Java Technical Lead

At Aleph, we design human experiences by asking the right questions. Here, you’d find a curious breed of creative engineers spread across the globe, specialising in craft, strategy, and technology. With a keen ear to the ground, we turn big dreams into user-first digital solutions by design. Through rigorous prototyping, close collaboration, and responsive engineering, we commit to creating a future that leaves our craft, community, and clients better than before we began. We are looking for an experienced Java Technical Lead with a strong Java engineering background and extensive experience in banking and payments. The role will focus on understanding complex business requirements, translating them into scalable technical solutions, and driving application design, system architecture and integration design. You will be working with our team of engineers and developers who are proficient in IT, programming and software development. The successful candidate will work closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Architects, Developers and other stakeholders to define end-to-end solutions, technical specifications, APIs, data models and system flows. While a strong Java background is essential, this is not a hands-on development role. The focus will be on solution design, technical analysis, architecture and providing technical direction to development teams. Key Responsibilities System Analysis & Solution Design: Analyse complex business and functional requirements and translate them into scalable technical solutions. Define end-to-end application and system designs aligned with business and technical requirements. Evaluate existing applications and identify opportunities for improvement, optimisation and modernisation. Define functional and non-functional requirements including performance, scalability, security, availability and integration requirements. Identify technical dependencies, risks and impacts across applications and systems. Application Architecture & Technical Design: Design application architecture, system components and integration patterns. Create solution architecture diagrams, application flows, sequence diagrams and technical design documents. Define service boundaries, APIs, integration patterns and data flows. Provide technical recommendations on application architecture and technology choices. Design software components and Java-based application solutions, including detailed technical specifications that can be implemented by development teams. Contribute to the development or enhancement of complex Java components where required. Review existing architecture and recommend improvements to scalability, maintainability and performance. Work with enterprise/solution architects to ensure proposed solutions align with overall architecture standards. Drive Requirements Lifecycle: From abstract product vision all the way to detailed functional requirements, system integration, and business processes required to support them. Bridge Product Owners and Developers: Translate the high-level product vision and initiatives into tangible, detailed requirements for developers. This can be in the form of technical documentation, systems integration documentation, API specifications, data models, architecture diagrams, process flows, or functional specifications. Leadership: Provide technical guidance to development teams throughout the implementation lifecycle. Review proposed technical solutions and provide feedback on design decisions. Support developers in resolving complex technical and integration issues. Review source code and technical implementations to ensure alignment with agreed application design, coding standards and software engineering practices. Support the development, testing and validation of software solutions throughout the implementation lifecycle. Participate in technical design reviews and architecture discussions. Ensure development solutions adhere to agreed technical and architectural standards. Collaborate with Product Owners and Business Analysts to clarify requirements and ensure they are sufficiently detailed for technical solutioning and development. Business Processes: Define detailed business processes, spanning both online and offline aspects. Coordinate with various stakeholders to get detailed requirements, and ensure that they are met through proposed solutions. Technical Documentation: Create and extend existing technical documentation to describe the infrastructure, security, functions of the system. Prerequisites • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent professional qualifications or relevant industry experience may also be considered. Strong Java background with substantial experience in Java-based application architecture, system design and technical analysis. Previous hands-on Java development experience is required, but the current role is primarily focused on solution design, architecture and technical analysis rather than day-to-day coding. • Strong understanding of banking and payments systems and processes. Experience designing or analysing payment processing applications and payment flows. Good understanding of payment transaction lifecycle including initiation, validation, processing, routing, settlement and reconciliation. • Experience with payment integrations, payment gateways and/or banking APIs. • Experience working with domestic and/or cross-border payment systems is preferred. • Experience in Data Modelling and DB design (Oracle, MS SQL Server and Postgres). • Strong API and integration experience. • Strong understanding of REST APIs, microservices and integration patterns. • Ability to translate high-level requirements into detailed documentation within the organisation’s context. • Familiarity with Visual Studio and Swagger plugin to create YAML files. • Ability to evaluate and analyse existing business pr…