Technical Lead - Backend (Java / Spring Boot)

Who we are

CreateFuture is fast becoming the UK’s most recognisable digital consultancy, with years of experience building digital products and services for major organisations while putting our people first. We have offices in the centre of Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, and London as well as remote employees located throughout the country. We are a team of creators – code, project plans, go‑to‑market strategies, culture initiatives, marketing campaigns, large language models or people policies. With our clients we create the future. We collaborate across a multitude of industries, including PayPal, Adidas, NatWest, FanDuel and Money Saving Expert. Our reputation for delivering high‑quality, robust and thoughtful products has enabled us to scale to over 500 people in the last few years, and our safe, supportive and friendly culture keeps us a great place to work. We have been recognised by Best Workplaces UK multiple years in a row and we keep our employee exit rate low. Join us on our journey… Let’s create something awesome, together, today.

About the role and team

This is a senior, hands‑on technical leadership role. You will be embedded in a team delivering for a client in a fast‑paced, product‑led environment, accountable for how your workstream is delivered, not just the code you write. You lead from the front, set the technical direction, keep the delivery signal honest and grow the engineers around you. Priorities move, requirements are rarely perfect on day one, and we value people who bring order to ambiguity.

How we work with AI

AI‑assisted development is core to how we build, not a side experiment. We use modern AI coding agents to remove the drudgery so engineers can focus on high‑value decisions: architecture, trade‑offs, and getting the right thing built. Humans own every change and quality is held by review and ownership, not by the tool. As a Tech Lead you will raise the quality and consistency of how the team uses AI: you must know the domain and the codebase well enough to steer the tools, avoid reinventing what already exists, and articulate intent so the AI accelerates good engineering rather than multiplying mediocre code.

Our tech stack

• Core Java (with Spring Boot) – roughly an even split of RESTful Java APIs and Kafka / event‑driven services.
• CI/CD pipelines.
• AWS (including S3, Lambda, ECS, EKS, MSK).
• Kubernetes and containerisation.
• Infrastructure as code.
• AI integrations and agentic development workflows.
• Full security practices across the stack.
• Full DevOps ownership – "you build it, you run it".

You will not need all of this from day one, but these are the tools, systems and practices you will work with.

What you’ll be doing

• Building Java services across REST APIs and Kafka / event‑driven pipelines (roughly an even split), with a focus on readable, maintainable and well‑tested code.
• Writing tests as part of development – TDD approaches encouraged.
• Integrating with third‑party APIs (for example payment gateways and suppliers).
• Defining and overseeing technical implementations: shaping how things are built, not just writing code.
• Championing AI‑assisted ways of working and lifting the bar on quality, consistency and reuse across the team.
• Owning your workstream end to end – you can always answer what you own and who covers it when you are out, whether you are on track for the next milestone, what is blocked or at risk, and what decision is needed and who needs to know.
• Actively managing delivery rather than passively reporting it, and spotting risk early enough to act before dates slip.
• Shaping and estimating upcoming work with product and delivery before it hits the team, so the team drives the work rather than inheriting it.
• Communicating before you are chased, and working in the open (visible progress in shared channels, feedback captured where it belongs).
• Identifying and removing bottlenecks in delivery.
• Handling difficult client conversations professionally when needed, with support from your colleagues.
• Spotting knowledge gaps and offering mentoring, pairing and coaching to grow the engineers around you.

We’d love to talk to you if:

• You have strong Java and Spring Boot, across both REST APIs and event‑driven / Kafka systems.
• You care about engineering quality: code reviews, automated tests, and maintainability.
• You lead in the open, share knowledge, and actively raise the bar for the team.
• You are comfortable driving delivery and, with support, handling client conversations.
• You embrace AI‑assisted development: using modern AI tools to go faster while owning the quality and knowing when to trust them and when not to.
• You thrive in a fast‑paced environment and can bring structure to ambiguity.
• You are familiar with cloud services and CI/CD, or excited to learn more.
• You want to build more than boilerplate APIs: solving real problems, with proper ownership.

What we’ll offer you

At CreateFuture, we challenge ourselves to go beyond the obvious and we care deeply about our craft and customers. With us you’ll have ambitious projects to sink your teeth into and plenty of opportunities to learn and grow. You’ll be part of our safe, supportive and friendly culture – that looks after you – and join our team of genuinely great people. Our benefits include:

• Total 35 days holiday (we have flexible bank holidays).
• Comprehensive private medical insurance.
• Enhanced parental and adoption leave.
• Pension – matched up to 5%.

As this is a hybrid role, we’re looking for people within a commuting distance of our Edinburgh office and who are flexible to travel to client sites and CreateFuture UK regional offices. We are very flexible and trust you to manage your own schedule to balance face‑to‑face time with clients, colleagues and working from home. We create and reinforce a culture that rewards employees’ impact, not just activity. We trust our employees to work autonomously and promote ownership across all levels.

Inclusion at CreateFuture

We believe diverse teams build better workplaces and better products. We want CreateFuture to be a place where people feel able to be themselves and do their best work. If you need any adjustments or support during the application process, let us know. We will do what we can to help. We look forward to your application!