Java Chapter Lead - Core Banking @ ING Hubs Romania

Discover ING Hubs Romania ING Hubs Romania offers 130 services in software development, data management, non-financial risk & compliance, audit, and retail operations to 24 ING units worldwide, with the help of over 2000 high-performing engineers, risk, and operations professionals. We started out in 2015 as ING’s software development hub, then steadily expanded our range to include more services and competencies. Now we provide borderless services with bank-wide capabilities and operate from two locations: Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca . Our tech capabilities remain the core of our business , with more than 1800 colleagues active in Data and Analytics Tech, Tech Foundation and Channels, Retail Core Banking and Architecture, and Global Products and Technology Services. We enjoy a flexible way of working and a highly collaborative environment, where fair and constructive feedback is encouraged. For us, impact isn't a perk. It's the driver of our work. We are guided and rewarded by a shared desire to make the world a better place, one innovative solution at a time. Our colleagues make it their job to do impactful things and they love doing it in good company. Do you? Here’s a sneak peak of what our colleagues say about working within ING Hubs Romania: At ING, we're building the solutions of tomorrow, today | 80% of our colleagues in Romania agree

The Mission This is a hands-on Chapter Lead role, combining engineering contribution (40–60%) with people leadership (40–60%). You will lead a chapter of Java engineers working across multiple squads in the Core Banking and Easy Financing domains, supporting Germany Retail . The role focuses on: Delivering high-quality backend systems

Driving technical excellence and engineering standards

Growing and mentoring engineers within the chapter

You will operate in a complex environment involving core banking systems, credit workflows, and integrations with risk, compliance (KYC/AML), and external partners, while contributing to the ongoing evolution from monolithic systems to microservices architectures.

Your day to day

1. Engineering Contribution Design, build, and maintain Java (17+) Spring Boot microservices

Maintain an d evolve a legacy monolithic middleware and drive it’s incremental d ecomposition into microservices

Design and evolve REST APIs, domain models, and integration contracts

Design and evolve event-driven architectures using Kafka

Drive system reliability, scalability, and performance improvements

Troubleshoot and resolve issues across environments (test, acceptance, production)

1. Technical Leadership Define and enforce engineering standards and best practices across squads

Contribute to architecture decisions (service boundaries, data models, integration patterns)

Guide the evolution from monolith to distributed systems, ensuring pragmatic trade-offs

Drive improvements in CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and developer experience

Ensure strong testing strategies (unit, integration, performance) are consistently applied

Support cross-team alignment on design and implementation decisions

1. Chapter / People Leadership Lead, coach, and develop a chapter of engineers across multiple squads

Drive performance, accountability, and continuous improvement within the chapter

Provide structured feedback and support career development

Identify and address performance gaps proactively

Align skills development with domain and technology needs

Collaborate with other Chapter Leads and IT Area Leads to improve engineering maturity

Support hiring and onboarding of engineers

What you’ll bring to the team

• Experience 7–10+ years experience in backend development in enterprise/distributed systems

• Proven experience as a technical lead, senior engineer, or people lead

• Experience designing and evolving distributed systems and microservices architectures

• Experience working in complex integration environments (APIs, event-driven systems)

• Technical Skills (Mandatory) Strong experience with Java (17+) and Spring Boot

• Solid understanding of:

• REST API design and contract evolution

• Distributed systems and microservices patterns

• Event-driven architecture (e.g., Kafka)

• Experience with testing strategies (unit, integration, performance)

• Familiarity with CI/CD practices and modern SDLC

• Strong problem-solving and system design skills

• Experience with Docker, OpenShift, Azure DevOps

• Leadership & Collaboration Experience mentoring or leading engineers

• Ability to drive engineering standards, accountability, and team performance

• Strong collaboration skills across squads, domains, and stakeholders

• Comfortable operating in Agile environments

• Good to Have Experience in core banking, payments, or lending domains

• Exposure to legacy system modernization

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or a related field

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