[Hiring] Lead Software Architect @tk accelis

Role Description

We’re looking for an experienced Lead Software Architect to take technical ownership of the architecture and continued productisation of SteelBuy, our secure B2B marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of metal.

SteelBuy is part of tk accelis Trading, formerly thyssenkrupp Materials Trading, combining the agility of a developing digital platform with the industry expertise and international reach of an established global materials trading organisation.

Our immediate commercial and operational focus is the US market, but our ambitions go further. We want to develop SteelBuy into a scalable and adaptable technical product that can support different markets, business models and integrations in the future, potentially including Europe.

This is an opportunity to have a significant influence on that journey.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide the technical vision and architectural direction for the platform.
• Lead and mentor our back-end engineering team based in India.
• Collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders across the UK, Europe and US.
• Establish technical standards and ways of working to build a secure, scalable and high-quality product.
• Cover back-end architecture, microservices, DevOps, enterprise integrations, APIs and distributed systems.
• Own and evolve the overall software and systems architecture for SteelBuy.
• Help transform the platform from a primarily US-focused implementation into a reusable technical product.
• Translate business and system requirements into clear high-level technical designs, architecture and documentation.
• Define functional and non-functional technical requirements and help shape the engineering backlog.
• Lead architectural decisions covering technology, development approaches, workflows, integration patterns and coding standards.
• Provide technical leadership, coaching and mentoring to developers and engineers.
• Oversee development to ensure solutions remain aligned with agreed architecture and design principles.
• Establish and promote engineering best practice across areas including Agile delivery, test-driven development, automated testing and continuous integration.
• Design effective REST APIs and microservices-based solutions.
• Support the architecture of enterprise and ERP integrations.
• Evaluate existing tools, frameworks and development approaches, identifying opportunities to improve quality and efficiency.
• Remain technically engaged, contributing to solutions and code where your expertise can add value.
• Support effective CI/CD and DevOps practices.
• Clearly communicate technical concepts, decisions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Help create a culture focused on technical excellence, continuous improvement and learning.

Qualifications

• Significant experience within software engineering, including experience designing software or systems architecture.
• Strong experience with Java and Spring Boot and Kotlin.
• Experience designing microservices and distributed architectures.
• Good knowledge of REST API design and system integration.
• Experience working with eCommerce, marketplace or comparable digital platform architectures.
• Strong understanding of object-oriented analysis, design principles and common design patterns.
• Good knowledge of relational databases, SQL and database schema design.
• Experience with ORM technologies such as JPA/Hibernate or equivalent.
• A strong understanding of automated testing, unit testing and test-driven development.
• Experience with Git, CI/CD and DevOps practices.
• The ability to turn complex business and technical requirements into clear architecture and technical direction.
• Experience providing technical leadership, coaching or mentoring to engineering teams.
• Experience working successfully with internationally distributed teams.

Requirements

• Experience in some of the following would be beneficial, but you don’t need to tick every box:
• Terraform or Infrastructure as Code.
• GitHub Actions.
• JOOQ.
• Functional programming.
• Programming languages or technology stacks outside Java.
• Broader cloud and DevOps technologies.
• Enterprise or ERP integrations.
• Experience developing platforms for multiple countries, markets or business models.

Benefits

• Competitive salary + bonus.
• Annual Leave: 25 days holiday + 8 bank holidays.
• Health Cash Plan.
• Advantageous pension scheme.
• Learning & Development opportunities.
• Advanced Family Friendly Policies.
• Employee high street vouchers & discounts.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Occupational health & health surveillance.
• Length of Service Awards.
• Christmas savings scheme.
• Cycle to Work Scheme.
• Wellbeing events.
• Recognition Portal.
• Rewards Portal.
• Company events.
• Christmas Closedown.