Principal Engineer - Java

Overview

Principal Engineer (Payments) Our long-term trusted partner, a leading financial services corporation, is hiring a Principal Engineer with strong hands-on capabilities in Java (17/21) and payment product experience. The role contributes to real-time architectural decision making and leads vision & strategy across Faster Payments, Real Time Payments, Card payments, BACS, mobile wallets and APIs.

Salary: up to £110,000 (circa) + 25% bonus + benefits. Onsite work is required 2 days per week in London, Chatham (Kent) or Wolverhampton.

Seeking an experienced Principal Engineer with recent retail/digital banking experience who is hands-on (approximately 80%) and provides architectural leadership (approximately 20%).

• Lead the development and implementation of a modern cloud foundation and data platform that is robust, scalable, fully automated, secure, and capable of supporting business growth.
• Build scalable architectures by designing and implementing secure, high-performing cloud-native solutions.
• API development and integration: design and build secure RESTful and GraphQL APIs, ensuring seamless integration with core banking systems (e.g., Mambu) and external services like Open Banking platforms.
• Data engineering and analytics: define robust data pipelines and scalable cloud-based data platforms using tools such as Apache Kafka, Snowflake, or Databricks.
• Monitoring and performance tuning: implement advanced monitoring and observability solutions using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog to proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.
• Code and system optimization: proactively analyse and optimise existing systems for improved performance, scalability, and maintainability.

• Strong experience building and scaling banking payment systems including Faster Payments, Real Time Payments, Card payments, BACS, mobile wallets and APIs.
• Experience leading architectural challenges, system scalability, and guidance of engineering teams.
• Background in Java, C#, Python, or React development with hands-on technical leadership.
• Strong background in core banking systems/platforms (e.g., Mambu), cloud-native architectures, microservices, and Dev Ops practices.
• Solid understanding of regulatory, risk and compliance requirements (e.g., PSD2, PCI DSS, GDPR).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure or GCP) and modern data platforms.

£110,000 circa, 25% bonus, 28 days holiday, Holiday Purchase Scheme, occasional travel, health insurance, 13% pension, plus more.