Principal Software Engineer (Java Full stack)

Company Description

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins laboratories work with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate.

The Eurofins network of companies believes that it is a global leader in food, environment, pharmaceutical and cosmetic product testing and in discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and AgroScience contract research services. It is also one of the market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, and in the support of clinical studies, as well as in biopharma contract development and manufacturing. It also has a rapidly developing presence in highly specialised and molecular clinical diagnostic testing and in-vitro diagnostic products.

In over 37 years, Eurofins has grown from one laboratory in Nantes, France to over 65,000 staff across a decentralised and entrepreneurial network of more than 950 laboratories in over 1,000 companies across 59 countries. Eurofins companies offer a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of biological substances and products.

In 2024, Eurofins generated total revenues of EUR 6.95 billion; and has been among the best performing stocks in Europe over the past 20 years.

 

Job Description

Primary Responsibilities

Own and drive hands-on design and development of complex, enterprise-scale Java applications.
Lead technical direction for modules or subsystems while remaining actively involved in implementation.
Support modernization initiatives, including migration from legacy or monolithic systems to modern architectures.
Act as a technical mentor and role model for engineers across teams.
Ensure solutions meet performance, scalability, security, and maintainability expectations.
Collaborate closely with product, QA, DevOps, and architecture teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.

Specific Assignments:

Software Engineering & Development

• Design, develop, and maintain backend and full-stack features using Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, and relational databases.
• Support modernization of legacy Java applications to modern, cloud-ready architectures.
• Build modular services and support microservices-based designs where applicable.
• Design and integrate RESTful APIs, backend services, and data models.
• Support UI teams building Angular or React frontends by providing robust backend APIs.
• Implement high-performance data processing and integration logic for analytical workflows.

Design

• Apply object-oriented design principles and design patterns (SOLID, OOP, layered / hexagonal architecture).
• Contribute to application and solution architecture discussions.
• Perform technical trade-off analysis and guide design decisions.
• Ensure clean, extensible, and maintainable codebases.

Quality, Performance & Reliability

• Ensure high code quality through unit testing, mocking frameworks, and static code analysis.
• Perform performance profiling, memory analysis, and JVM tuning to resolve bottlenecks.
• Support performance tuning and stability improvements in production environments.
• Work closely with QA teams to ensure strong test coverage and release quality.

Collaboration & Agile Delivery

• Work within Agile / Scrum teams, contributing to sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
• Support end-to-end product development, including development, deployment, and maintenance.
• Collaborate with global teams and stakeholders across regions.
• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to engineers.

Skills Required

Core Technical Skills

• Strong hands-on experience with:
• Java (8+)
• Spring / Spring Boot
• RESTful API design
• SQL
• Angular
• React
• Mongo DB
• AKS, etc

Additional Technical Skills

• Experience with microservices architecture, service communication, and integration patterns.
• Working knowledge of Hibernate / JPA and transaction management.
• Exposure to event-driven or message-based systems is a plus.
• Exposure to Azure cloud-native development is an advantage.
• Integration - Experience with API-based, file-based, and message-based integrations (e.g., Azure Service Bus or similar).
• Domain Exposure - Experience with shipping/logistics workflows or scientific data processing (e.g., Genomics, laboratory systems) is a plus.
• DevOps - Familiarity with Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, Docker, and cloud platforms.
• Understanding of build and dependency management tools such as Maven or Gradle.
• Experience with software design patterns, layered architectures, and performance optimization.
• Proficiency in object-oriented design and clean coding practices.
• Strong experience with unit testing and mocking frameworks (JUnit, Mockito, etc.).
• Good hands-on knowledge of performance profiling and memory analysis.

Methodologies & Practices

• The following practices are expected to be actively followed:
• Scaled Agile, Lean, Kanban, and Zero-Defect Development
• Daily stand-ups and close collaboration with development teams
• Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
• Automated builds, deployments, and testing
• Automated unit and functional testing
• Adherence to development guidelines and coding standards
• SonarQube-based static code analysis

Tech Stack

• Frontend : Angular, React
• Backend: Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs
• Databases: SQL Server, MongoDB
• Integration: REST, messaging, file-based integrations
• DevOps & Cloud : Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, Docker, Azure
• Quality & Code Analysis: JUnit, Mockito, SonarQube

 

Qualifications

• MCA or Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent.
• 8+ years of hands-on experience in Java-based software development on global or enterprise projects.
• Proven experience in product development environments.
• Strong understanding of the Product Development Lifecycle and Lean Agile / Scrum methodologies.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong learning mindset and continuous improvement orientation.

Additional Information

Just some of the benefits we offer are:

• Gym membership
• Company pension scheme
• •24/7 Employee Assistance programme (Offering Legal, Financial, Medical advice and counselling), and many more

Why Should You Apply?

• Competitive pay with a well-established and growing international company.
• Good benefits and flexible working opportunities.
• Great location within the city centre.
• Opportunities to progress and grow with the company.
• Occasional opportunities to travel and work around the UK and internationally.

Start date: ASAP

Interview process: Telephone interview followed by an online coding test and if selected, final stage is a face to face interview

Please note, we are unable to offer sponsorship, so can only consider applications from candidates who are able to work and live in the UK without restriction