Lead Full Stack Kotlin Developer

• Act as a technical SME within the squad to produce and ensure user-centred software is developed based on business requirements and best practice.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders to explore, design, and deliver solutions to complex client problems.
• Continuously review and prioritise the delivery teams workload.
• Design and manage software development and deployment pipelines, resolving issues and potential bottlenecks.
• Communicate and present prototypes, solutions, and progress to internal and external stakeholders in a clear, concise manner.
• Lead the recruitment and onboarding of other engineers and support their professional development through mentoring and coaching.

Technologies:

• API
• AWS
• Angular
• Azure
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• DevOps
• Docker
• Flow
• GCP
• Support
• JVM
• Java
• Jenkins
• Kafka
• Kotlin
• Ktor
• Kubernetes
• MVC
• REST
• React
• Security
• Spring
• Spring Boot
• Terraform
• TypeScript
• microservices
• Fullstack

• Extensive experience in Kotlin and the full development lifecycle delivering user-centred digital solutions, with a strong foundation in the Java/JVM ecosystem.
• Proven track record of leading a delivery team to deliver high-quality, robust, and scalable solutions.
• Expertise in building back-end services using Kotlin with Spring Boot and the wider Spring Framework, including Spring MVC, Spring Security, REST APIs, Kotlin idioms, and coroutines where applicable.
• Experience in microservices design and architecture, including RESTful API services and Kotlin-based microservice patterns.
• Expertise in public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, and DevOps practices including containerisation with Docker and Kubernetes.
• In-depth knowledge of Infrastructure as Code tools such as CloudFormation or Terraform.
• Proficiency in CI/CD tools such as Jenkins or Azure DevOps.
• Experience with front-end technologies such as Angular, React, and TypeScript.
• Desirable: previous experience working on GOV/NHS projects or in a consultancy environment.
• Desirable: experience migrating legacy Java codebases to idiomatic Kotlin.
• Desirable: experience with asynchronous messaging systems such as Kafka and Kotlin Coroutines/Flow for reactive programming.
• Desirable: familiarity with Kotlin-native frameworks such as Ktor or functional programming libraries such as Arrow.

We are Hippo, a rapidly growing digital consultancy that designs with empathy and builds for impact. We combine data-informed evidence, human-centred design, and software engineering to deliver bespoke digital services for public and private sector clients. Our collaborative, agile culture gives our teams the opportunity to make a genuine impact, and we are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessible recruitment. We are headquartered in Leeds with offices in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London, and Bristol, and we offer hybrid working with flexibility to work on-site as needed. We also provide a competitive salary and a wide range of benefits, including pension contributions, 25 days holiday plus public holidays, Perkbox discounts, critical illness cover, life assurance, volunteer days, cycle-to-work, season ticket loans, wellbeing support, and flexible benefits. We also offer relocation support of up to £8,000 for eligible moves.