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Call Transcript – Job Briefing
Date: 22 April 2025
Participants:
Luke Coleman (LC) – Head of hackajob on‑demand
Emma Davies (ED) – Engineering Manager, FinPay (London‑based fintech)
00:00 – Introductions
LC: Afternoon Emma, thanks for jumping on. How are things?
ED: Busy as ever, but all good! Cheers for making the time.
01:30 – Reason for Hire
LC: So, let’s dive in. What’s prompted the need for a contractor?
ED: We’ve kicked off a green‑field payments micro‑service. My lead dev’s just gone on parental leave and we can’t stall delivery – need a safe pair of hands for the next six months.
03:10 – Role Overview
LC: Got it. Title-wise, shall we call it “Contract Senior Software Engineer – Java”?
ED: Spot on. Senior level, but we’re flexible if someone mid‑senior can punch above their weight.
04:20 – Tech Stack & Must‑Haves
LC: Let’s confirm the stack. You mentioned Java and Spring Boot. Anything else that’s non‑negotiable?
ED: Yes –
Java 17 (we’re already there)
Spring Boot 3
Event‑driven micro‑services (Kafka)
AWS EKS (Kubernetes) plus Terraform for IaC
Comfortable with CI/CD in GitHub Actions
LC: Perfect. Any nice‑to‑haves?
ED: Payments or PCI compliance experience would be lovely but not essential.
07:05 – Project Details
LC: What will they actually be building?
ED: Two core services: Card Tokenisation and 3‑D Secure orchestration. Both need to hit production by the end of Q3.
08:45 – Team & Ways of Working
LC: Who’ll they work with day‑to‑day?
ED: Squads of five: a PM, two backend engineers, one front‑end, and a QA. The contractor will pair with one of our perm seniors. We use Kanban, daily stand‑ups at 10 a.m. UK.
10:00 – Location & Hybrid Setup
LC: Office location?
ED: Shoreditch. We’re hybrid – Tuesdays & Thursdays on‑site for white‑boarding; otherwise remote from anywhere in the UK.
11:30 – Contract Logistics
LC: Length and extensions?
ED: Initial 6 months, likely rolling to 12.
LC: Budget tops out at £650/day, correct?
ED: Correct, outside IR35 – we’ve already had a SDS done.
LC: Payment terms?
ED: 14 days from invoice approval.
13:40 – Start Date & Hiring Process
LC: Ideal start?
ED: 13 May – sooner if they clear referencing.
LC: Interview flow?
ED: Single stage: 60‑minute tech deep‑dive with me and our Staff Engineer, live coding in CoderPad. Decision within 24 hrs.
LC: Nice and lean.
15:20 – Vetting & Compliance
LC: Background or BPSS clearance required?
ED: Standard right‑to‑work and criminal check. No higher‑level clearance.
16:10 – Culture & Soft Skills
LC: Anything softer I should screen for?
ED: Pragmatism over perfection, strong comms – they’ll demo to stakeholders every fortnight. Someone happy mentoring juniors too.
17:25 – Success Metrics
LC: How will you measure success?
ED: Hitting the Q3 go‑live with <1% rollback, plus knowledge transfer to the perm team.
18:10 – Wrap‑Up & Next Steps
LC: Brilliant. I’ll get the brief written up and start tapping our network. Expect the first short‑list by Friday morning.
ED: Perfect. Thanks Luke – appreciate the pace.
LC: Anytime, Emma. Speak soon.
Call Ends – 18:45
hackajob is partnering with hackajob on-demand to fill this position. Create a profile to be automatically considered for this role—and others that match your experience.