Tech Lead/Staff Java Engineer

Bullfinch Recruitment are proud to be partnering with Patrianna, a high-growth social gaming business, delivering innovative, scalable products to a global player base, who are looking for a Tech Lead/Staff Java Engineer to join their team. The Role Lead technical excellence while architecting and delivering scalable Java solutions that power our next-generation gaming platform. AI-Driven Engineering Culture: We are actively building an AI-driven engineering organization with a clear and deliberate stance: artificial intelligence is a core part of how we build and deliver software — not an experiment, not a trend, and not an optional add-on. AI is embedded into our engineering workflows, from system design and prototyping to refactoring, testing, and code review. We expect engineers to be fully comfortable working in AI-driven environments and to treat AI as a primary productivity multiplier. Strong engineering judgment, architectural ownership, and accountability remain essential—AI amplifies our engineers, it doesn’t replace responsibility for technical decisions What you will be doing • Design and implement complex, scalable system architectures while mentoring team members and driving technical excellence • Lead code reviews and establish best practices to ensure high-quality deliverables across the engineering team • Optimize database performance and design robust data solutions, particularly with PostgreSQL and query optimization • Architect and maintain messaging systems using Kafka or similar technologies to handle high-volume data streams • Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues, taking full ownership of system reliability and performance • Facilitate technical discussions and foster collaborative problem-solving across cross-functional teams What we are looking for • Extensive production experience with Java and deep understanding of JVM internals and ecosystem • Strong system design capabilities with proven ability to document and implement complex architectures • Advanced knowledge of relational database principles, PostgreSQL expertise, and performance tuning skills • Solid grasp of messaging concepts, ideally with Kafka ecosystem experience • Exceptional troubleshooting abilities and strong understanding of concurrency principles and security best practices • Leadership experience with team mentoring and upper-intermediate English proficiency for stakeholder communication Our Tech Stack Java 25 Spring Boot 4 Google Cloud Platform: Kubernetes Kafka AlloyDB for PostgreSQL Spanner Ebean ORM Flyway Redis Quartz Websockets Retool Test Containers Locust for perf testing Jenkins/ArgoCD ELK/Sentry/Grafana Jira/Confluence/Slack/Bitbucket Why you will love it You'll thrive in our high-pace, high-growth environment where continuous learning meets real impact. Take ownership of cutting-edge technology solutions while working in an ego-free, collaborative culture that values your input and…