BACKEND DEVELOPER

RECRUITMENT REQUIREMENTS

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop RESTful APIs and microservices using Java and, where applicable, Node.js/TypeScript
• Write secure, performant code that handles financial transactions, payment processing, and reconciliation workflows
• Implement authentication and authorisation mechanisms (OAuth2, JWT, API key management)
• Collaborate with frontend engineers on API contracts and integration
• Write unit, integration, and contract tests as a standard part of the development workflow
• Participate in code reviews, architecture discussions, and sprint planning
• Monitor and maintain services in production, respond to incidents and contribute to post-mortems
• Document services, data flows and API contracts clearly

Required Qualifications & Skills

• 2–4 years of professional backend development experience
• Strong command of Java 8+ or Java (JDK) and experience with Spring Boot or equivalent frameworks
• Experience designing and documenting REST APIs
• Solid understanding of relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and version control
• Familiarity with JUnit 5 / Mockito and a test-first mindset
• Understanding of security fundamentals: JWT, HTTPS, input validation, OWASP Top 10

Secondary – JavaScript / TypeScript

• Working knowledge of JavaScript/TypeScript sufficient to read, review and contribute to Node.js services
• Familiarity with Express.js, NestJS or similar backend JS frameworks
• Comfort with npm/yarn-based project tooling

Infrastructure & Tooling

• Git: branching strategies, pull request workflow, code review etiquette
• Basic understanding of containerisation (Docker) and CI/CD pipelines
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) at least at the services level
• Experience with API documentation tools (Swagger/OpenAPI)

Desirable / Nice to Have

• Prior fintech or payments domain experience (PCI-DSS awareness, ledger systems, reconciliation)
• Knowledge of message queuing systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ
• Experience with microservices patterns: circuit breakers, retries, idempotency
• Exposure to monitoring and observability tooling (Datadog, Grafana, ELK stack)
• Familiarity with reactive programming

Soft Skills & Attributes

• Takes ownership and follows tasks through to completion without heavy hand-holding
• Communicates technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, regulated environment where accuracy is critical
• Proactive about raising blockers, risks, and quality concerns early
• Collaborative and open to feedback during code reviews

Emerging Technologies

• Demonstrates curiosity and continuous learning in emerging technologies such as AI-assisted development tools
• Understands how AI-powered services, data analytics, and intelligent workflows can enhance backend systems and financial platforms

Security Awareness

• Strong awareness of modern backend security practices including secure coding, threat modelling, and vulnerability mitigation
• Familiar with industry practices such as OWASP guidelines, encryption standards, token-based authentication, and secure API design
• Understands the importance of data protection, compliance, and financial system integrity in regulated environments