Java Engineer in Birmingham

Company Description

Version 1 has celebrated 30 years in business and continues to be trusted by global brands to deliver technology and transformation solutions that drive customer success.

Our deep expertise enables our customers to navigate the rapidly evolving technology landscape.

We foster strong partnerships with global technology leaders including Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, Red Hat, Out Systems, Snowflake, ensuring that our customers are provided with the highest quality solutions and services.

We’re an award‑winning employer reflecting how our employees are at the very heart of what we do:

• UK & Ireland's premier AWS, Microsoft & Oracle partner
• 3300+ strong, €350/£300m revenue business
• 10+ years as a Great Place to Work in Ireland & UK
• Best Workplace for Women in the UK & Ireland by GPTW
• Best Workplace for Wellbeing in the UK by GPTW

Job Description

We are seeking a Java Engineer to join our UK Digital Data & Cloud Practice.

Our Digital Practice is expanding rapidly and you will have the opportunity to develop your career and technical skills.

You will be working for one of our high‑profile trading clients within the financial services domain, contributing hands‑on to a Java‑based development team supporting a high‑volume message processing environment.

The team is heavily Java‑focused, operating within a client ecosystem that relies extensively on Kafka, Kubernetes/Open Shift, caching solutions, REST APIs, and high‑throughput distributed systems.

You will bring solid, practical experience in backend Java development and a keen interest in scalable distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain backend components in Java, with a focus on performance and resilience.
• Contribute hands‑on to features across messaging, caching, and distributed processing layers.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to sequencing, recovery, message failures, and large‑volume processing.
• Support releases, deployments, and production stability activities.
• Adhere to CI/CD pipelines, code quality standards, and operational readiness requirements.
• Apply performance, security, and resilience best practices, particularly around message handling.
• Collaboration
• Work closely with the Technical Lead and peers to deliver against team objectives.
• Contribute to technical discussions, design reviews, and knowledge sharing within the team.
• Raise risks, blockers, and progress updates clearly within the team.

Qualifications

• Some exposure to trading or financial platforms, with an awareness of non‑functional requirements such as latency, resiliency, throughput, and failover handling.
• Experience developing cloud‑native applications with a microservices architecture running on Docker/Open Shift/Kubernetes.
• Solid application development skills in Java, SQL (SQL Server, Oracle, etc.) and messaging platforms such as Kafka and MQ.
• Experience with the Spring framework and Spring Boot technologies.
• Experience in Java REST API development and application security best practices (OAuth, JWT, etc.).
• Experience with build and source control tools: Gradle, Maven, Git/Bitbucket.
• Familiarity with caching services such as Redis.
• Awareness of AI coding assistants such as Git Hub Copilot, Cursor, or Claude to accelerate development, generate boilerplate, and review code.
• Ability to apply AI tooling critically – validating, refactoring, and integrating AI‑generated code rather than accepting output uncritically.
• Awareness of prompt engineering techniques relevant to software development workflows.
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment.

Benefits

At Version 1, we believe in providing our employees with a comprehensive benefits package that prioritises their wellbeing, professional growth, and financial stability.

• Quarterly Performance‑Related Profit Share Scheme, where employees collectively benefit from a share of the company's profits.
• Strong Career Progression & mentorship coaching through Strength in Balance & Leadership schemes with a dedicated quarterly Pathways Career Development programme.
• Flexible remote working to support a healthy work-life balance.
• Financial wellbeing initiatives including Pension, Private Healthcare Cover, Life Assurance, financial advice, and an Employee Discount scheme.
• Employee wellbeing schemes such as gym discounts, bike‑to‑work, fitness classes, mindfulness workshops, Employee Assistance Programme, generous holiday allowance, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, marriage/civil partnership leave, and special leave policies.
• Educational assistance and incentivised certifications, including AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat.
• Reward schemes including Version 1’s Annual Excellence Awards & “Call‑Out” platform.
• Environmental, Social and Community First initiatives to involve local fundraising and development opportunities, fostering diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Version 1 is an equal opportunities employer.

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace where everyone feels valued and able to thrive.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities and lived experiences, and we value the different perspectives people bring, including those shaped by disability and neurodiversity.

We want every candidate to have a positive and accessible recruitment experience.

If you need reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process, please contact your recruiter at Version 1.

We will consider all requests carefully, respectfully and confidentially.

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