Senior Java Software Engineer

Founded in 2007, Initiate Government Solutions (IGS) is a Woman-Owned Small Business and a fully remote IT services provider supporting federal partners nationwide. We deliver innovative Enterprise IT and Health Services solutions with a strong focus on data analytics, health informatics, cloud migration, AI, and the modernization of federal information systems. Our vision is to be a health IT trendsetter, continuing to solve the nation’s most challenging healthcare IT issues by conceiving, designing, and building solid, creative, and innovative open-source solutions. Our mission is to innovate, design, and deliver tailored solutions that balance technical advancement with cost-awareness while providing exceptional service.

About the role

This is a remote access assignment. The candidate will work remotely daily and will remotely access customer systems using approved customer-provided communications systems. Travel is not required; however, the candidate may be asked to attend onsite client meetings as requested.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute migration from legacy monolithic code to modern, scalable Java-based microservices without disrupting live systems.
• Lead API design and development, including specifications, endpoints, data models, and protocols such as REST and GraphQL.
• Lead data strategy and migration of shared databases into service-specific data layers while maintaining data integrity.
• Identify and resolve data or system bottlenecks early in the development lifecycle.
• Deploy and operate workloads on Kubernetes in AWS, including deployment manifests, Helm, scaling, rollouts, and resource requests/limits.
• Tune and optimize databases through query performance tuning, indexing strategy, connection pooling, migration strategy, and caching patterns.
• Write production-grade code for core services and remain deeply involved in the codebase.
• Ensure seamless API integration with internal systems, external systems, applications, and third-party services.
• Promote adoption of AI in the API development lifecycle, including use of GitHub Copilot for coding.
• Implement authentication, authorization, encryption, and other security best practices to protect data and services.
• Monitor and optimize API performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Support on-call operations.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience leading technical teams in building scalable modern Java services.
• Proven experience breaking down large, complex legacy monoliths into smaller, independent services.
• Deep hands-on knowledge of modern Java, Spring Boot, Hibernate, and REST API development.
• Experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
• Strong experience designing, building, and maintaining APIs.
• Ability to lead engineering teams while remaining hands-on with development.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm.
• Familiarity with application security principles and secure development practices.
• Familiarity with Git version control.
• Familiarity with OAuth.
• Ruby-to-Java migration experience preferred, but not required.
• US Citizenship required due to clearance requirement.
• Strong organizational skills.

Qualifications

• Active VA Public Trust.
• Prior experience supporting federal agencies, especially the Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Experience working in an API development environment.
• Prior, successful experience working in a remote environment.

Core Competencies

• Integrity, Honesty, and Ethics: We conduct our business with the highest level of ethics. Doing things like being accountable for mistakes, accepting helpful criticism, and following through on commitments to ourselves, each other, and our customers.
• Empathy, Emotional Intelligence: How we interact with others including peers, colleagues, stakeholders, and customers matters. We take collective responsibility to create an environment where colleagues and customers feel valued, included, and respected. We work within a diverse, integrated, and collaborative team to drive towards accomplishing the larger mission. We conscientiously and meticulously learn about our customers’ and end-users’ business drivers and challenges to ensure solutions meet not only technical needs but also support their mission.
• Strong Work Ethic (Reliability, Dedication, Productivity): We are driven by a strong, self-motivated, and results-driven work ethic. We are reliable, accountable, proactive, and tenacious and will do what it takes to get the job done.
• Life-Long Learner (Curious, Perspective, Goal Oriented): We challenge ourselves to continually learn and improve ourselves. We strive to be an expert in our field, continuously honing our craft, and finding solutions where others see problems.

Benefits

Initiate Government Solutions offers a robust benefits package, including:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision care.
• Matching 401K and profit sharing.
• Paid time off.
• Training time for personal development.
• Flexible spending accounts.
• Employer-paid life insurance.
• Employer-paid short and long term disability coverage.
• Education assistance program with potential merit increases for obtaining a work-related certification.
• Employee recognition and referral programs.
• Spot bonuses.

Initiate Government Solutions participates in the Electronic Employment Verification Program.