Lead Java Developer – AI & Platform Engineering

About the role

We are looking for a highly skilled Lead Java Engineer with AI expertise to help build the next‑generation FTSE Russell Index Platform. This role combines deep technical design, AI‑driven feature development, and close collaboration with global product and engineering teams.

Key responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain complex Java and Python applications using modern engineering practices.
• Integrate AI‑powered features into mission‑critical systems and enhance services for large‑scale index computations.
• Architect micro‑services, REST APIs and data‑intensive components that meet performance and scalability requirements.
• Collaborate with product managers, UX designers, and engineering teams worldwide to deliver high‑quality products.
• Lead projects end‑to‑end: requirements, design, development, testing, deployment, and operations.
• Build and maintain automated test suites to ensure performance, scalability, and security.
• Diagnose production issues, provide Level 3 support, and implement fixes.
• Conduct peer reviews, provide technical leadership, and mentor junior engineers.

Required profile

• 12+ years of hands‑on backend software engineering experience.
• Proven experience supporting AI adoption, building solutions with LLMs, LangChain/LangGraph, and agentic AI frameworks.
• Strong algorithms, data‑structures, and problem‑solving abilities.
• Deep understanding of both high‑level and low‑level software design and coding standards.
• Prior exposure to Level 3 production support.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams (preferred).
• Background in financial services or market‑data environments (nice‑to‑have).

Required skills

• Core Java
• Python
• Microservices architecture
• REST APIs
• RDBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL)
• CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab)
• Docker & Kubernetes
• JVM profiling & performance optimisation
• LLMs, LangChain, LangGraph, agentic AI frameworks
• Spring Boot
• Redis, Kafka
• In‑memory caching
• BDD frameworks (Cucumber, JBehave, Karate)