Microservices Developer (Remote)

Overview Tier One Technologies is seeking a Microservices Developer to support our US Government client. This will be a 100% remote contract-to-hire position. SELECTED CANDIDATES WITHOUT REQUIRED CLEARANCE WILL BE SUBJECT TO A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION TO RECEIVE IT. Responsibilities Design, build, and maintain Spring Boot microservices using Java 21 and Java 25. Create and evolve RESTful APIs with clear contracts, versioning, and backward compatibility. Implement input validation, error handling, idempotency, and standardized response models. Integrate services with on-prem and AWS-hosted databases during migration phases. Plan and execute data-access changes to support hybrid connectivity (on-prem to AWS) safely. Optimize database interactions, including query tuning, connection pooling, and transaction boundaries. Containerize services and maintain production-ready Docker images. Deploy and operate services on Kubernetes with health probes, resource limits, and autoscaling. Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for build, test, security scan, and deployment automation. Implement secure service-to-service and client authentication/authorization. Manage secrets and configuration using AWS-native and Kubernetes-native approaches. Add observability: structured logging, metrics, distributed tracing, dashboards, and alerting. Troubleshoot incidents across application, container, cluster, network, and database layers. Improve resiliency with retries, timeouts, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation patterns. Participate in migration planning from on-prem infrastructure and data stores to AWS. Support release validation in staging and production, including rollback readiness. Write and maintain unit, integration, contract, and performance tests. Address vulnerabilities by upgrading dependencies and remediating CVEs in application libraries. Collaborate with QA, platform, security, and architecture teams on standards and best practices. Document APIs, operational runbooks, and service ownership responsibilities. Qualifications A degree from an accredited College/University in the applicable field of services is required. If the individual's degree is not in the applicable field, then 4 additional years of related experience is required. 8+ years of experience in IT software development. Strong knowledge of Spring Boot microservices. Hands-on experience with Java 21 and Java 25. Excellent communication skills. Must be a US Citizen or have Permanent Residence status (Green Card). Must be able to obtain a Position of Public Trust Clearance. Must be able to pass a drug screening, criminal history, and credit checks. Must have lived in the United States for the past 5 years. Cannot have more than 6 months travel outside the United States within the last five years. Military Service excluded. (Exception does not include military family members.)