🚀 Lead Java Software Developer | Sports Betting Hedge Fund Startup | London
Please note: this role cannot provide sponsorship. Applicants must have existing right to work.
We’re hiring a hands-on Lead Java Backend Engineer to take technical ownership of critical parts of a fast-moving platform powered by live and historical sports data. This is not a management role, its 90% hands on role. You’ll be designing, debugging, coding, reviewing and making the technical calls that keep important systems running. You’ll work alongside experienced quants, traders and developers, owning everything from low-latency data and execution systems to model deployment, risk, simulation and observability.
What you’ll be doing
- Lead the technical direction of key backend systems
- Build and ship production Java services
- Solve complex problems around distributed systems, asynchronous processing and state
- Own reliability, correctness and production performance
- Raise engineering standards through code reviews and technical leadership
- Take ambiguous problems and drive them from idea → solution → production
What we’re looking for
- 8-15 years commercial Java experience
- Senior/Lead-level backend engineering experience
- Strong Spring Boot and PostgreSQL/SQL skills
- Experience operating production systems where reliability really matters
- Strong debugging and problem-solving ability
- High agency — you see a problem and take ownership
- Comfortable in a small, highly autonomous engineering team
- Hands-on mindset — you still want to code
- Comfortable making extensive use of modern AI coding tools
Tech you'll encounter
Java 21 · Spring Boot · PostgreSQL · AWS SQS/SNS · WebSockets · Bazel · Docker · Testcontainers · Prometheus · OpenTelemetry · Sentry
You don't need to know everything on the list. Strong engineering fundamentals and the ability to learn matter more.
If you're a senior/lead Java engineer who wants real ownership, interesting technical problems and the freedom to build, I'd love to hear from you