Galatea Associates is seeking a Lead Financial Software Consultant to drive technical delivery, mentor junior consultants, and develop solutions for global financial services firms.
This role combines hands-on software development with technical and project leadership. You will lead a team of 3–8 consultants, oversee solutions from design through production, and work closely with clients to translate business needs into effective technical solutions. You will also help introduce AI-driven development practices that improve how teams build and deliver software.
At Galatea, we value collaboration, ownership, and open communication. Our small, focused teams work closely with clients and one another to solve complex problems and deliver strong results.
What You’ll Do
Working with the client’s design authorities on solution design and architecture, and lead development, testing, and production deployment.
Managing the delivery of a team of 3-8 consultants and, in certain instances, some client personnel, to ensure deadlines are met.
Driving team adoption of agentic software development, including designing agentic AI-based SDLC, defining quality gates, building knowledge bases, and helping the team adopt these practices to improve efficiency.
Collaborating with the client’s business teams, business analysts, product owners, and other stakeholders to define requirements, support user acceptance testing (UAT), and provide post-go-live support.
Contributing to the growth and development of the local office and the firm globally through leadership and collaboration.
Example ProjectsPayments Initiation Modernization - Help a major global bank modernize the technology behind payments initiation to improve performance, implement intelligent monitoring and anomaly detection, and strengthen platform support.
Cross-Border Payments Migration - Support a major global bank in migrating cross-border payments processing to a strategic platform, including data solutions for tracking payment status, batches, currency conversions, postings, and settlements.
Greenfield Domestic Payments Platform - Help a major European bank design and develop a new domestic payments platform supporting payment schemes across the US and Europe, including ACH, wires, SEPA, BACS, Faster Payments, and SWIFT.
Enterprise Data Management - Help a leading enterprise data management provider improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and shorten implementation timelines for its clients.
Technology Landscape
General Responsibilities
The role involves owning the technical delivery of a project, from design through go-live and ongoing support. Key responsibilities include:
Project assignments may vary based on client needs. The following examples illustrate the types of work you may be involved in.
Experience with at least one technology in each category below is required. Java 17+ and Kafka (or a comparable streaming platform) are essential.
Category
Technologies
Languages
Java 17+, Python
Frameworks and protocols
Spring, Kafka, REST, WebSockets
Databases
Oracle, PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, Cassandra, MongoDB
Infrastructure
Kubernetes, AWS, Azure
Agentic AI
Claude Code, Copilot Agentic Mode, OpenAI Codex
Observability
Splunk, Dynatrace, Grafana
About You
Project Leadership - Demonstrated experience leading a scrum team of 3-8 engineers, setting goals, providing constructive feedback, and supporting team members’ development.
Technical Expertise & AI-Driven Innovation - Experience designing large-scale distributed systems and solving complex technical challenges, ideally involving high-throughput and near-real-time systems. Experience driving the adoption of agentic software development, including designing an agentic AI-based SDLC, defining quality gates, building knowledge bases, and helping the team adopt these practices to improve efficiency.
Client Collaboration - Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate client needs into practical solutions.
Technical Foundation - Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Math, Engineering, or a related field.
Financial Interest - Curiosity about finance, capital markets, and the businesses our clients support. Prior financial services experience and knowledge of payment protocols such as SWIFT is a plus.
Benefits
Fully funded private medical and dental insurance, plus group life and critical illness coverage
Pension plan with a competitive employer contribution
Generous annual leave and parental leave
Lifestyle benefits stipend
Compensation
£100K - £130K total compensation (base salary + bonus)
Candidates must be willing to work fully in the office based on their client assignment. Travel to client offices may also be required.
For recruiting purposes, this position is described as a Lead Financial Software Consultant. While this description reflects the responsibilities and level of the position, Galatea does not use formal job titles or levels internally. Employees are designated as "Associates" regardless of their role or level of responsibility.
Skills Required
- Experience leading a scrum team of 3–8 engineers or consultants
- Experience designing large-scale distributed systems and solving complex technical challenges
- Experience with high-throughput and near-real-time systems
- Experience driving adoption of agentic software development, including AI-based SDLC design, quality gates, and knowledge bases
- Experience with Java 17+
- Experience with Kafka or a comparable streaming platform
- Experience with at least one technology in each listed technology category
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to translate client needs into practical technical solutions
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Math, Engineering, or a related field
- Curiosity about finance, capital markets, and client businesses
- Prior financial services experience and knowledge of payment protocols such as SWIFT
- Willingness to work fully in the office based on client assignment
What We Do
Galatea Associates has established a rock-solid reputation among Wall Street investment banks for delivering mission-critical systems in a timely and efficient manner. We've built this reputation with our excellent teams and our unique organizational approach. Some of the largest financial firms in the world choose to partner with Galatea for several key reasons.
Why Work With Us
STARTUP CULTURE WITHOUT THE STARTUP STRESS Galatea has the culture of a FinTech startup with the security and reputation of over 20 years in business. Come experience a fun and collegiate atmosphere while producing financial software solutions alongside some of the most experienced people in the industry.
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