At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead hands-on technical engagements to enhance banking application security and reliability.
- Company: Join a forward-thinking tech company focused on modernising critical banking systems.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, flexible work options, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborate with diverse teams and lead innovative projects in a supportive culture.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by solving complex challenges in a dynamic environment.
- Qualifications: Extensive software engineering experience, especially in Java and secure coding practices.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
The project is focused on improving the security, release reliability, maintainability, and operational resilience of business-critical banking applications. Forward Deployed Engineers will conduct targeted, hands-on engagements with development teams that are facing challenges with vulnerability remediation, automated testing, legacy technology, production stability, or achieving a safe and rapid release cadence. The role combines senior software engineering, DevOps, SRE, test automation, application security, and legacy modernization. Approximately 70% of the work involves hands-on coding and configuration.
The technical scope includes building effective automated test suites, remediating security vulnerabilities, performing dependency and reachability analysis, upgrading Java and NPM runtimes, modernizing Spring and legacy middleware applications, improving CI/CD pipelines, containerizing applications, automating deployments, and introducing standard observability and resilience patterns. The Expert FDE is expected to lead complex engagements, work directly with development and client stakeholders, define the technical remediation approach, implement critical changes personally, and enable client teams to maintain the improved engineering practices.
Responsibilities
- Lead targeted technical engagements addressing security, testing, release, resilience, and legacy technology challenges with development teams.
- Assess application code, dependencies, runtime environment, test coverage, deployment architecture, CI/CD pipelines, observability, and operational risks.
- Write, debug, review, and enhance production-quality code and configuration throughout engagements.
- Define and implement practical modernization and remediation plans with clear priorities, dependencies, risks, and measurable outcomes.
- Develop or improve unit, integration, component, contract, and deployment smoke tests using Test-Driven Development practices.
- Select appropriate automation-testing approaches per application and drive implementation, including the use of AI coding assistance.
- Source suitable test data and implement secure data masking for lower environments.
- Conduct vulnerability triage, root-cause and dependency reachability analyses, remediation prioritization, secure code changes, and regression testing.
- Upgrade Java, JVM, NPM, Spring, open-source libraries, internal dependencies, installed software, base images, and operating systems to supported versions.
- Establish sustainable dependency-management processes with continuous library updates using Renovate or equivalent tools.
- Modernize legacy applications and middleware stacks, including those deployed on WebSphere or WebLogic.
- Containerize applications using Docker and support deployment to OpenShift.
- Improve source control, branch management, pull-request, and code-review practices.
- Design, implement, and optimize CI/CD pipelines to ensure safe, repeatable, automated, and easy releases.
- Automate database changes using Liquibase or equivalent migration tools.
- Automate installed software and environment changes using Ansible or equivalent configuration management tools.
- Implement secure coding patterns, secrets management, authentication, authorization, and least-privilege controls.
- Introduce standard observability patterns, including structured logging, application metrics, tracing, dashboards, alerting, and actionable health checks.
- Enhance exception handling, operational diagnostics, rollback procedures, and production-validation controls.
- Design or improve resilient deployment architectures, including hot-hot cross-datacenter deployments where required.
- Lead technical workshops and effectively communicate technical decisions, risks, blockers, trade-offs, and progress to engineering, security, architecture, operations, project management, and stakeholders.
- Provide technical leadership through code reviews, coaching, reusable standards, documentation, and knowledge transfer to development teams.
- Take ownership from initial assessment through implementation, production deployment, stabilization, and handover.
Skills
Must have
- The role demands extensive hands-on software engineering experience, with a focus on developing and maintaining production applications. Candidates must actively write and configure code, not merely oversee architecture or management tasks.
- Expertise in Java and JVM-based development is essential, while strong TypeScript skills are valued for Node.js-centric projects.
- Proficiency with the Spring ecosystem and modernizing Java enterprise applications is required.
- The candidate should demonstrate recent personal involvement in coding, debugging, and reviewing production code.
- Hard skills include practical experience in Test-Driven Development across multiple testing frameworks, with a solid understanding of various testing types such as unit, integration, and regression tests.
- The role involves creating automated test suites integrated within CI/CD pipelines, along with designing release automation and quality gates.
- Strong knowledge of secure coding practices, vulnerability remediation, and dependency risk management is necessary, including the ability to analyze application impacts before applying security fixes.
- Experience upgrading runtimes, frameworks, libraries, container platforms like Docker or OpenShift, and managing Linux environments—preferably Red Hat Enterprise Linux—is also important.
- Familiarity with build tools such as Maven, Gradle, or npm, advanced Git workflows, and comprehensive production-debugging techniques is expected.
- Candidates should understand application observability, exception handling, and production readiness, as well as fundamental distributed and critical system engineering principles.
- Soft skills focus on demonstrated ownership of complex technical work through all stages, from design to production handover.
- Strong client-facing communication is essential, including leading technical discussions, constructively challenging unsafe practices, and explaining trade-offs to diverse stakeholders.
- The ability to coach engineers and implement sustainable engineering standards without excessive customization is critical.
