Technical Java Lead

Technical Lead (Java & AI) to £95k + benefits London (Hybrid) We are working with an impressive global Insurance Services client, looking for a hands-on Technical Lead to drive the design, delivery and evolution of a modern, AI-enabled engineering platform. This role offers the opportunity to combine technical leadership with hands-on development, leading a talented team whilst shaping architecture, engineering standards and the adoption of AI-driven capabilities across the organisation. Key Responsibilities Lead the architecture, design and delivery of scalable cloud-native applications and services Define service boundaries, integration patterns, data models and non-functional requirements Drive engineering best practices across code quality, security, performance and testing Remain actively involved in software development, solving complex technical challenges Lead and mentor a team of engineers through coaching, reviews and technical guidance Own sprint planning, estimation, delivery forecasting and release quality Collaborate with Product, Architecture, QA and DevOps teams to align technical and business objectives Drive observability, monitoring, resilience and incident management standards Support recruitment, technical assessments and onboarding activities Lead the design and implementation of AI-enabled product capabilities Architect and deliver RAG, semantic search and vector database solutions Champion effective use of AI-assisted development tools across engineering teams Evaluate emerging technologies and provide strategic technical recommendations Requirements ~8–12 years' experience in software engineering with deep Java expertise ~ Previous experience leading engineering teams or owning technical delivery outcomes ~ Expert-level knowledge of Java 17+ and modern Spring Boot ecosystems ~ Strong understanding of microservices, distributed systems and scalable architecture design ~ Experience with workflow automation or BPM platforms ~ Advanced SQL and database design expertise ~ Strong knowledge of API security, authentication and secure software development practices ~ Experience owning CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation strategies ~ Demonstrable experience delivering AI-enabled solutions in production or near-production environments ~ Knowledge of LLM integrations, vector databases, prompt engineering and RAG architectures ~ Experience guiding engineering teams in the adoption of AI tools and practices ~ Strong Agile delivery and stakeholder management experience ~ Excellent leadership, communication and mentoring skills ~ Passion for balancing technical excellence with successful business delivery