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Java 17 Developer (Investment Banking & Kafka) – Lorien (Glasgow, UK)
Job Overview
Lorien, operating as part of the Impellam Group, is recruiting an experienced Java 17 Developer on an initial 6-month contract for a premier investment banking client based in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Working directly within a fast-paced front-office trading technology division, this position focuses on architecting, scaling, and optimizing high-performance, low-latency trade processing platforms and Trade Runner frameworks.
Key responsibilities include:
- Core Systems Development: Designing and enhancing resilient, event-driven trade processing systems utilizing Java 17 within a Linux-native environment.
- Event-Driven & Microservices Architecture: Building low-latency microservices with Apache Kafka for real-time streaming and deploying containerized applications via Kubernetes.
- Front-Office Collaboration: Interfacing directly with Front-Office traders, Quant strategists, and Risk managers to translate fast-evolving market requirements into technical releases.
- Performance Optimization: Engineering solutions built for high throughput and ultra-low latency while maintaining fault tolerance across critical trading pipelines.
- Agile Engineering Practices: Participating in design spikes, rigorous peer code reviews, automated testing, and CI/CD pipeline improvements.
About Us
Lorien (a trading division of Impellam Group alongside Guidant, Carbon60, and SRG) is a specialized tech recruitment and talent consultancy. Lorien partners with global financial institutions, investment banks, and technology organizations across the UK and internationally to deploy specialist engineering contractors into high-impact digital transformation programs.
Key Requirements & Qualifications
- Core Expertise: Strong hands-on engineering background in modern Java (Java 17 expertise strongly preferred).
- Domain Background: Proven history working within Investment Banking, Capital Markets, or Asset Management (exposure to FX, Fixed Income, Equities, or Derivatives platforms).
- Key Tech Stack:
- Messaging & Streaming: Apache Kafka (event-driven architecture, pub/sub mechanics).
- Containerization & OS: Kubernetes, Docker, and enterprise Linux/Unix systems.
- Trading Systems: Familiarity with trade processing engines or Trade Runner frameworks.
- Desirable Skills: Experience with cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure), automated CI/CD DevOps workflows, and direct interaction with front-office trading desks.
Role Benefits & Perks
- Front-Office Exposure: Direct engagement with business-critical trading technology and front-office quantitative teams.
- Cutting-Edge Stack: Hands-on development using Java 17, Kafka, and Kubernetes in a high-throughput, real-time domain.
- Competitive Day Rate: High-tier market contract rates for Glasgow-based capital markets specialists.
- Immediate Start: Fast-track onboarding process for suitable candidates.
Salary Insight
- Estimated Contract Day Rate: Based on current UK market benchmarks for Senior/Lead Java Contract Developers in investment banking (Glasgow regional hub), competitive rates typically range between £550 and £700 per day (Inside IR35 / Outside IR35 depending on final determination).
Career Guide Tips for Trading Systems Developers
- Master Low-Latency Java Mechanics: Focus on garbage collection (GC) tuning (e.g., ZGC, Shenandoah), memory management, non-blocking I/O, and concurrency patterns essential for low-latency trade execution.
- Deepen Kafka Fundamentals: Be prepared to discuss consumer group rebalancing, partition strategies, exact-once semantics (EOS), and schema evolution in event-driven financial architectures.
- Learn Front-Office Financial Terminology: Understanding trade lifecycles—from order capture and execution matching to risk allocation, clearing, and settlement—makes you infinitely more valuable to trading desks.
How to Prepare a CV for This Position
- Highlight Capital Markets & Trade Lifecycles: Explicitly list the financial products (e.g., Fixed Income, FX, Rates, Credit Default Swaps) and systems (e.g., OMS, EMS, Trade Runner, Clearing) you have engineered.
- Detail Technical Scale: Quantify system performance metrics on your resume (e.g., “Built Java microservices processing 50,000+ trades/sec at sub-millisecond latency using Kafka”).
- Emphasize Modern Tech Stack: Place Java 17, Kafka, Kubernetes, Linux, and multi-threading expertise prominently near the top of your skills matrix.
How to Prepare for the Interview
- Expect Deep Technical & Data Structure Screening: Be ready for technical tests covering concurrency (locks, atomics, thread safety), JVM internals, and streaming architecture.
- Review System Design Principles: Be prepared to white-board a distributed, fault-tolerant trade processing architecture using Kafka queues and Kubernetes clusters.
- Demonstrate Problem-Solving Under Pressure: Frame your answers using the STAR approach, emphasizing how you debugged production outages or optimized latency in live trading applications.
Top 3 Interview Questions & How to Answer Them
1. “How do you ensure message ordering and idempotency when using Apache Kafka for financial trade processing?”
- Key Focus: Explain partitioning strategy (using unique trade IDs or account keys as partition keys), setting
enable.idempotence=trueon producers, consumer offset management, and implementing idempotent database writes to prevent duplicate executions.
2. “What features in Java 17 provide advantages for building modern, high-throughput financial applications?”
- Key Focus: Discuss Sealed Classes, Records (for immutable DTOs/trade events), enhanced Pattern Matching, and low-latency Garbage Collectors (like ZGC) that reduce pause times during high-volume trading hours.
3. “How do you diagnose a memory leak or sudden latency spike in a Java microservice running within a Kubernetes container?”
- Key Focus: Walk through using tools like JProfiler, VisualVM, heap dumps, inspecting GC logs, checking container resource limits (cgroups/OOM Kills), and monitoring distributed telemetry via Prometheus/Grafana.
How to Apply
To apply for this contract position, submit your CV through the official Lorien / Impellam Group Careers Portal or via partner job boards listing the Lorien Glasgow opportunity. Alternatively, reach out directly to Lorien’s financial technology recruitment team in Glasgow, ensuring your resume highlights your Java, Kafka, and capital markets experience.
Disclaimer
This document is an independent summary created for informational, career preparation, and guidance purposes only. It does not constitute an official job offer or contract from Lorien, Impellam Group, or the end-client bank. Specific day rates, IR35 statuses, working patterns, and duties remain subject to final contract negotiation.