- Responsible and active use of AI coding tools to enhance engineering, testing, and delivery outcomes is also expected.
Nice to have
- Experience modernizing or migrating applications hosted on IBM WebSphere or Oracle WebLogic, demonstrating familiarity with these platforms.
- Experience with major-version upgrades and migration from older versions of Spring or Spring Boot, indicating proficiency in framework transitions.
- Experience configuring continuous dependency-update tools such as Renovate or Dependabot, showing capability in automating dependency management.
- Experience with dependency reachability analysis, Software Composition Analysis, CVE assessment, and remediation of transitive dependencies, reflecting knowledge of software security and compliance.
- Experience automating database changes using Liquibase or Flyway, indicating skills in database migration automation.
- Experience using Ansible or equivalent configuration-management and deployment-automation tools, demonstrating proficiency in infrastructure automation.
- Strong experience in TypeScript, Node.js, and the npm ecosystem, highlighting development expertise in these technologies.
- Experience with Kubernetes in addition to OpenShift, showing understanding of container orchestration platforms.
- Experience designing hot-hot, active-active, multi-region, or cross-datacenter deployment architectures, denoting knowledge of high-availability systems.
- Experience with resilience testing, disaster recovery, controlled failover, and production-recovery exercises, highlighting skills in system reliability and continuity planning.
- Experience with enterprise observability tools such as Splunk, ELK, Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, AppDynamics, or Dynatrace, reflecting proficiency in monitoring and diagnostics.
- Experience modernizing monolithic or legacy enterprise applications into maintainable systems.
Expert Forward Deployment Engineer employer: Luxoft
Luxoft is an excellent employer that fosters a dynamic and collaborative work culture, particularly for those passionate about market risk analytics. With a strong emphasis on employee growth, you will have access to continuous learning opportunities and the chance to work with cutting-edge technologies in a supportive agile environment. Located in the United Kingdom, Luxoft offers a unique blend of professional development and a vibrant team atmosphere, making it an ideal place for skilled developers looking to make a meaningful impact.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Expert Forward Deployment Engineer
✨Tap into Campus Networks
If you're still in uni, don’t forget to engage with your campus's career services and attend finance-related events. Banks often do presentations and recruitment drives on campus, so put yourself out there and make use of these opportunities to show off your passion for the field.
✨Get Certified
Consider pursuing relevant certifications like the CFA or ACCA while you’re job hunting. They not only beef up your CV but also connect you with professional bodies which can lead to networking opportunities and even job openings in banking and financial services.
✨Connect on Professional Platforms
Join finance-focused groups on platforms like LinkedIn and engage in discussions. This can really help you stand out from the crowd, allowing potential employers to see your knowledge and interest in industry trends. Plus, you might stumble upon job postings shared exclusively within the group.
✨Apply Directly and Be Proactive
Don’t shy away from reaching out directly to firms like Luxoft. Use their websites and apply through them, but also consider following up with a polite email to express your enthusiasm. Being proactive can make a huge difference in getting noticed in the competitive financial services sector.
We think you need these skills to ace Expert Forward Deployment Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Numbers!:In the banking and financial services world, quantifiable achievements are key. Make sure your CV highlights your grades in relevant subjects, any financial certifications you hold, and specific projects where you've delivered measurable results. Employers love to see how your skills translate into real-world success.
Tailor Your Cover Letter to the Role:When applying for a full-time position, your cover letter should make a direct connection between your experience and the job description. Don't just state your enthusiasm for finance—dive into how your background in banking or financial analysis sets you apart. Let your passion shine through while being specific about what you can bring to Luxoft.
Include Relevant Financial Software Experience:If you've worked with financial modelling tools or software like Excel, SAP, or specific analytical tools during your studies or internships, bring that up! Highlighting your proficiency can really make your application pop and show you're ready to hit the ground running in a full-time role.
Research and Reflect:Before hitting that 'apply' button on Luxoft's website, do a little digging. Look up their recent projects, values, and culture. Reflecting their ethos in your application can make a huge difference and show you’re genuinely interested in being part of the team!
How to prepare for a job interview at Luxoft
✨Brush Up on Financial Analysis Skills
Make sure you're well-versed in financial concepts and analytical techniques relevant to banking and financial services. Get comfortable with tools like Excel for modelling or financial forecasting, as technical questions in this area are common during interviews with Luxoft.
✨Prepare for Case Studies
Expect to tackle case studies that demonstrate your problem-solving skills in real-world banking scenarios. Familiarise yourself with the types of problems you might face—think risk assessments or investment evaluations—and be ready to articulate your thought process clearly.
✨Show Your Passion for Finance
Since this is a full-time position, employers at Luxoft will be keen to see your genuine interest in finance. Be prepared to discuss recent industry trends or news articles that excite you, showcasing your enthusiasm and engagement with the field.
✨Network with Industry Professionals
Before your interview, reach out to current or former Luxoft employees on platforms like LinkedIn. They'll offer unique insights into the company's culture and the interview process, which can give us a delightful edge in showcasing a good fit for the team.
