Lead AWS EKS Engineer (Istio/Helm)

***Candidates MUST BE local to DC, Maryland, and Virginia only!

***This is strictly a W2 role.

Role: Lead Software Engineer

W2 Contract: 3 Months (Through Dec 31st, with high possibility of extension)

Location: Remote

Overview

Work with an enterprise leader as a Cloud Migration / Senior Software Engineer supporting a multi-year cloud modernization initiative. In this role, you will play a critical part in moving core production applications off on-premise systems and mainframes onto AWS EKS. You will work closely with platform and DevOps engineers to reconfigure microservices, update database persistence layers, and integrate security protocols like OAuth 2.0 and JWT within an Istio service mesh environment.

Key Responsibilities

Re-architect and re-configure existing on-premise Java applications for deployment into AWS EKS.

Modernize application backend connections by migrating from legacy mainframes and on-prem databases to cloud-native datastores like MongoDB and PostgreSQL.

Implement and manage Kubernetes container packaging using Helm charts.

Configure service-to-service communication, traffic routing, and security using Istio service mesh.

Integrate enterprise authentication and authorization using OAuth 2.0 and JWT protocols.

Partner with dedicated DevOps and Platform Engineering teams to ensure alignment with cloud standards.

Participate in Agile ceremonies and technical architecture reviews.

Required Qualifications

10+ years of total experience in Software Engineering with Java and Agile practices.

3+ years of hands-on experience with AWS cloud services and Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service).

Proven experience with Kubernetes ecosystem tools, specifically Istio and Helm charts.

2+ years of solid background in securing microservice architectures using OAuth 2.0 and JWT.

Experience migrating legacy application data layers to NoSQL (MongoDB) or relational (PostgreSQL) databases.

Preferred Qualifications

Location in the Washington, DC / DMV area for occasional in-person collaboration.

Prior experience refactoring enterprise legacy or mainframe-dependent applications for cloud adoption.