Lead Java Developer

Job Opportunity:
Lead Java Developer - Capital Markets

Location:

Toronto, ON (Hybrid)   Experience Level: 15+ Years   

Position Overview   One of our client is seeking a seasoned, hands-on Lead Java Developer with deep expertise in enterprise financial systems to drive the design and architecture of mission-critical, low-latency applications. Based in Toronto in a hybrid capacity, this role demands an engineering lead who remains close to the code while steering technical decisions, enforcing robust engineering practices, and collaborating across global trading and financial operations teams.
The ideal candidate brings an exceptional command of Core Java, concurrency, and distributed data architectures, complemented by practical domain knowledge in Capital Markets or Debt Capital Markets (DCM).

Key Responsibilities    Hands-on Architecture & Development:  Lead the design, prototyping, and end-to-end development of resilient, low-latency, and high-throughput backend services using modern Java stacks.
Technical Leadership:  Guide engineering standards across design patterns, object-oriented principles, code reviews, and performance tuning for high-volume financial transactions.
Concurrency & Performance Engineering:  Build and optimize multi-threaded architectures, addressing lock contention, memory profiling, garbage collection tuning, and latency bottlenecks.
Data & Cloud Integration:  Architect data pipelines and persistent layers utilizing high-performance relational databases, modern caching solutions, and distributed data platforms (e.g., MemSQL/Single Store).
Cloud Transformation:  Deploy, optimize, and maintain scalable solutions across major cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or equivalent enterprise cloud platforms).

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

Partner closely with business analysts, trading desks, risk managers, and operations teams to translate complex financial workflows into scalable technical deliverables.
Global Stakeholder Communication:  Work synchronously with distributed engineering hubs across regions, ensuring architectural alignment and clear delivery cadence.
Required Technical

Skills & Qualifications    15+ years of software engineering experience in enterprise, mission-critical environments.
Advanced proficiency in Core Java, deep understanding of OOP design principles, data structures, algorithms, and JVM internals.
Proven track record in multi-threading, asynchronous processing, and engineering low-latency systems.
Comprehensive, production-tested experience with Spring Framework (Spring Boot, Spring Integration, Spring Cloud).
Strong proficiency in SQL, query optimization, enterprise caching mechanisms, and distributed/in-memory databases such as MemSQL (Single Store).
Hands-on exposure to cloud ecosystems-primarily AWS or Azure (GCP or private cloud alternatives also considered).
Solid background in Capital Markets or Debt Capital Markets (DCM), including familiarity with trade life cycles, securities, or financial settlement workflows.

Preferred Qualifications   Functional knowledge of post-trade processing, clearing, or back-office financial operations.

Experience with message brokers (Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ) and event-driven architectures in trading environments.
Hands-on background with automated CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure as code.