Backend Java Developer - Birmingham • Hybrid • £50–65k • Not London

Backend Java Developer Location: Birmingham (Hybrid) Employment: Fixed Term Contract Salary: £50,000 – £65,000 base (dependent on experience) If your idea of backend engineering is more than CRUD APIs and microservices boilerplate — this role is for you. We’re building the core backend services of a Data Fabric platform that governs data access, entitlements, and query policy enforcement across distributed enterprise data systems. This is platform engineering : deterministic rule engines, SQL planning/interception, and high-throughput services that sit on the critical path of data access . This is deep backend + data infrastructure work . 🚀 What You’ll Do Build core backend services in Java (17/21) for access control and query manipulation Implement deterministic policy / rule engines for data governance Work on SQL parsing, planning, validation, and transformation (e.g., Calcite or similar planners) Integrate with distributed data platforms / query engines (e.g., Starburst or similar) Own API contracts with living documentation in CI/CD Build production-grade, testable pipelines Drive observability, reliability, and performance Contribute to architecture decisions (modularity, DI, extensibility) What You Bring (Must-Have) Strong hands-on experience in Java (17/21) + Spring Deep understanding of JDBC, SQL parsing/validation, query planning/optimization Experience with SQL planners or query transformation layers Strong grounding in data structures, algorithms, and backend performance Production-grade testing using JUnit 5, Mockito Experience with clean architecture, DI, modular design Comfortable owning CI/CD, code quality, observability Familiarity with Docker, Maven, Jenkins ⭐ Nice to Have Apache Calcite Starburst or federated query engines JVM performance tuning High-throughput service interfaces (REST/gRPC) Data governance or policy enforcement layers 👥 This Role Is Ideal If You’ve Worked On Data platforms, governance layers, query engines, or SQL planners Backend/platform services that sit in the critical path of data access Systems where correctness, determinism, and performance matter