Senior Java Developer - Public Sector in London

At IBM CIC, we provide technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients in the UK. A career in IBM CIC means you'll have the opportunity to work with leading professionals across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. You will get the chance to deliver effective solutions, driving meaningful business change for our clients, using some of the latest technology platforms.

Curiosity and a constant quest for knowledge serve as the foundation to success here. You'll be encouraged and supported to constantly reinvent yourself, focusing on skills in demand in an ever changing market. You'll be working with diverse teams, coming up with creative solutions which impact a wide network of clients, who may be at their site or one of our CIC or IBM locations. Our culture of evolution centres on long-term career growth and development opportunities in an environment that embraces your unique skills and experience.

We offer:

• Many training opportunities from classroom to e-learning, mentoring and coaching programs and the chance to gain industry recognized certifications
• Regular and frequent promotion opportunities to ensure you can drive and develop your career with us
• Feedback and checkpoints throughout the year
• Diversity & Inclusion as an essential and authentic component of our culture through our policies and process as well as our Employee Champion teams and support networks
• A culture where your ideas for growth and innovation are always welcome
• Internal recognition programs for peer-to-peer appreciation as well as from manager to employees
• Tools and policies to support your work-life balance from flexible working approaches, sabbatical programs, paid paternity leave, maternity leave and an innovative maternity returners scheme
• More traditional benefits, such as 25 days holiday (in addition to public holidays), private medical, dental & optical cover, online shopping discounts, an Employee Assistance Program, life assurance and a group personal pension plan of an additional 5% of your base salary paid by us monthly to save for your future.

Your role and responsibilities:

We're looking for a Senior Java Developer to lead cloud‐focused development initiatives within IBM's public sector projects. In this role, you will guide the design, development, and optimisation of cloud‐based applications, leveraging strong expertise in Java, Kafka, and modern full‐stack technologies on the AWS cloud platform. You will mentor junior and mid‐level developers and oversee the full software development lifecycle, ensuring high‐quality delivery across design, coding, testing, and deployment of cloud‐native solutions.

Responsibilities:

• System Design: Design, develop, and maintain robust, scalable, and secure AWS‐based applications using Java, Kafka, and full‐stack technologies.
• Team Leadership: Lead and mentor junior and mid‐level developers, promoting a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Problem‐Solving: Own and resolve complex technical challenges, drawing on deep experience in distributed systems, event‐driven architectures, and full‐stack development.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive enhancements to development standards, tools, and processes, ensuring adherence to industry best practices and IBM's engineering principles.
• Technical Vision: Contribute to architectural strategy and shape the technical direction of cloud solutions within public sector programmes.
• Project Leadership: Lead smaller public sector project deliveries from design through deployment, demonstrating strong technical ownership and project coordination skills.
• Mentorship: Support the growth and development of Junior Developers through hands‐on guidance, knowledge sharing, and structured mentorship.

Required technical and professional expertise:

• Technical Proficiency: Demonstrated mastery in full‐stack development, including front‐end technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and back‐end expertise with languages such as Java, Python, Ruby, and Node.js.
• Strong experience working with event‐driven architectures and streaming technologies, particularly Kafka.
• Cloud Expertise: Extensive hands‐on experience with AWS cloud services and infrastructure, with additional exposure to other cloud platforms such as Azure or Google Cloud.
• Leadership: Proven leadership qualities with a successful track record of managing engineering teams, guiding technical delivery, and ensuring high‐quality outcomes.
• Problem‐Solving: Exceptional problem‐solving capabilities, supported by a history of effectively diagnosing and resolving complex engineering and architectural challenges.
• Communication & Stakeholder Engagement: Exemplary verbal and written communication skills, including experience engaging with stakeholders across the public sector and presenting technical concepts to non‐technical audiences.

As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds. However, to be eligible for this role, you must have the valid right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we do not offer visa sponsorship and have no plans to do so. You must be a UK resident and have lived continuously in the UK for the last 5 years.

Preferred technical and professional experience:

• Experience with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of serverless architectures and microservices.
• Familiarity with event‐driven design patterns.
• Understanding of database systems (SQL, NoSQL).
• Experience with cloud security best practices.

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal‐opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.