Senior Java Engineer: Remote Cloud & API Lead

Initiate Government Solutions; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Initiate Government Solutions is seeking a remote Senior Java Engineer to lead design, migration, and support of scalable Java-based microservices and APIs in a modern cloud environment for federal partners. You will drive API design, data strategy, and security, while mentoring teams and contributing hands-on development.

This role requires extensive Java expertise, modern frameworks, and experience with AWS, Kubernetes, and secure coding practices in a remote, federal-facing context.

Qualifications

• 8+ years leading technical teams building scalable modern Java services.
• Experience breaking down large 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.
• Ability to work in the United States without sponsorship and US Citizenship because of clearance requirement
• Strong organizational skills.

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.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Hibernate

REST API

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

OAuth

Tools

Helm

Job description

Initiate Government Solutions is seeking a remote Senior Java Engineer to lead design, migration, and support of scalable Java-based microservices and APIs in a modern cloud environment for federal partners. You will drive API design, data strategy, and security, while mentoring teams and contributing hands-on development.

This role requires extensive Java expertise, modern frameworks, and experience with AWS, Kubernetes, and secure coding practices in a remote, federal-facing context.