Snr Java Developer (API Development)

Senior Java Backend Developer - API & Microservices Modernisation

Location: Telford - minimum 2 days per month onsite, remaining time remote
Contract Length: 12 months
Rate: £550 per day
IR35: Inside IR35
Start Date: Candidates must be available to start w/c 4 January 2027
Client: Central Government

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Senior Java Backend Developer to join a major application modernisation programme within Central Government.

You will be responsible for designing, developing, testing and deploying Java-based RESTful APIs and microservices, with a strong focus on scalability, resilience, maintainability and integration with existing systems.

Essential Skills

Java - Strong backend development experience.
Spring Boot - RESTful API and microservices development.
Microservices Design - Experience designing scalable, resilient and loosely coupled microservices, including service-to-service communication.
API Design - Strong RESTful API design skills, including API contracts, versioning and integration patterns.
JUnit - Automated unit testing.
JSON - Experience working with API data structures and formats.
Docker - Containerisation of microservices.
Kubernetes - Hands-on experience deploying and managing microservices.
Git / CI/CD - Version control and automated build and deployment pipelines.

Desirable Skills

JPA / Hibernate
Kibana
Maven / Gradle
Mockito
AWS
GitLab
Helm
OpenAPI / Swagger
SQL
Shell scripting

AI-Assisted Development

The programme is actively embracing modern AI-assisted development practices. Candidates should be comfortable using approved AI tools and agents throughout the backend development lifecycle, including:

Analysis and technical design
Code generation
Automated testing
Debugging
Code review and refinement