Senior Software Engineer (Java/ Cloud)

RIVA Solutions Inc.•Reston, VA

18h•$145,000•Remote

About The Position

RIVA Solutions supports the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by delivering modern, secure, and scalable enterprise software systems that support mission-critical business operations across the patent and trademark lifecycle. RIVA partners closely with USPTO stakeholders to design, build, deploy, and operate complex systems using modern Java/Spring technologies, cloud-native architectures, and DevSecOps practices. Our work emphasizes long-term maintainability, system reliability, security, and operational excellence in highly visible federal environments. RIVA Solutions is seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Java/Cloud) who is a hands-on senior engineer, not a purely feature-focused developer. This role requires deep technical expertise, strong system design instincts, and direct ownership of production systems. The ideal candidate has experience building, deploying, and supporting complex applications in live environments and is comfortable being accountable for system behavior after release. This role is well-suited for an engineer who enjoys owning systems end-to-end, including deployment support, troubleshooting production issues, addressing technical debt, and improving operational reliability. This is not a greenfield-only or heads-down coding role. The Senior Full Stack Developer will collaborate closely with product managers, architects, and DevOps teams to bridge legacy systems and modern cloud-based solutions while ensuring code quality, scalability, and system stability.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree (BA/BS) and 10+ years of experience, or Master’s degree (MA/MS) and 8+ years of experience in software development
Extensive hands-on experience with Java 20+ and object-oriented design principles
Strong expertise with Oracle databases and advanced SQL, with hands-on PostgreSQL experience (or demonstrated ability supporting Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration initiatives)
Deep knowledge of the Spring ecosystem (Spring Boot, Spring Core, Spring Cloud) and Hibernate/JPA for ORM-based enterprise applications
Proven experience designing and maintaining enterprise persistence layers (ORM mappings, transactions, performance optimization) using Hibernate/JPA
Proven experience designing and supporting distributed systems and service-based architecture
Demonstrated ownership of production systems, including post-deployment support
Experience troubleshooting CI/CD pipelines and deployment issues
Proficiency with Git and modern branching and release strategies
Experience working in Agile development environments
Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams
Ability to obtain and maintain a High-Level Public Trust clearance
U.S. Citizenship required and ability to obtain and maintain a High-Level Public Trust clearance supporting USPTO

Nice To Haves

Experience with Angular or similar front-end frameworks (integration-focused, not UI-specialist)
Experience supporting database modernization efforts, including Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migrations (schema conversion, SQL refactoring, performance tuning)
Strong experience with AWS cloud services, particularly containerized and serverless workloads
Hands-on experience with Terraform or similar infrastructure-as-code tools
Prior experience supporting USPTO or other federal systems
Experience serving as a senior engineer on complex, long-lived, product-centric platforms
Exposure to performance tuning, production monitoring, and system observability
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
AWS Certified Solutions Architect
AWS Certified Developer

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain high-quality Java-based applications with a strong focus on scalability, reliability, and performance
Take hands-on ownership of production systems, including supporting deployments, troubleshooting production issues, and resolving incidents
Lead full-stack development efforts across backend services and front-end integrations, with a backend-leaning focus
Architect and implement services using Java 20+, Spring Boot/Core/Cloud and Hibernate/JPA to build maintainable, testable, high-performing services
Design and optimize data access layers using Hibernate (JPA) and advanced SQL; support Oracle today while contributing to future migration efforts to PostgreSQL (schema/query tuning, compatibility considerations)
Troubleshoot and remediate production performance issues across the stack (API, ORM, database), including Hibernate query tuning, indexing, and SQL optimization
Design and implement secure, scalable RESTful APIs
Participate directly in CI/CD pipeline troubleshooting, deployment support, and release validation using GitLab and SonarQube
Manage build automation and dependency management using Maven
Implement and enforce testing strategies using TDD and BDD, leveraging JUnit, Mockito, Cucumber, and Spock
Build accessibility considerations into application design and implementation, ensuring compliance with Section 508 standards
Support containerized and serverless workloads in AWS, including ECS, Fargate, and Kubernetes
Collaborate with DevOps teams to understand, maintain, and troubleshoot Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or similar tools)
Make informed architectural trade-offs related to performance, scalability, maintainability, and operational risk
Conduct code reviews, mentor other developers, and uphold engineering best practices
Ensure system uptime, performance, and stability across development, test, and production environments