Software Engineer, Java Developer, Backend Developer

Software Guidance & Assistance, Inc. (SGA) is searching for a Junior Software Engineer for a CONTRACT assignment with one of our premier Regulatory clients in the DMV area. Maintain and enhance the firm's Herd platform — a Java/Spring RESTful big data governance system on AWS providing data catalog, lineage tracking, and job orchestration. We are looking for someone comfortable in a mature, production‑critical codebase where reading existing code matters as much as writing new code.

Methodical, detail‑oriented, able to context‑switch between feature work, bug fixes, and upgrades.

• Maintain and enhance a large‑scale Java/Spring RESTful application — building new API features, fixing bugs, and releasing regularly
• Write code that captures the essential nature of the solution and is appropriately flexible, reusable, efficient, and adaptable to changing requirements
• Work on problems of moderate scope where analysis of situations requires a variety of known factors
• Provide technical support to platform users and investigate issues — troubleshooting, answering questions, and guiding API usage
• Maintain code quality through reviews, security vulnerability remediation, and framework/dependency upgrades
• Integrate with AWS services (S3, EMR, SQS, SNS, Elasticsearch, RDS/Aurora)
• Write and improve unit, integration, and performance tests to ensure reliability and production readiness
• Upgrade and maintain the Angular UI and SDK clients
• Maintain Jenkins CI/CD pipelines for automated builds, testing, and deployments
• Analyze the system to determine the properties and functions of each piece of work
• Build tools and produce technical documentation to improve developer efficiency
• Adapt to business change and seek out new learning opportunities
• Recommend viable alternatives when faced with shifting priorities
• Build productive working relationships to resolve mutual problems

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related discipline with at least 3 years of related experience, or equivalent training and/or work experience
• Strong proficiency in Java with Spring Framework and Spring Security
• Experience building and maintaining RESTful APIs using JAX-RS or Spring REST
• Working knowledge of JPA/Hibernate and relational databases (PostgreSQL/Aurora)
• Hands‑on experience with AWS services (S3, EMR, SQS, RDS, SNS)
• Familiarity with Docker and ECS container deployments
• Comfortable with Maven builds, Git workflows, and testing (JUnit/Mockito)
• Experience with Jenkins CI/CD — configuring jobs, writing Jenkinsfiles, managing multi‑branch pipelines
• Experience with performance testing using Gatling
• Basic familiarity with Angular and Type Script
• Experience using AI‑assisted development tools (Kiro or similar) for coding, debugging, and test writing

SGA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of Race, Color, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Religion, National Origin, Disability, Veteran Status, Age, Marital Status, Pregnancy, Genetic Information, or Other Legally Protected Status. We are committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, and our services, programs, and activities.

Please visit our company EEO page to request an accommodation or assistance regarding our policy.