At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the evolution of our event-driven architecture and guide distributed systems.
- Company: Join a forward-thinking fintech company focused on innovation and scalability.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, mentorship opportunities, and a chance to shape impactful technology.
- Other info: Dynamic role with opportunities for career advancement and global collaboration.
- Why this job: Make a real difference in financial services with cutting-edge technology and leadership.
- Qualifications: 10+ years in software engineering, expertise in Kafka/Redpanda, and strong Java skills.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
In this senior hands-on role, you will shape the event-driven platform architecture for UST FinX, guiding distributed systems and real-time processing. You’ll own the evolution of our event platform, ensuring scalability, resilience, and production readiness. You’ll work closely with engineering, product, and operations teams to translate business needs into robust technical solutions. This position offers impact at scale in the financial services domain, with a strong focus on observable, secure systems. Join a leadership-track role that blends architecture with practical code and delivery.
Responsibilities
- Define and evolve the event-driven architecture strategy for the fintech platform
- Lead architecture across distributed systems, event streaming, integration, orchestration, and real-time services
- Build reusable frameworks, libraries, and reference implementations for producers, consumers, retries, replay, resilience, and observability
- Establish standards for event contracts, schema evolution, governance, and lifecycle management
- Guide Kafka/Redpanda architecture (topic design, partitions, throughput, ordering, failure handling)
- Apply event sourcing, CQRS, asynchronous communication, and eventual consistency where valuable
- Remain hands-on with Java, distributed systems, messaging, and platform engineering
- Troubleshoot production issues related to latency, ordering, lag, and serialization
- Mentor engineers through reviews, design discussions, and incident analysis
- Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure secure, scalable, observable, production-ready systems
- Report to CTO and influence multiple product and platform teams
- Ensure architectural decisions are reflected in code and operational outcomes
Key requirements
- 10+ years of software engineering or architecture experience (12-18 years preferred)
- Proven ownership of large-scale, production distributed systems
- Deep hands-on expertise with Kafka, Redpanda, or similar event streaming platforms
- Strong experience designing and operating event-driven architectures in enterprise environments
- Expert-level Java engineering skills
- Solid understanding of distributed systems design, consistency, ordering, concurrency, throughput, and latency optimization
- Experience building resilient systems with retries, circuit breakers, bulkheads, replay, and observability patterns
- Strong debugging skills across code, messaging, infrastructure, and production operations
- Excellent communication and mentoring ability across globally distributed teams
Principal Architect — Distributed Systems & Event Streaming (Director I - Product Architect) employer: UST Global
As a Salesforce Delivery Lead at our London office, you will join a dynamic and innovative team within the Financial Services sector, where collaboration and excellence are at the forefront of our work culture. We offer a hybrid working model that promotes work-life balance, alongside opportunities for professional growth through continuous learning and development. Our commitment to Agile practices ensures that you will be part of high-performing teams that drive meaningful change and deliver exceptional value to our clients.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Architect — Distributed Systems & Event Streaming (Director I - Product Architect)
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at UST Global or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to UST Global.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like UST Global.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like UST Global that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Architect — Distributed Systems & Event Streaming (Director I - Product Architect)
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at UST Global.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at UST Global and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at UST Global
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If UST Global uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
