Graduate Software Engineer (Java) London 2026

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to earn while you learn  This is a great opportunity for graduate engineers to learn and apply their skills in an ambitious driven and high-performing team and environment.  Youll join our product team to learn develop grow and have a great impact towards the outputs outcomes and value the team delivers.

The product team operates within our Retail division delivering critical and strategic capability for the business to help us achieve our ambitious growth plans.  

Youll be working with experienced Engineers Quality Engineers and Analysts operating as a valuable and contributing member of our product team with all the support you need to develop and grow personally.

The role will form part of a product team consisting of 14 people (across Engineering Testing Analysis Product Ownership and Scrum Master skill domains) who are autonomous and empowered to define their roadmap and deliver their target outcomes.

The graduate will be an active team member helping design develop and implement solutions with their colleagues. They will be building on modern CI/CD pipelines with high quality automation and tooling available. They will partner with various Senior Engineers within the team over the 2 years who will support and guide them in their development and delivery.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to attain professional and industry recognised qualifications such as AWS certifications (to be agreed with the successful candidate once theyve joined).  Access and involvement with wider communities of practice across L&G is also encouraged to support personal development and growth.

Role Overview

The successful candidate will work primarily with Java contributing to the design development testing and maintenance of backend services and APIs.

Were looking for someone whos passionate about coding as this role is hands-on from day one. They will write production code use Git and GitHub in a professional workflow and collaborate within an Agile engineering team.  They are not expected to know everything - but they are expected to learn fast take ownership and care about clean engineering practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop backend services and APIs using Java
• Write clean maintainable and testable code
• Use Git for version control following team branching strategies
• Contribute via GitHub pull requests and participate in code reviews
• Fix bugs and improve existing services
• Write unit tests and contribute to improving test coverage
• Participate in Agile ceremonies (stand-ups sprint planning retrospectives)
• Collaborate with engineers product managers and QA

Technical Skills (Essential)

• Solid understanding of Java fundamentals (OOP collections exceptions streams)
• Understanding of REST APIs and HTTP basics
• Basic knowledge of Git (branching merging pull requests)
• Familiarity with GitHub workflows
• Understanding of basic software engineering principles

Technical Skills (Desirable)

• Some exposure to Java frameworks such as Spring Boot (e.g. through university projects or personal learning)
• A basic understanding of how code is built tested and deployed (CI/CD concepts)
• Awareness of containerisation or cloud platforms such as Docker or AWS
• Experience writing basic unit tests and understanding why testing matters (e.g. JUnit Mockito)
• Familiarity with databases either relational (SQL) or NoSQL and how applications interact with them

Were looking for somebody with:

• A 2:1 degree or above in Computer Science Software Engineering or a closely related technical discipline - Equivalent practical experience will also be considered (e.g. strong portfolio internships open-source contributions)
• A strong academic foundation in data structures algorithms and object-oriented programming
• Is driven to achieve positive outcomes for themselves and their team
• Is ambitious and wants to grow and develop themselves
• Has a growth mindset to continually improve whilst remaining remain humble
• Is a team player who works well with others to achieve outcomes
• Is intrinsically motivated to do the best for themselves and their team
• Is proactive and continually seeks to support/ help/ own/ deliver regularly putting their hand-up to drive things forward

Please note we only accept one application per recruitment cycle for our Graduate roles. Please consider all placement positions before applying as your first application will be considered your only application.

We recruit on a rolling basis and expect this vacancy to close before the deadline. To be in with the best chance of securing a role please submit your application ASAP. 

#FutureTalent  #FTGraduates

Additional Information :

Whatever your role we reward ability performance and attitude with a package that looks after all the things that are important to you. Your hard work will be rewarded when you join us.

At L&G we believe its possible to generate positive returns today while helping to build a better future for all. 

If you join us youll be part of a welcoming inclusive culture with opportunities to collaborate with people of diverse backgrounds views and experiences. Guided by leaders with integrity who care about your future and wellbeing. Empowered through initiatives which support people to develop their careers and excel.

We care passionately about outcomes rather than attendance and are therefore open to discussing all kinds of flexible working options including part-time term-time and job shares. Although some roles have limited flexibility due to customer demand we accommodate requests when we can. 

It doesnt matter if you dont meet every single criterion in this advert. Instead think about what you excel at and what else you can bring in terms of strengths potential and connection to our purpose. 

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time