AWS, with hands-on deployment and operational ownership
– Strong understanding of CI/CD, containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes) and modern SDLC practices
– Experience in low-latency, high-throughput system design financial services, market data or trading systems background is advantageous
– Right to work in the UK
Nice to have:
– C++ experience in a financial markets or low-latency context
– Familiarity with FIX protocol, SBE or market data feed handler development
– Experience with AI-assisted development tooling and agentic workflows
Why Apply?
– Salary: 90-120k
– Location and working model: Belfast / Hybrid
– Senior technical role with real autonomy architecture decisions, technical ownership, and meaningful influence over how the team works
– Work on high-performance, mission-critical systems where engineering decisions carry real consequences
– Collaborate with engineers who take performance and correctness seriously, in a domain where cutting corners is not an option
Interested ?
Reach out to Ryan at Ocho People or connect on LinkedIn or send your CV directly to .
Skills:Java, AWS, C++
WHJS1_NI
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