Your Role: Java Developer
As a Java Developer in the DAX engineering team, you’ll be a key part of the group building and improving our ad server platform. You’ll help shape product decisions from inception through to deployment, taking ownership of technical initiatives and contributing to a great developer and user experience.
You’ll work with modern Java microservices (Java 21, Spring Boot), deployed on Kubernetes (EKS on AWS), using CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins and Terraform, and observability through Prometheus and Grafana, in a collaborative, agile team.
As a Java Developer at Global, you will:
Key Responsibilities
Feature development (35%): Build and enhance features on our ad server platform to support direct and programmatic campaign lifecycle management, from booking to fulfilment, tracking and reporting. Own features end-to-end, from design through to production release, ensuring quality and timely delivery.
Collaboration and technical leadership (25%): Work closely with developers and product owners to understand requirements, shape solutions and influence architectural decisions. Lead and contribute to technical discussions to ensure smooth integration across services.
Code quality and best practice (15%): Champion clean code principles, contract-first design and well-tested software. Lead by example in code reviews, providing constructive feedback and mentoring others on best practices.
Platform and performance improvements (15%): Identify technical debt, performance bottlenecks and opportunities to improve reliability and developer experience. Propose and implement changes to enhance the platform and tooling.
Production support and reliability (10%): Help ensure a stable production environment by monitoring system health, supporting incident resolution and contributing to preventative measures and improvements.
What You’ll Love About This Role
Think Big: Work on complex, high-scale systems powering a fast-growing part of the business, using modern Java and cloud-native technologies.
Own It: Take real ownership of features and technical initiatives, from concept to production, and see the direct impact of your work.
Keep it Simple: Use clean, well-structured code and clear design to solve intricate problems in a way that’s easy to maintain and extend.
Better Together: Collaborate with a skilled, supportive team and product partners in an open, inclusive environment where ideas are shared and decisions are made together.
What Success Looks Like
In your first few months, you’ll have:
Led or co-owned the delivery of several features that provide clear business value.
Contributed to shaping and refining features, actively driving technical discussions and influencing design and architecture.
Championed good development practices in code reviews, offering insightful feedback and supporting others’ growth.
Helped maintain a reliable production environment, using the team’s monitoring and observability tooling.
Built a strong understanding of the business context and how the team’s work supports it.
Gained a solid grasp of the team’s system architecture and upcoming roadmap.
What You’ll Need
Technical mindset: Experience with Java or a similar language, with a proactive, problem-solving approach and a track record of taking ownership.
Clean coding and design: Demonstrable experience with clean code principles, contract-first design and writing well-tested, maintainable software.
Production awareness: Ability to design and build services with monitoring, observability and reliability in mind.
Collaboration & influence: Experience leading or contributing to technical discussions within a multi-functional team and influencing architectural decisions.
Continuous improvement: A proactive approach to identifying and addressing technical debt, performance issues and system improvements.
Attention to detail: A focus on doing things well, ensuring quality and consistency in the solutions you deliver.
Desirable experience: Familiarity with modern Spring/Spring Boot, Kubernetes, Docker, and DevOps tools such as Terraform, Jenkins and GitHub Actions; exposure to GraphQL; experience with incident management, production support and mentoring other engineers.
Skills Required
- Experience with Java or a similar language
- Demonstrable experience in clean code principles and contract-first design
- Writing well tested code
- Experience with DevOps tools such as Terraform, Jenkins, and GitHub Actions
- Proficiency in Spring, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, and Docker
- Experience in GraphQL
- Experience leading incident response
- Experience mentoring junior developers
What We Do
The UK and Europe’s largest Radio & Outdoor company, Global is home to respected, national market-leading media brands broadcasting across the UK on DAB & FM and around the world on Global Player, including Heart, Capital, LBC, Capital XTRA, Capital Dance, Classic FM, Smooth, Radio X and Gold. Global Player allows listeners to enjoy all of Global’s radio brands, award-winning podcasts, and expertly curated playlists, in one place in app, on web and on smart speakers. Global is also one of the leading Outdoor companies in both the UK & Europe, with over 253,000 sites reaching 95% of the UK population. Global’s extensive and diverse outdoor portfolio encompasses Transport for London’s Underground network, almost all major UK airports including Gatwick, the UK’s largest portfolio of roadside posters and premium digital screens in prime locations, as well as the UK’s largest network of buses including all major cities. On-air, on Global Player and with our outdoor platforms combined, Global reaches 51 million individuals across the UK every week, including 26.3 million on the radio alone.
